Quin Snyder returns to the Hawks. (`/Sue Ogrocki)
The Atlanta Hawks didn’t wait to find their replacement for Nate McMillan.
On Sunday, just days after McMillan was fired, the Hawks reached an agreement with former Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder to become their permanent head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Assistant coach Joe Prunty had served as interim head coach during the brief trial.
Snyder is expected to join the team as early as Tuesday. His five-year contract, per Wojnarowski, covers the remainder of this season.
Milwaukee Bucks assistant Charles Lee and Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson were among the other reported candidates for the job.
The hiring gives the Hawks a proven head coach, who had a record 372-264 in eight seasons during his Jazz tenure. It will also be familiar surroundings for Snyder, who was an assistant with the Hawks for a season before getting the job in Utah.
What Quin Snyder brings to jazz
Snyder and the Jazz made the playoffs in each of his last six seasons with the team, peaking in 2020-21 when they finished first in the Western Conference with a 52-20 record.
With Rudy Gobert anchoring the color, the Jazz consistently ranked among the best defensive teams in the NBA and found their offensive footing thanks to the arrival of Donovan Mitchell. It was a team with defined roles, and the system gave them a permanent place in the playoffs .
Of course there’s a reason Snyder is available and Gobert and Mitchell are out of jazz right now. While the system worked during the regular season, the team never progressed past the Western Conference Semifinals.
The team’s playoff disgrace grew with each lackluster performance, reaching its nadir in the 2020-21 season when it gambled away a 2-0 lead against the Los Angeles Clippers. Despite losing Kawhi Leonard to a cruciate ligament rupture in Game 4, the Clippers won four straight games to break through their own playoff struggles and capped it off with a 25-point comeback in Game 7.
Synder resigned a year later after losing in the first round for the third time in four seasons.
The story goes on
The Hawks will be happy to win the playoffs now
As tough as the end of that jazz era was, the Hawks have bigger worries than surviving the Eastern Conference semifinals right now.
This was to be the season that took to a new level after trading for Dejounte Murray, who added an All-Star to their core of Trae Young, De’Andre Hunter and John Collins. That didn’t happen.
After 43-39 last year, the Hawks currently sit at 29-30 as they exit the All-Star break. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, team management believes the issue is a cultural issue and is banking on Snyder’s ability to build a culture like he did in Utah.
With the team currently sitting eighth in the East and three games away from eleventh, they want Snyder to get to work quickly.
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