Nets coach Kenny Atkinson has hardly wanted to mention the playoffs this year, even with his team fighting for its postseason life over the final week of the season.
But when he was asked about his reported contract extension Tuesday afternoon, he was suddenly happy to talk playoffs.
“Definitely don’t want to comment on [the extension], just because I think the focus needs to be on our guys and making these playoffs,” Atkinson said after practice. “Keep the focus there. After the season, we can go have a coffee in Cobble Hill … we can talk about it.”
Though Atkinson wanted to deflect the attention, so zoned in on the day-to-day grind and the challenge at hand Wednesday against the Raptors, his players wouldn’t let him get off that easily. They saw the news late Monday night — first reported by ESPN and confirmed by The Post’s Brian Lewis — that Atkinson and his coaching staff were nearing extensions, and they made sure to give them grief and congratulations in meetings Tuesday morning.
“We were messing with them earlier that they had a lot of new money in the room,” Joe Harris said. “But it’s pretty awesome any time somebody that gets something like that that they’re well-deserving of. They’ve done such a good job. They’ve been through a lot, but each year we’ve gradually gotten better — and it’s not just Kenny, it’s the whole staff which is pretty awesome.”
“We came in [Tuesday] and all those dudes were walking around with their shoes and socks off, comfortable in here, so I knew something was official — nah, I’m just kidding,” D’Angelo Russell said with a grin. “That’s big-time, though. Well-deserved.”
The progress Atkinson and his staff have overseen — from 20-62 in 2016-17 to 28-54 in 2017-18 to 39-39 so far this season — has the Nets on the verge of their first playoff appearance since 2015, but they have plenty of work left.
With four games to go, the Nets entered Wednesday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference — a half-game behind the Pistons for sixth, a half-game ahead of the Heat for eighth and only one game clear of the Magic for ninth and left out of the playoffs.
Still, Atkinson insisted he remains focused more on the team’s process than results — though the latter is of utmost importance.
“Hopefully in three years, I’m sitting here and we’re in a better position in the standings,” said Atkinson, whose original contract had a team option for next season. “But I think [the process] is what we’re focusing on.”
It is a process Atkinson clung to in the most trying days of his coaching tenure with the Nets, which began in 2016 when he was viewed as a developmental coach for a barren roster that needed exactly that. But the Long Island native’s journey from losing 27 of 28 as a rookie head coach to earning a contract extension didn’t happen without doubts along the way.
“There were times where I’m like, man — especially [talking to] my wife — coming home after a 20-point loss, with 20 wins, are we doing the right things? Questioning yourself,” said Atkinson, who credited general manager Sean Marks as being his “stabilizer.”
Atkinson’s players describe him as intensely competitive, on and off the court, and wanting to win in everything he does.
“He talks a lot of smack,” Caris LeVert said.
But the 51-year-old coach has also found a way to push egos aside and instill a team culture that breeds winning, Russell said.
“He’s a genius,” said Russell, one of Atkinson’s biggest development stories. “I think that’s what head coaches get the credit for: putting a group of guys together and a good environment together for success to just flow. I think that’s what’s been going on here. It’s something that we really want to build on.”