Atlanta moved quickly to get the best coach on the free agent market before other teams made their moves in the offseason, and it worked.
Quin Snyder has agreed to a five-year contract to be the new head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and he will take over this season, a story broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and soon after confirmed by the Hawks.
“From our first conversation, it was clear that Quin had all the characteristics we were looking for in our next head coach,” Hawks GM Landry Fields said in a statement. “He has both an incredible basketball and emotional IQ, and we share the same core values and basketball philosophies of having honest communication and collaboration with players, tremendous attention to detail and placing a great emphasis on player development. We are excited to welcome him, his wife Amy and their family back to Atlanta.”
Snyder replaces the fired Nate McMillan (with Joe Prunty as a brief interim coach). McMillan was let go for multiple reasons, chief among them not living up to the high internal expectations ownership and management had for the team this season, as well as a fractured relationship with star Trae Young.
While Snyder has a lot of work to build a winning culture in Atlanta, that will start with his relationship with Young, who has not always bought into the system coaches have wanted him to play. This relationship will be different for Young because — with this contract and recruitment — Snyder walks in the door on equal footing. He can demand Young play in his system, which will feature a lot more 3-pointers but also ball and player movement, not Young pounding the ball into the floor out top for 10 seconds.
“I am thrilled to go back to Atlanta as the next head coach of the Hawks,” Snyder said in a statement released through the team. “Landry has a tremendous reputation as an incredibly bright, high character, high quality individual and it was quickly evident that we share a passion and commitment to building a winning team with a strong foundation and high standards. I am excited to collaborate with Landry to create a successful program that devoted Hawks fans are proud of and cheer for and am grateful to Tony, Jami and the Ressler family for this opportunity.”
Snyder could be on the bench in Atlanta as early as Tuesday, although there will be limits to how much he can change a system three quarters of the way into the season.
