Quin Snyder has signed a five-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks to become their new head coach, the franchise announced Sunday. That five-year streak spans this season, and Snyder is expected to be on the sidelines for Atlanta on Tuesday when they take on the Washington Wizards. Atlanta fired Nate McMillan on Tuesday, and while reports initially indicated they planned to conduct a thorough head coach search, they quickly focused on Snyder as their top pick.
Snyder spent eight seasons coaching Jazz and was largely successful there. Utah made the playoffs in six of their eight years at the helm and had the NBA’s best regular-season record in the 2020-21 season. Known for his pick-and-roll-heavy offense and drop-coverage defense, Snyder was a 2018 and 2021 NBA Coach of the Year finalist.
But his jazz teams fell short in the postseason year after year. The Jazz were beaten by the Dallas Mavericks a season ago, although Luka Doncic started the first round with an injury. A year earlier, they had been eliminated by the Clippers in the second round, despite Kawhi Leonard missing the last two games of that series. In the 2020 Orlando Bubble, they lost a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets in the first round.
These defeats eventually led to the dissolution of the team. Snyder resigned after last season and both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were traded. The Jazz, now helmed by Will Hardy, has become one of the feel-good stories of the 2022-23 season with a 30-31 record.
The Hawks shared a nearly identical 29-30 record when McMillan was fired, but their season wasn’t viewed nearly as well. Unlike Utah in the recent past, thanks to an outstanding run, Atlanta reached the conference finals in 2021. However, they were knocked out in the first round last season, and after struggling to play .500 basketball so far this season, the Hawks were quick to pull away from McMillan. They won their two games under interim coach Joe Prunty to move up to 31-30 in the season.
In Atlanta, Snyder has taken on a job that will bring many challenges in the near future. Key players Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter have all struggled with injuries in recent seasons. Newcomer Dejounte Murray, who the Hawks traded a deal to acquire, is essentially non-expandable under current CBA rules, giving the Hawks less than two years to convince him to leave as a free agent in 2024 remain.
And then there’s Trae Young, the All-NBA point guard who’s as brilliant with the ball as any basketball player. The problems for him arise when he does not have it. Young hasn’t developed as an off-ball scorer or defender since he was drafted No. 5 overall in 2018. In December, a disagreement with McMillan resulted in Young not attending a game against the Nuggets. Young exemplifies the challenges that this job entails. The Hawks are a talented but flawed young team, and Snyder will be put through a lot of work trying to make them winners.