Enter Max Strus, a fiery competitor who has been relegated to the sidelines with an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined during the Cavs’ 15-game winning streak and won’t return for another two weeks.

Strus was one of Cleveland’s most impactful players last year, finishing third in net rating on a team that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 1993 without LeBron James. him out of the action. He has made his presence felt in practice, dissecting plans and even appearing in film sessions to point out adjustments. It was Strus who threw the zone defense during a recent practice, and it was his blueprint that saved Cleveland twice in one week.

“Coach Max Strus,” Darius Garland said with a grin after the Hornets game. “We’re still learning from him, even though he’s on the sidelines, he’s still preaching about the zone.

“The two-three certainly slowed them down from all their driving opportunities and caused us to get into rotation a lot. So I’ll definitely put it on the zone. Saving us.”

During training, Strus took charge of an exercise, directing rotations and explaining how to neutralize the lanes. The buy-in was immediate. Jarrett Allen, who anchors the zone in the paint, credited Strus’ insights with fueling their defensive resurgence.

“It’s a great plan for how we cover the zone,” Allen said. “Shout out to Max. He has, as it were, entered the zone. He was a coach for a day and told us where to be and how to monitor certain things and just our energy in the zone. We communicate well. We know when to exclude. We know that if Evan goes, I’ll be behind him. It’s just a good tandem of movement that works well together.”

While Atkinson has historically used zone defense — Brooklyn ranked second in zone usage under his leadership — he continues to find innovative ways to keep his team, even his offside, engaged and feeling valued.

Whether it’s a friendly football match at the IMG Academy during training camp, a humorous video to start the film, or allowing Strus to set their zone, Atkinson has pushed all the right buttons for this team, both on and off the field.

“I always believed in it,” Atkinson said of the zone defense. The NFL does it all the time, right? The quarterback, they’re going to see the zone, they’re going to see the man. I always believed that, especially when Charlotte went the way she did. If we kept the same coverage, I honestly don’t know if we would win that game.

“We couldn’t stop them man to man. You’re just at the point of: we have to do something different. We tried some different man-to-man coverage, regular coverage, and then we tried switching everything up. That didn’t work. So the zone, we just threw that out there and we just stuck with it, and it changed the game.

In a season defined by adaptability and confidence, the Cavs are leaning on everyone from their stars to the voices on the sidelines. Atkinson’s ability to appeal to every player and coach fuels a collective effort that makes their historic start possible.