Cavs Practice | Kenny Atkinson Media Availability | 11.4.2025

Kenny, did Darius practice today? Yes. Um, full practice. We we didn’t uh we didn’t scrimmage today though, but you know, full practice. So, see how we uh how we responds. Just just kind of repeat uh what I said before. Really close, you know. Let’s see. Um let’s see what tomorrow morning looks like. Any chance of tomorrow night? Uh I I don’t want to I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Um but I I I just keep it as really close. Were the other guys dealing with injuries able to go through everything? Sam Sam went through uh really positive. Sam Sam went through the whole practice. Um you know, with him it’s it’s it’s uh the only ne is the hit, right? like he he he can he’s moving really well, feels fine. You know, the the um kind of the fear is he get he gets hit. So, we just, you know, we got to work through that. What that looks like. Um obviously there’s a pain tolerance. Um you know, I would assume there’ll be padding, right? All that whole thing. So, um but the great news is like, you know, without contact, he he he feels really good. Dean talked a little bit about the conversation that you had with him last year and this year about his importance in shooting the ball and having that be the number one priority for him. What have you seen from him to start the season? Really aggressive. No pump fakes, which I’d always, you know, he he’s gotten he’s kind of gotten past that block where he’s he’s letting and you know, it’s coming from me, but it’s coming from our best players, right? They Don and and Darius, they they know um they know we need him um need him to take those shots and uh I feel like his confidence is growing. He’s, you know, he started off a little bit slow, but I think he’s starting to pick it up a little bit. We talked about the process for him and obviously having get his mentality to be that kind of player, like just taking the shot until it is the best shot on that possession. when you’ve coached players in the past, when you’ve seen players come through this process, how long does that take or is there like a moment that can shift a player and be like, “Okay, I got to do this.” Yeah. Um there’s no set time here. Each player is different. Um I just thinking of Luke Travers. Luke, we we really I mean probably a year and and two months we struggled to get him just to just to release it and and let it go. Um so every every player is different. Um, I do I feel like Dean’s over that hump. Um, I I don’t I don’t see him passing up shots. I don’t see him, you know, like I said, pump faking or jabbing and shooting. That those are good signs. This is a let it fly league now. Um, that’s what we encourage, especially for our role players. You know, I said it during the playoffs last year. We it’s it’s just part of the equation when they start loading up on your, you know, on your best players. They got to get off it and we got to shoot it. Go back to Darius really quick. What do you consider his final step of this recovery before he gets clearance? Uh what’s the final step? Um he’s kind of um he’s kind of done the buildup in terms of you know us us building up one on one, two on two, three on three, four on four, five on five. Um, I just think it’s just going to be the we just need the green light. Does that make sense? And then when once you get the green light, we’re going to have to feel this out, right? Like with this injury, we we’ll have to feel it out. Um, but you know what I’m getting from Steve and and and the uh performance team. Like it’s not going to be like he’s going to play 12 minutes, right? Like we feel good about his conditioning where he is. Like if he does play, is it going to be 32? No. But I think it’ll, you know, I think it’ll be um a decent amount of minutes. Um we feel good where he is from a conditioning standpoint. Then then I got to read read it. It was like uh you know when we played Indiana last year, I guess he went 14 days without 15 days without practicing and I just we just kind of had to read it like hey you’re in 3 minutes we got to take you out. there might be some of that. Um where maybe his minutes are here and I just got to communicate with him and see where he is and like against Indiana last year he would ask out sometimes we get two minutes go back in. So I could see a little bit of that. Um so um it’s going to be a little bit of a feel to this. When he’s back where do you think he can impact you guys the most? Oh, we just need his adv his um he’s an adv advantage. um make right like he can create an advantage without a with just with speed so we become a faster team um and then um he gets in the paint a ton obviously um and he makes other people better you know he’s he’s a I always say he’s an elite passer I put him in the elite category um you know so we we got that and I I think like the DeAndre’s of the world the Deans of the world they’re just going to get easier shots you Our shot quality is decent on our threes right now, but it can be better. He’ll help that he’ll help that get better. There’s been a lot of talk about the process and growing pains early in the season. Do you ever get the sense that guys are frustrated with that or do you have to prevent frustration from seeping in? No, that’s what’s so great about our team and our leadership that they they’re get the big picture. you know, we’re I think with a younger team sometimes, you know, I know my first job in this league, it was really difficult to get players over the line in terms of, you know, cuz they only look at it clearly wins and losses. They don’t, you know, younger players, they don’t don’t really care about the you got to make them care about it. But when you have great leadership, these guys, they I mean, Don keeps saying it, right? Like, you know, it’s not going to be perfect. Um, our role players are g gaining valuable experience. Our major players are gaining valuable experience by by being being in different positions and and and you know, maybe the efficiency is not going to look great and it’s not going to look uh beautiful, but uh in the long run we’re going to benefit from it. We made it official this morning with Chris uh just with Chris Livingston. Um what what do you guys like about him? and obviously he’s only been here for a few days. Listen, obviously with the Bucks the past two years we we our scouting department um for me it’s simple in the front office I trust right like every guy they bring in here I like you know so I don’t know Chris’s game uh intimately but I you know you know obviously played an elite program at Kentucky uh it’s awesome that he’s a local kid right you know from Akran I mean how that’s that’s kind of a great story Um, and uh, I just I can’t wait to get to know him better. Um, and um, get him in our program. Um, so excited to have him. All right. Thank you.

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson spoke with the media following practice at Cleveland Clinic Courts on November 4, 2025.

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