After the All-Star break, the Atlanta Hawks announced on Monday that they had fired head coach Nate McMillan with a 29-30 record.
After taking over for Lloyd Pierce shortly after the All-Star break in the 2020–21 season, McMillan was gearing up for his second full season in charge, so Atlanta was expecting an exciting season.
The Hawks finished that season with a scorching 27-11 record under McMillan’s leadership, earning the fifth seed in the East and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals after winning series against the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks.
The following year, they made a step backwards, finishing eighth in the East and losing in the first round of the playoffs, and they kept going in the wrong direction this time around.
At least with last season’s disappointing end, the team could point to the fact that they had the league’s second-best offence in the regular season but were just weighed down by the fifth-worst defence.
Now the Hawks sit 16th in offence and 21st in defence, lacking any kind of identity. With the trade deadline having already passed, this is the group Atlanta will have to win with down the home stretch, and ultimately the franchise decided McMillan had run out of ideas on how to right the ship.
It was announced today that Nate McMillan has been relieved of his head coaching duties.https://t.co/Scq6G3Rg5W
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 21, 2023
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, assistant coach Joe Prunty will take over as interim head coach while they conduct a “wide-ranging” search for a permanent solution.
Wojnarowski claims the Hawks are looking for a coach who has shown an ability to develop players, produce a top-10 offense and defense, and take accountability.
He states former Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder is viewed as a top candidate, while The Athletic’s Shams Charania adds Milwaukee Bucks associate head coach Charles Lee – who spent four seasons as a Hawks assistant before following Mike Budenholzer to Milwaukee – is also a “serious candidate”.
Other names mentioned as potential hires were Golden State Warriors assistant and former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, Sacramento Kings assistant coach Jordi Fernandez, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mitch Johnson and G-League head coach Miles Simon.