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Atlanta Hawks Fire Head Coach Nate McMillan – Successor Already Certain? – Basketball Maniacs

The Atlanta Hawks have left head coach Nate McMillan. The franchise confirmed it on Wednesday night, German time. His successor seems to be already certain.

Interim assistant coach Joe Prunty will take over the team, which currently sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a 29-30 record. However, according to Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN), talks with Quin Snyder are already at an advanced stage and the former Utah Jazz head coach could officially assume the position in Atlanta in the next few days.

Snyder was already active as assistant coach of the Hawks in the 2013/14 season, after which he was appointed head coach in Salt Lake City. Here he maintained a high standard with a total of 372 wins and 265 losses, but his team never reached the conference finals.

Along with general manager Landry Fields, his assistant Kyle Korver and owner Tony Ressler, he spoke to the Hawks about his coaching philosophy and building an organization.

A coaching change at the Hawks was long overdue, but initially it seemed likely that it would not happen until the offseason. Instead, the Hawks parted ways with McMillan, who took over as interim head coach in 2021 and led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. McMillan had a 99-80 record in Atlanta as a coach.

Snyder, who left the Jazz after the preseason, appears to have the best shot, although talks are also likely to be held with Charles Lee (Milwaukee Bucks associate head coach) and Kenny Atkinson (Golden State Warriors assistant).

For now it will be Prunty, who has already held the role of interim coach once in 2018, to take his place. He then replaced the fired Jason Kidd and led the Bucks to a 21-16 record.

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