Less than a week after firing Nate McMillan, the Atlanta Hawks already found their next head coach, hiring Quin Snyder — formerly of the Utah Jazz — on a five-year contract, according to ESPN.
The deal includes a pact for the rest of the season, where he’ll take over the team as soon as Tuesday against the Washington Wizards.
Snyder reenters coaching after resigning from the Jazz last June following yet another end-of-season collapse. Snyder took the reigns in Utah prior to the 2014-15 season and helped lead the franchise’s best run since the John Stockton and Karl Malone era ended in the early 2000s.
Under Snyder, the Jazz went a combined 372-264 in the regular season, including three 50-win seasons between 2016-2021. However, the Jazz went just 21-30 in the playoffs through six consecutive trips from 2016-22. The Jazz were eliminated in the first round in three of their last four seasons prior to Snyder’s departure.
Most notably, the Jazz were the No. 1 seed in the West during the 2021 playoffs but lost in six games to the Los Angeles Clippers in round two despite Kawhi Leonard tearing his ACL and missing the final two games of the series.
McMillan had taken over the Hawks job midway through the 2020-21 season after the firing of Lloyd Pierce in response to an underwhelming 14-20 start. McMillan guided the team to a 27-11 record the rest of the way, and an eventual berth in the Eastern Conference finals, which included their infamous first-round series with the Knicks.
After that, the Hawks went 43-39 and earned the No. 8 seed but were gentlemen’s swept by the Miami Heat in round one, who outscored them by 62 points through five games. And currently, the Hawks are 31-30, and the No. 8 seed again despite making a win-now trade for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray last summer.
Snyder will now be the Hawks’ third head coach in three seasons and enters a situation he must navigate alongside polarizing point guard Trae Young. Young’s reportedly had contentious relationships with both McMillan and Pierce on the way out the door.