{"id":135961,"date":"2025-04-24T00:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135961"},"modified":"2025-04-24T00:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:32:07","slug":"hawks-coach-potential-candidates-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/24\/hawks-coach-potential-candidates-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks Coach Among Potential Candidates To Go West"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks are circling, looking for a new lead executive<\/a>\u00a0after dismissing former general manager Landry Fields. The accomplished Bob Myers is obviously high on their list, especially considering his replacement\u2019s connection to the Golden State Warriors. Minnesota Timberwolves president Tim Connelly and Team USA director Grant Hill are considered to remote options.<\/p>\n

Yet, it\u2019s not just the front office that could get a facelift this offseason. Questions about Trae Young<\/a>\u2019s future with the franchise have resurfaced due to Fields\u2019s firing and<\/em> their failure to secure a playoff berth. Even Hawks head coach Quin Snyder may not stick around<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSnyder is still under contract,\u201d reports The Athletic\u2019s John Hollinger. \u201cHowever, Snyder might have an interest in pursuing other openings, especially if the (San Antonio) Spurs job becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawks Head Coach Quin Snyder Among Potential Candidates To Go West<\/h2>\n

Snyder leaving the Hawks might not be the biggest problem, especially at this juncture.<\/p>\n

He deserves credit for helping players like Jalen Johnson<\/a>, Dyson Daniels<\/a>, and Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> take major strides. Prior to Johnson\u2019s injury, he had even briefly managed to get Young to buy into a more balanced offense<\/a>. For all Young\u2019s talent and tricks, this gave players like Johnson, Daniels, and De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a> more opportunities and eventually more confidence.<\/p>\n

However, after two-plus seasons, Snyder has yet to coach the Hawks to a .500 (or above) record. He\u2019s currently 86-99 with Atlanta, his win percentage (.465) the third-worst among the head coaches they\u2019ve hired since 2005. Though regarded as a defensive guru prior to his hire, the Hawks have ranked in the bottom-third of teams in his two full seasons. That\u2019s a far cry from coaching a top-10 defense, which he had in every season with the Utah Jazz.<\/p>\n

To sum it all up, it hasn\u2019t been all bad, but he\u2019s underwhelmed and underperformed. Outside of assessment\u2019s of Snyder\u2019s performance though, there\u2019s just the fact that several solid head coach candidates are on the market.<\/p>\n

Heavy Seasoning<\/h3>\n

Former Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer flamed out with the Phoenix Suns after just one year<\/a>. Nevertheless, Atlanta was remarkably successful<\/a> under Budenholzer and currently have the personnel for his five-out offense. Furthermore, he won a championship while coaching the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020-21.<\/p>\n

Former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone\u2019s temper led to his time in the Mile High reaching its boiling point<\/a>. Yet, he was instrumental in the development of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray<\/a>, Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> and Christian Braun<\/a>. He won a championship with the Nuggets in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

Former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins is was axed relatively recently<\/a>. Notably though, the Grizzlies defensive rating has been no lower than 12th in the past five seasons. Furthermore, he\u2019s the winningest coach<\/a> in their franchise history (250 career regular season wins).<\/p>\n

There are other seasoned options, such as Jeff Van Gundy, Frank Vogel, Brett Brown, and Mike Brown.<\/p>\n

Van Gundy is\u00a0a popular defensive coordinator<\/a> for the Los Angeles Clippers. Vogel, won a championship while leading the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019-20, has a valuable voice with the Dallas Mavericks in a coaching consultant role. B. Brown is an assistant coach for the Spurs. M. Brown, whose time ran out<\/a> with the Sacramento Kings this season, is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n

Any one of them\u00a0could be shortlisted by the Hawks and for good reason.<\/p>\n

Young Bucks<\/h3>\n

Last but not least, there are younger coaches that are looking to get their shot.<\/p>\n

For example, Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney is highly regarded in league circles. Fellow Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley has extensive experience as an NBA player, which is always a plus. Kings interim head coach Doug Christie has garnered praise after stepping in for M. Brown. Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson has also earned respect around the league.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of other notable assistants around the league too though, giving Atlanta plenty of resumes to sift through.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks are circling, looking for a new lead executive\u00a0after dismissing former general manager Landry Fields. The accomplished Bob Myers is obviously high on their list, especially considering his replacement\u2019s connection to the Golden State Warriors. Minnesota Timberwolves president Tim Connelly and Team USA director Grant Hill are considered to remote options. Yet, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":135973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,30,25,27,32,62,3,28,29,34],"tags":[49916,132,922,1230,3717,550,4557,1003,3840],"class_list":["post-135961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-warriors","category-clippers","category-grizzlies","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","category-kings","category-spurs","tag-doug-christie","tag-frank-vogel","tag-jeff-van-gundy","tag-michael-malone","tag-mike-brown","tag-mike-budenholzer","tag-nba-offseason","tag-quin-snyder","tag-taylor-jenkins"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135961"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135970,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135961\/revisions\/135970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}