Atlanta Hawks: History of improvement in second year under Nate McMillan

The Atlanta Hawks made it official on Friday and removed the ‘interim’ tag from Head Coach Nate McMillan’s title. He becomes the 14th head coach in franchise history. This comes after a season in which McMillan stepped in after Llyod Pierce was fired amid internal conflict with his players.

Atlanta had the best record from when McMillan took over through the regular season.

It has been apparent the Hawks were making the right decision hiring him permanently, but we also have reason (and historical evidence) to believe there’s more success coming.

Atlanta Hawks fans can expect to see even better results in the second season under Nate McMillan

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It’s a position the former point guard is familiar with. McMillan took over for Paul Westphal with Seattle (where he spent his entire playing career) in 2000 after two years as his assistant earning the removal of ‘interim’ that time too.

Five years and three winning seasons later — including 52 wins in his final season — McMillan moved on to Portland for more money.

He’d spend seven seasons coaching the Blazers, again with three winning records.

Portland fired McMillan in 2012 for failing to win anything meaningful with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Greg Oden.

McMillan resurfaced on the Indiana Pacers bench and would again find himself taking over for his former boss, Frank Vogel in this case.

Only this time, McMillan would not get the job until after his third season on the Pacers bench as an assistant when ownership let Vogel’s contract expire. Indiana wouldn’t experience a losing season under McMillan in four years.

He was still fired after being ousted in the first round of the playoffs four straight seasons, including a sweep in last year’s playoffs.

An interesting part about McMillan’s resume, aside from his knack for turning around franchises on the brink, is his teams’ improvement in his second season at the helm. Seattle only went from 44 in 2001 to 45 wins in 2002, but 38 of those in ‘01 came after McMillan took over.

Portland went from 21 to 32 wins while Indiana went from 42 wins to 48 wins. But the experience in Seattle might be most beneficial since he took over mid-season as with the Hawks.

A lack of postseason success had been a demon of his that obviously has been exorcised with Atlanta’s Eastern Conference Finals berth.

Not only do you know he can get your franchise back on track, but the biggest question in an otherwise solid coaching career was answered with a team no one expected to be there. The trick now is repeating their success and going even further.