Hawks Fire Lloyd Pierce; Nate McMillan to serve as interim head coach

The Hawks entered the 2020–21 season with grand playoff expectations after spending lavishly in free agency. It is now clear that he felt Lloyd Pierce was not taking him in the right direction.

Atlanta announced monday This fired Pierce amid a rough stretch, in which the team has lost 12 of their last 17 matches. Pierce, who was named the head coach of the Hawks in 2018, left Atlanta with an overall record of 63–120.

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“We just want to thank Lloyd for his work and commitment to the Hawks organization and the city of Atlanta,” said Hawks, president of basketball’s operations Travis Schlenk. He said, “He and his wife, Melissa, are tremendous people who have made a positive impact throughout the city. We hold high expectations for our team on the court and we make changes now that we believe we have a strong season The other part may be. ” “

The Hawks stumbled from the gate with Pearce for a 14–20 mark this season (11th in the Eastern Conference), while it should be noted that he dealt with a brutal run of injuries, particularly in the humiliating conditions Bogdan Bogdanovic Together, Krrish Dunn, Danilo Gallinari and Rajon Rondo have been missing for a significant time. Atlanta has lost the second most games in the league behind only Orlando to injuries, Spotrack’s injury tracker copy, Gives Pierce very little chance of building any type of chemistry with this group.

However, the Hawks also put themselves in a position to win consecutive games, falling only in the closing minutes. Perhaps it is unfair to pin all those failures on Pierce, but coaches are usually the first ones the NBA team is weakening.

So where does Atlanta go from here? The Hawks are “hopeful” Nate McMillan will transition from assistant coach to interim head coach, According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojrowski. Macmillan has been “voileri loyle” in his support for Pearce, per Wojnarowski, so it is not out of the question that he would turn down the job. McMillan previously worked as the head coach of the Pacers for four seasons before joining Pierce’s staff.

As of Monday, Atlanta is only two games out of one place of the play-in tournament, and there is still plenty of time left to turn this season. Whether it is Macmillan or another candidate, the next head coach will be under pressure to take Hawk to the postman for the first time since 2017.

Update: According to Wojnarowski, McMillan will take over as interim head coach.