Kenny Atkinson will wait until game time to reveal his Cavaliers rotation, and wants the team to ‘celebrate’ Jarrett Allen

CLEVELAND — Kenny Atkinson has his rotation in his head. He just is not going to say it out loud yet. Asked after Monday’s practice whether he had settled on a stable 10, the Cavaliers’ coach said he has “a good idea in my mind,” but that the final answer depends on who is healthy when Cleveland opens the season in Philadelphia on Thursday.

“I’ve made that mistake before, you know, where I say, ‘Hey, here’s our guy,’ you know, tweaks an angle,” Atkinson said. “So, probably wait up till game time.”

Tomlin out, Merrill limited, Diop working back

That caution has a reason. Everyone practiced Monday except Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Atkinson said, while Sam Merrill was limited. Merrill missed the preseason finale with right elbow soreness, and he is one of the bench pieces Cleveland leans on most for outside shooting. Khalifa Diop, the rookie big man who spent years playing overseas, is coming back from what Atkinson called an injury setback. Tomlin (back), Merrill (elbow) and Diop (knee) were all listed as questionable heading into the week.

Atkinson had kind words for Diop anyway. “He’s fit in great culturally,” he said. “I love his spirit and he’s a guy I can speak French with. That’s maybe the most important thing. I can practice my French and he can laugh at all the errors I make.”

Why 10 and not eight

Atkinson said in camp that 10 players is the most manageable rotation, and on Monday he explained why he wants to start there instead of cutting it down early. The first reason is information. “You truly don’t know your team,” he said, and the more players he uses, “the more feedback you get.” The second is chemistry: “Obviously, the more guys you play, the more involved everybody is.” The third is the message it sends to the player just outside the group. “That 11th guy knows he can get into 10,” Atkinson said. “If a guy’s out, I can slip into the rotation.”

He also tied it to the long season. “We know we have to develop our depth,” he said. “Depth is … vital in today’s game.”

‘Are we going to reward him for that?’

The longest answer of the day was about Jarrett Allen. Asked what he wants from his center this season, Atkinson started with a simple order: “Play like it’s game seven all the time.” He credited Allen for raising his habits last season, especially in the weight room, and said that if Allen is in good physical condition and a good mental space, “he’s super talented.”

Then Atkinson turned the question on himself and the rest of the roster. Allen, he said, does the “connector things, role player things” that do not show up first in a box score, and the team talked last season about whether it was rewarding him for that. “I know even in the playoffs, it became a thing like reward him and Evan really,” Atkinson said. “Took me a while to, you know, fully realize that.” He said players like Allen and Merrill do so much of the dirty work that coaches can forget to praise it. “You don’t compliment them, you don’t celebrate them,” Atkinson said. “We got to celebrate those. Him especially.”

Allen, speaking after the same practice, said he has no say in the lineup talk. “I just go with the lineup that they tell me to go to,” he said. He did say his two-man game with Donovan Mitchell already has a track record, recalling that a coach once told them they had the best pick-and-roll in the league. “I get him open and then he finds me,” Allen said. He also said Evan Mobley’s partnership with James Harden is “growing exponentially” and that Mobley’s ball handling is the part of his game that keeps getting better. “Every single year, he comes back and shows us something new,” Allen said.

Hezonja’s role is still being written

Mario Hezonja, the former Real Madrid star, has been one of the most interesting players in Cleveland’s camp, and Atkinson admitted the Cavaliers still have not pinned down exactly how to use him. “I think it’s still a work in progress,” Atkinson said. He said he is still “in an observation mode,” comparing what he saw on Real Madrid film, where Hezonja was a No. 1 option, with what he sees now in a Cleveland uniform. “I don’t want to, like, right off the bat put him in a box,” he said. Asked if pick-and-roll could be part of Hezonja’s package, Atkinson said: “To be determined. I’ve seen flashes of it.”

Allen has a clearer view of what Hezonja already does well. When Hezonja attacks, Allen said, “he’s a bowling ball. When he goes downhill, people are going to need to come and help to stop him.” He pointed to a preseason play where Hezonja posted up and found him on the roll for a floater, while adding that the 31-year-old still has things to learn about how NBA defenses help.

‘15 and 0 starts, they don’t really happen’

The Cavaliers have talked since media day about taking the next step, and Allen agreed that for this group the next step means the NBA Finals. “There’s no running away from it,” he said of the pressure. “We’ve worked our whole careers to be in the position that we are in now.” He called the season “now or never.”

Atkinson said the work behind the scenes, from the front office down, makes him feel the organization is moving the right way. “You feel the momentum of what we’re doing,” he said. He also warned that the schedule will test them right away. “You look at the first 10 games, first 15 games, you’re like, man, right off the bat, it’s on,” Atkinson said. “We’re going to go through some adversity for sure. Just, you know, 15 and 0 starts, they don’t really happen in this league.” He believes last season made this group more “battle tested” than before.

Cleveland plays at the 76ers on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, which is 2 a.m. Friday in Cairo, then opens at home against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.