Farewell to Bud: Hawks, Mike Budenholzer Mutually Part Ways

The Mike Budenholzer era is officially over in Atlanta. The Hawks and Coach Bud officially announced last night that the two parties mutually agreed to part ways so Budenholzer could land a job on a contending team, or perhaps a team further along in its rebuild than Atlanta is.

Budenholzer helmed the Hawks for 5 seasons, leading them to the single best season in Atlanta franchise history in the 2014-15 season, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals on the back of a franchise-record 60 wins during the regular season.

Coach Bud is an incredibly well-respected offensive tactician, and his out-of-timeout set plays never fail to generate easy offense. He fights hard for his team, and has proven to be a terrific developmental coach by turning players such as Tim Hardaway Jr., Kent Bazemore and Mike Scott into strong starters and rotation pieces, and transformed Paul Millsap from serviceable starter into perennial All-Star during his time in Atlanta.

This is a sad day for Hawks fans, and it also a black mark for the new front office led by General Manager Travis Schlenk. After a strong 2017 draft, Schlenk was unable to make any trades of note at the trade deadline.

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Losing Budenholzer for nothing, rather than getting some kind of compensation in return from a team looking for a head coach, continues an unsettling trend of this front office giving up assets for nothing – even though they clearly have value.

Just look at the buyouts of Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli. Clearly, the 76ers wanted them, and they have played incredibly well during the 76ers home stretch of the season and first round playoff victory over the Heat. Why was the Hawks front office unable to pry a draft pick away from the 76ers? Philly certainly has enough to go around in this draft.

The same could be said of losing Budenholzer. Clearly, Coach Bud is now the best coaching candidate on the market – ahead of David Fizdale, Steve Clifford and Frank Vogel. Despite his inherent value, the Hawks opted to simply let him walk as opposed to pushing for compensation from a team in order to get something, anything in return for a Top 10 coach in this league.

Perhaps the team just wanted to “do right by Bud,” but this is a troubling trend that makes this front office look like a bit of a pushover when it comes to difficult negotiations with entrenched figures in the league.

With Bud gone, the Hawks join several other teams with coaching vacancies and numerous names have already popped up on the Hawks’ radar, according to ESPN’s Marc Spears and USA Today’s Sam Amick:

Silas seems like he would be a good fit as the Hawks look to rebuild from the ground up. Though this might be a pipe dream, Jay Wright of Villanova is almost certainly the most sought-after college coach during this offseason’s coaching carousel and would help a young Hawks team develop a winning culture.

Clearly the Hawks want to move in a different direction with their coach, and that’s understandable, but to not get anything at all in return for one of the best coaches in franchise history seems like negligence on the part of the front office.

Next: Atlanta Hawks Mock Draft 4.0

Stay tuned for more coaching news as Atlanta dives headfirst into this already wild coaching carousel.