In Quin Snyder’s first game as head coach of the Hawks, Atlanta lost a disappointing contest to the Wizards after leading by as many as 10 points behind an unbelievable performance from Bradley Beal.
The box-office scorer logged 13 first-quarter points en route to 37 and a 119-116 victory. Unfortunately, it looked like the same ‘ol Hawks when Nate McMillan was at the helm, outside of a few minor differences — shot selection, rotations, etc. Still, nobody should’ve expected an entirely different offense and product from Atlanta.
Snyder joining a team that is barely keeping its head above water with 20 games left in the season had little chance of turning out successful in the immediate future. Joining a team he’s never coached with a staff he’s never coached with is challenging, and overloading the group with his ideologies and systems would likely do more harm than good.
I’m not worried about the rest of the season at all. Regardless of what happens, Snyder is sinking his talons into this organization to understand better what he has at his disposal and what he possibly needs. However, that’s not how everyone feels, particularly the national media.
The vultures are out in full force. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports just wrote a piece titled, “The Atlanta Hawks have a Trae Young problem. Quin Snyder is there to fix it. One way, or the other.”
Young has been labeled a coach-killer because he’s played under three coaches in his short NBA career, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Lloyd Pierce was by all accounts a bad coach, and Nate McMillan wasn’t some Hall of Fame coach who couldn’t get anything out of the team. His concepts were outdated, and his message just wasn’t resonating.
Still, Young isn’t free of blame. You would like your superstar, the face of the franchise, to show more maturity and other leadership qualities; but he’s also only 24 years old. With the pressure he’s under and the stage he’s at, I’d be willing to wager most people would handle it even worse than Young.
I think the issues in this organization go far behind coaching and dysfunctional relationships between players. The problems arise at the top and permeate throughout the organization. Owner Tony Ressler is the one to point the finger. He’s the reason why we are still getting reports like this from Reiter’s piece:
One nugget that illustrates the strange politics of the place: There are whispers that Fields didn’t want Snyder hired in the first place. And that Korver was the one, by managing the Resslers effectively, who pushed for Snyder’s hire.
The Hawks fire McMillan, but there’s still a power struggle? Color me surprised. There is no rhyme or reason to what this team does from a front-office standpoint, and I’ll be shocked if the club turns it around under the current leadership. Tony Ressler hired Landry Fields, Kyle Korver and Quin Snyder to do a job; it’s time to let them do their jobs without son Nick Ressler's approval and just write some checks.
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