Just 35 games into his second full season as the team's official head coach, Nate McMillan of the Atlanta Hawks, tonight's opponent for your Los Angeles Lakers, may be looking to move on.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that "league sources with knowledge of the situation" suggested that McMillan is considering a resignation from his post, in part due to possible issues with Hawks All-Star point guard Trae Young.
Sources inform Charania that the team wants McMillan to at least coach through the rest of the 2022-23 season.
McMillan, originally an assistant coach under Lloyd Pierce, first took over on an interim basis after Atlanta ousted Pierce midway through the 2020-21 season, with the Hawks sporting a middling 14-20 record at the time. McMillan led the team on quite the turnaround.
Atlanta went 27-11 under McMillan and, as the East's fifth seed, managed to sneak into the Conference Finals, where they fell to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks in six games.
The team has regressed in the intervening years. Last by season, Atlanta finished as the East's ninth seed, and though it survived the play-in tournament to qualify for the playoffs, the team was easily dispensed in five games by the Miami Heat. This year, the team is off to a rocky 17-18 start, and league chatter seems to pinpoint the blame in part on the team's rocky chemistry.
Charania notes that John Collins trade rumors continue to abound, as they have for years now. The fit between Young and new All-Star backcourt mate Dejounte Murray has been fairly good, but something is clearly still rotten in Denmark.
Perhaps the Lakers can capitalize on all this bad blood tonight in State Farm Arena, when they square off against the Hawks. Though LA hasn't (yet) had the same locker room discontent that appears to be ailing Atlanta, the team also just is not very good without Anthony Davis. Thus far, Los Angeles is 3-7 without him.
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