The Cavs didn’t just fly to Spain for a change of scenery. They came to Malaga with a purpose, and Kenny Atkinson is making that plain from the jump.
Through the first stretch of training camp, Cleveland has leaned hard into team-building - the kind that starts well before practice and keeps rolling long after it ends. The group had already logged five player-organized summer workouts and other off-court gatherings, and once camp got underway overseas, the routine shifted into trivia night, team meals, 45-minute bus rides that apparently had plenty of life to them, and a sightseeing day. The Rookie Talent Show is still on deck.
That kind of setup is no accident. The Cavs brought camp off site for a second straight year, and Atkinson sees a real edge in it.
“I think it’s a competitive advantage for us coming here,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Have to adapt to a new environment.
Have to adapt to a different culture. We want to connect as a group, get to know each other better and share in this experience.
We have been together for a while, but we have some new players, so bring them into the group and there’s no better place than here. At home, it’s just a little different.
You don’t have the same connection.
“We always try to mix in fun because I think that grabs the players’ attention. We’re going to go through a long season.
This is a long slog, we call it. It’s important to keep the spirits up, the joy and to throw curveballs at them, throw fun in.
We are obviously going to compete and get in shape and all that, but this is also connection time for us.”
That’s the backdrop. The basketball part has been just as deliberate.
Atkinson is still sorting through lineups, combinations and the rotation picture, but his praise for the roster keeps coming back to the same place: talent, depth and versatility. He’s got what he believes could be one of the league’s best starting lineups - James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen - and the bigger question for him is less about skill and more about how the group handles pressure.
That’s the new target.
“I want to make us a mentally more resilient team,” Atkinson said. “I think our skill level’s good.
I love our system. I love what we do.
But keep on working on the mental performance side - how to push these guys a little more mentally, get them out of their comfort zone, be more adaptable, more flexible. That’s been a philosophy.”
So far, camp has been built around that idea. Day 1 centered on the team’s offensive and defensive principles.
Day 2 brought scrimmaging and conditioning. Friday was the install day, capped by a competitive halfcourt shooting contest.
“Light and fun. We call these mental days,” Atkinson explained Friday.
“Special situations. Side out of bounds.
Under out of bounds. Halfcourt sets.
Then we walked through specific defensive situations. Today was more of a mental day.”
Watson, who arrived from Denver, knows exactly what Atkinson means. He was part of the Nuggets’ 2023 title team, one of only two players on the roster with a ring. Thomas Bryant, his former Nuggets teammate, is the other.
“It takes a lot of resilience,” Watson said. “As we see, the East is as strong as it’s ever been.
It’s going to be good in the regular season for us to face some adversity and some challenges and learn more about ourselves. I think you learn the most about yourself when you’re facing times of uncertainty and uncomfortability.
I think we will get our fair share of that through the regular season. How we are able to weather that storm and stay level throughout it all will show us a lot of what we’re able to be.”
Atkinson has also spent time looking back at the Cavs’ last postseason run. Cleveland made the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2018, but the ending was ugly: a mostly non-competitive sweep against eventual NBA champion New York.
And when he replays it in his head, the focus is not just on the Knicks.
“I go back and regret, ‘Man, how could I have prepared them better mentally and physically?’ Because you win the game sixes (in the two previous series), it changes the picture a lot,” Atkinson said.
“It gives you more opportunity to play better in the finals. Definitely have looked at those games.
Everyone says, ‘Oh, did you look at the Knicks?’ I’m like, ‘I really looked at those game sixes and man, what could we have done better?’”
That’s the lesson Cleveland is carrying with it now. Training camp in Spain is the reset, and 2026-27 is the destination.
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