Quin Snyder gets a 5-year contract to coach Hawks

Quin Snyder has agreed to a five-year contract to become the Atlanta Hawks coach and is expected to make his debut at home against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, sources told ESPN on Sunday.

The Hawks announced Snyder’s hiring on Sunday, but did not disclose the terms of his contract.

The Hawks pursued Snyder, 56, immediately after firing Nate McMillan five days ago and landed on a long-term deal with a coach who took the Utah Jazz past the first round of the Western Conference playoffs three times before stepping down in the spring.

The move to immediately take over the Hawks is rooted both in a desire to make an Eastern Conference playoff run and to give Snyder a chance to implement his program and standards and evaluate the franchise’s players along the way to the low season, sources said.

Snyder and All-Star security guard Trae Young have both expressed their enthusiasm for the partnership, and that partnership will greatly determine the success of the franchise. Snyder has a history of building strong relationships with his players while still coaching them hard. After a loss to the Hawks on Friday, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell lavishly praised Snyder in a private conversation with Young, telling him how important the coach had been in his own development into an All-Star, sources said.

In recent days, Snyder has been in discussions with Hawks general manager Landry Fields, assistant GM Kyle Korver and owner Tony Ressler on a number of philosophical, team building and budgetary issues, and Snyder will enter the organization with a key voice in the player personnel. important, according to sources. Snyder has been wanted for several jobs in recent months, including the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, and brings with him a strong reputation as a program builder.

There are pronounced chemistry and leadership issues in the Hawks locker room, and Snyder’s arrival is seen as a renewed opportunity to resolve them before more dramatic trading scenarios need to be explored.

The Hawks hope that hiring Snyder will go a long way in stabilizing an organization that has made regular-season changes within months with its president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk and McMillan.

The Hawks promoted assistant Joe Prunty to interim coach, and he promptly won his first two games to take the team to 31-30 and eighth in the Eastern Conference. Prunty and the rest of the Hawks’ coaching staff are expected to remain with Snyder for the rest of the season, sources said.

Snyder has a history in Atlanta as an assistant coach to the Hawks under Mike Budenholzer for one season before becoming the Jazz’s head coach in 2014. Snyder led the Jazz to six straight trips to the Western Conference playoffs, including three spots in the semifinals of the conference.

The Hawks face major off-season decisions to shape the roster, and the chance to quickly move forward with the hiring of Snyder could give them a better prism with which to evaluate the franchise’s future. Fields wanted a coach who would improve the franchise’s player development and accountability and take the team to the top 10 in both offensive and defensive rankings—all hallmarks of Snyder’s Jazz teams.

After replacing Jason Kidd in 2018, Prunty was 21-16 in the regular season for the Milwaukee Bucks as an interim coach. The Bucks lost a seven-game series to the Boston Celtics in that opening round of the playoffs.

McMillan replaced Lloyd Pierce as interim coach in 2021, securing a run-up to the Eastern Conference Finals. He was signed to a four-year contract and had a 99-80 record as head coach.