Not even a year after stepping down as the head coach of the Utah Jazz in June, Quin Snyder will be back on the sidelines with the Atlanta Hawks.
Atlanta and Snyder reached an agreement on a five-year deal for Snyder to be the head coach of the Hawks, and will waste no time getting started, as Snyder is “expected” to start coaching as soon as Tuesday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Hawks are trying to salvage the rest of their season, hence the truncated timeline. Atlanta fired coach Nate McMillan on Feb. 21 and if Snyder is the head coach for Tuesday’s game against the Washington Wizards, it would mark just a one-week turnaround.
Atlanta is 31-30 and in the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference — which would have them in the play-in series. The Hawks are coming off a thrilling 129-127 win over Brooklyn on Sunday, when Trae Young hit a buzzer-beater to win the game for Atlanta.
The Hawks, who went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, are in win now mode, and hope that Snyder can be the coach to lead them to their first championship.
Before accepting the Jazz job in 2014, Snyder was an assistant for Atlanta under head coach Mike Budenholzer.
He will reunite with Kyle Korver, who is now the assistant general manager for the Hawks. Snyder coached Korver on the Jazz in the 2018-19 season.
It will be a fresh start for Snyder, who stepped down from his position with the Jazz after eight seasons with the team. He made the playoffs six of his eight years with Utah, had an 372-264 record, and led the franchise to its first playoff series win since 2010 in 2017, but was never able to advance past the second round of the playoffs.