Less than a week after their 21-61 season ended, the Brooklyn Nets have hired Atlanta Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson as head coach.

An assistant coach under last years Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer, Atkinson has been known as a highly regarded assistant for a number of years now.

Atkinson made ESPN’s NBA top head-coaching prospects in March of 2015.

Atkinson, an assistant coach under Mike D’Antoni with the New York Knicks for four season, is known as a player-devolopment guy.

The Long Island Native’s most notable achievement was developing Jeremy Lin into “Linsanity” during his time with the Knicks where Lin praised his work ethic. Before his time with the Knicks, Atkinson was the Director of Player Development for the Houston Rockets in 2007-2008 season.

NYIntake posted an article on January 20th on the search for the Brooklyn Nets head coaching position and listed Atkinson as “the best candidate as he is young enough to go through the rebuilding process but also experienced enough to handle the head coach duties.”