The Hawks let go of coach Nate McMillan on Tuesday afternoon, the team announced.
With only 23 games remaining in the season following the All-Star break, the Hawks opted to move in another direction - relieving McMillan of his head coaching duties and naming assistant Joe Prunty as interim head coach.
“I would like to thank Nate for his leadership and professionalism during his time with the Hawks,” general manager Landry Fields said in a statement released by the team. “He is truly a class act, and we appreciate the graciousness and work ethic he brought with him every day. Decisions like these, especially in-season, are always extremely difficult, but we believe it’s in the best interest of our team to move forward with another voice leading the way.”
McMillan joined former Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce’s staff in November 2020. He was chosen as interim head coach following the firing of Pierce on March 1, 2021. The team eventually made a run to the Eastern Conference finals that season, which led to it promoting McMillan and signing him to a four-year contract.
Ahead of the next season, the Hawks were expected win 45-46 games and be a strong contender in the postseason. They opened the season among the top six teams in the Eastern Conference through Dec. 11. But the team could never stay above .500 long enough after to make up ground and climb back into it.
This season, the Hawks (29-30) have struggled to find consistency despite making a number of moves this offseason that were expected to make them competitive. They acquired Dejounte Murray for Danilo Gallinari, as well as three first-round picks.
The team currently ranks 16th in offensive rating and 21st in defensive rating despite its best efforts to improve things over the offseason. They’ve lost eight of their past 15 games, including the last two heading into the All-Star break.
The Hawks gave up 144 points to the Hornets, the NBA’s worst-ranked offense, Feb. 13. They also struggled against the physicality of the Knicks in a game that would have given them the upper hand in a potential tie-breaker down the line.
But, the Hawks’ season has been filled with drama, including a verbal altercation between McMillan and star guard Trae Young at a team shootaround in December. That led to Young missing the team’s matchup against the Nuggets that evening.
In addition to that, McMillan attempted to resign midseason but was convinced to stay on.
The Hawks then shuffled the front office, with Fields taking over the day-to-day duties of head of basketball operations, while Travis Schlenk moved into an advisory role. The team then promoted Kyle Korver to assistant general manager.
Prunty went 21-16 as the interim coach of the Bucks in 2018 following the firing of Jason Kidd. The Bucks went on to lose in seven games to Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
As for candidates to replace McMillan for the long term, media reports have mentioned former Jazz coach Quin Snyder, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson, G League South Bay’s Miles Simon and Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez.
Snyder (2013-14), Lee (2014-18) and Atkinson (2012-16) are former Hawks assistant coaches.
The Hawks return to the court at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the Cavaliers at State Farm Arena.
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