Atlanta Hawks: Nate McMillan’s cinderella story is not yet complete.
The Atlanta Hawks have done some incredible things this season. They have overcome injury issues that would have cruelled most other team’s seasons. They have had long and short-term injuries to key players all through the season.
This cost coach Lloyd Pierce his job. He struggled to lead the team through these injury crises successfully. He would be fired just prior to the All-Star break with a 14-20 record. Then the Hawks would promote Nate McMillan to the role on an interim basis.
Well, now that he has made the Eastern Conference Finals, McMillan still has the interim tag. What he also has is a whole lot of people who believe in him, most importantly, his players. He preached that they needed to believe and that is what they are doing. This means that he is certainly the right man for the job
Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan has made his first conference finals.
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In his previous 16 seasons as a head coach, McMillan has never reached the conference finals. The closest he got was with the 2004-05 Seattle SuperSonics where his team was knocked out of the conference semi-finals. This has led to a narrative around McMillan that he takes to the playoffs that overperform and cannot compete when they need to.
It has also led to the thoughts that McMillan might not be tactically good enough to get navigate a team through the highs and lows that make up the postseason. Well, this narrative is slowly changing, he managed to guide his Hawks past the higher-seeded New York Knicks in the first round.
Then, to most of the NBA’s surprise, he managed to eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games. There was always the thought that the Hawks were never going to be an easy opponent but to take out the No. 1 seed on their home court twice is an incredible achievement.
Kevin Huerter is improving his extension value. dark. Next
It has been an incredible ride for McMillan over the past 12 months, from being sacked as the Indiana Pacers head coach to making the conference finals with the Hawks. This story has at least one more chapter to be written against the Milwaukee Bucks.