The drama in the Atlanta Hawks organization has gotten so bad over the last month that the team’s head coach, Nate McMillan, has reportedly pondered finding an escape route out of Georgia.
Following the 2020-2021 season and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Atlanta Hawks were seen as an NBA team on a serious rise. They had a young superstar in Trae Young, and new head coach Nate McMillan was able to forge the roster into a winning unit. However, the cracks started to show last season.
After finishing 10 games over .500 two years ago, the Hawks regressed in 2021-2022. They went from being the fifth seed in the conference to fighting their way into the postseason via the NBA Play-In Tournament. Once in the playoffs, they were trounced by the Miami Heat in five games.
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The organization wanted to get back to their ’20-’21 form and swung a blockbuster trade for San Antonio Spurs star Dejounte Murray in the summer. Yet, despite an All-Star backcourt, the Atlanta Hawks enter Friday night a game under .500 and with speculation of issues in the locker room. That poor performance and the brewing drama have reportedly led their coach to consider an early exit from the team.
Atlanta Hawks have let go of three front-office execs in the last week
On Friday afternoon, The Athletic’s NBA insider Shams Charania reported that “McMillan has strongly considered resigning from his position, league sources with knowledge of the situation who are not authorized to speak publicly” said.
The Atlanta Hawks organization seems to be in a period of upheaval after the president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk stepped down from his role to become an advisor last week. General manager Landry Fields has now been positioned as the lead executive in the Hawks front office.
In the same report, Charania revealed that the Hawks have also “let go of three front-office executives in the past week: senior adviser Rod Higgins, director of pro scouting Stephen Giles and vice president of player personnel Derek Pierce. All three were well-respected within the Hawks.”
Nate McMillan and star Trae Young had a verbal spat during a shootaround earlier in the month. There has been a reported schism between Young and Murray, and an impending trade of starting power forward John Collins has hung over the 17-18 team all season.