The Hawks are holding formal negotiations with Quin Snyder in hopes of hiring him as their next head coach, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Sources tell Charania that Snyder, who is reportedly out of the country, had a virtual meeting with Atlanta officials on Wednesday and the sides are hoping to meet in person soon. Charania’s sources add that Snyder appears to be the team’s main target and the Hawks would like to get a deal in place soon.
There is “mutual interest” between Snyder and Atlanta, Charania adds, as management views him as someone who can improve the team’s culture on and off the court.
Snyder spent eight years as head coach of the Jazz before resigning in June. He compiled a 372-264 record and took Utah to the playoffs in his final six seasons with the team. Snyder was expected to take a year off from coaching to consider his next move, but the opportunity with Atlanta might be too good to pass up.
The Hawks fired Nate McMillan on Tuesday following a disappointing 29-30 start to the season. Atlanta was hoping to be among the top teams in the East after paying a high price to acquire Dejounte Murray in an offseason trade, but the club was floundering amid reported locker room tension and a shakeup in the front office.
As the only team currently in the market for a head coach, the Hawks have the advantage of being able to pursue their preferred choice with no competition. Other rumored candidates include Bucks assistant Charles Lee, Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez, Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson, South Bay Lakers coach Miles Simon and former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.
Snyder is overrated. Donovan Mitchell is proof. Mitchell improved significantly without being held back by Snyder.
Still better than Trae Young’s first pick, Steve Nash.
Not sure if Nash time on the Nets is an accurate representation of his coaching ability. Not many coaches have been successful coaching Kyrie. His time there has some similarities as Kidd’s time there. Kidd is doing a pretty good job with Dallas.
I would like to see Nash get another opportunity, of there is a game that Trae needs to develop, it’s Nash’s game. If he could instill some of the 2005 Suns into that Hawks team, it could be pretty successful.
Regardless, Udoka would still be the best choice.
Yet Mitchell is providing the same result with a more talented team. Utah overachieved with Snyder, which is why he left and why Ainge blew it up.
Utah overachieved in a weak conference. Cavs are behind a Championship team and a team just out of the Finals. What they are doing is much more impressive
Improved significantly? Mitchell is putting up almost the same numbers in Cleveland as he was in Utah. He’s shooting a little better and as a result he’s scoring 1.4 more pts per game but he’s also averaging less assists so it’s pretty much a wash.
His efficiency is significantly better. Shooting 48% as a guard is really good. And if you watch him play, he is playing with so much ease, doing anything he wants. Dropping 70 pts in a game. When was he even close to droppimg 70 in a game in Utah?
70 in 2023 is nothing
How many players have scored 70 in 2023?
Not that I know either of them personally or anything, but the “public personas” of Snyder and Young don’t seem like they would mesh well in my mind…
I agree. From the outside looking in, it seems like a personality clash.
So much for the thorough search. Pretty clear they wanted him all along.
He has the reputation, but not sure I love the fit here in terms of the personalities and his offensive schemes. Kinda feels like he might just be a slight upgrade from McMillan. But maybe I’m wrong about that.
Reputation as a what? What has he done? He had a couple of pretty good teams in Utah and they never did a darn thing.
I agree on the fit or lack of. In spite of what it says in the article I think he passes on this job. Maybe he’s ramping up his interview skills and comfort level for the next opportunity.
Just as a guy with a winning record who has made it deeper into the postseason a few times and who his players liked and respected. That may not mean a whole lot to you (or I), but enough teams buy into those credentials for him to be at the top of the potential hires list. And, of course, he’s yet to have the retread label applied.
In that sense, it wouldn’t be the worst hire in the world I guess. Just a very lazy one absent a thorough offseason search, which still shouldn’t inspire a ton of confidence for that reason alone (and smells like a move the increasingly-meddling ownership would be pushing). Definitely a chance he passes on this, though.
Fun fact: TIL that he was a cokehead who banged his best player’s gf while head coach at Missouri. Maybe he’d be a better fit than I thought /s
As usual you make great points. My comments stemmed from his exit in the first or second round every year he made the playoffs.
Appreciate it!
And I totally get that. It’s silly how some front offices are so focused on pedigree, or whatever their definition of that would be. To me, a good front office doesn’t worry about any of that; perhaps it’s a nice bonus at best. They know what attributes are more important to prioritize in a head coaching search.
For me, they would be in no particular order: adaptability, communication/ability to connect with players as people, ability to critically think (as in true critical thinking, not simply one believing they can think critically when they actually cannot, as is the case with a significant portion of the general population), humility/lack of ego, creativeness, digestibility (ie, the ability to pass on your teaching in a way that works for the specific players on your roster)
They need Nash. Snyder is not a good fit.
Aka Ray Liolta ‘s (RIP) cokehead cousin,
Quinn haha
Great tactical coach tho !
I like this for the Hawks.
Why would anyone that has coaching experience want this job? Underachieving core with a primadonna in Trae is not a great start.
ATL will either have to pay handsomely for a decent coach or settle for an assistant just looking for a head coaching gig.
Snyder is too good to be unemployed for long. Hoping he is still available by EOY for the Knicks when they can Thibs.
I see Jay Wright getting that Knicks job.
That would be awesome, but don’t want to get my hopes up too high.
I’ll (still) be surprised if he takes the ATL job. Quinn was very respected for his pro-active coaching style in college; at the time, he was one of the few Coach K disciples that looked good, and, before the off-court problems surfaced, was talked about has a possible successor. He continued that in UTH, but he was given a lot of autonomy in UTH (coming off a 25 win season under Corbin). It doesn’t appear like he’d have that in ATL.