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Hawks Interview Lloyd Pierce For Head Coaching Vacancy

May 5th, 2018 at 11:36am CST by marksuleymanov

The Hawks interviewed Sixers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce for their head coaching vacancy, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. After the departure of Mike Budenholzer, Atlanta has been in pursuit of the team’s next head coach.

Pierce has served as an assistant on Philadelphia’s staff since the 2013/14 season. Before his stint with the Sixers, Pierce served as an assistant with the Cavaliers, Warriors, and Grizzlies.

LeBron James, who overlapped with Pierce during his first stint in Cleveland, once called him one of his favorite coaches, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

The Hawks have already interviewed Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga, Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, Warriors assistant Jarron Collins, and Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts. Other names connected to the opening include Spurs assistants Ime Udoka and James Borrego. Atlanta also interviewed David Fizdale, who agreed to become the Knicks‘ head coach earlier this week.

Keep up with all the latest coaching developments with our 2018 NBA Head Coaching Search Tracker.

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Hawks Interview Jay Larranaga

May 3rd, 2018 at 11:42am CST by Arthur Hill

Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga recently interviewed for the head coaching position with the Hawks, tweets ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. We passed along Atlanta’s interest in Larranaga earlier this week, and it appears the organization was able to quickly work out the details of an interview.

The field of candidates has become crowded after the Hawks parted ways with Mike Budenholzer last week. Nate Tibbetts, David Fizdale, Jarron Collins, Darvin Ham and Stephen Silas have all either interviewed or have interviews scheduled. Atlanta is also rumored to have interest in Spurs assistants Ime Udoka and James Borrego.

In addition to his playoff duties with the Celtics, Larranaga has been busy on the interview circuit, Forsberg adds. He met with the Knicks and reportedly made a strong impression during his interview with the Hornets.

Keep up with all the latest coaching developments with our 2018 NBA Head Coaching Search Tracker.

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Hawks Interviewing Stephen Silas For HC Job

May 1st, 2018 at 11:06am CST by Luke Adams

Another interviewee has emerged for the head coaching job in Atlanta, as Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports (via Twitter) that the Hawks are meeting with Hornets assistant Stephen Silas on Tuesday. Silas previously worked with current Hawks GM Travis Schlenk when both men were with the Warriors, Wojnarowski notes.

A longtime assistant for New Orleans, Cleveland, Golden State, and Charlotte, Silas has never held a permanent head coaching job in the NBA. However, he did step in for Steve Clifford for over a month during the 2017/18 season when Clifford took time away from the Hornets for health reasons.

After Clifford was dismissed by Charlotte at season’s end, there was a sense that both Clifford and Silas would be considered for some of the head coaching vacancies around the NBA. Silas has yet to meet with any other teams, but was immediately identified as a potential candidate for the Hawks after Mike Budenholzer‘s departure from the franchise.

Silas joins David Fizdale, Nate Tibbetts, Jarron Collins, and Darvin Ham among head coaching candidates who have interviewed – or will interview – for Atlanta’s job. Ime Udoka, Jay Larranaga, and James Borrego are also said to be on the Hawks’ radar, though interviews for those three have to be reported.

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Larranaga Emerges As Coaching Candidate

April 30th, 2018 at 6:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga is on the Hawks’ radar in their search for a head coach, Sam Amico of Amico Hoops reports. Larranaga has been an assistant with the Celtics since 2012 after being a head coach in the G League. The son of college coach Jim Larranaga has also coached in Ireland. The younger Larranaga is also on the long list of candidates for the Knicks’ coaching vacancy, Amico adds.

  • The Hornets’ coaching search could get complicated if they chose to pursue former Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer notes. Reuniting Budenholzer with center Dwight Howard wouldn’t be a good idea, given how their relationship deteriorated in Atlanta, Bonnell adds.
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Hawks To Interview Nate Tibbetts, Jarron Collins

April 29th, 2018 at 11:32am CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks have interviews set today with a pair of Western Conference assistants, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Nate Tibbetts of the Trail Blazers and Jarron Collins of the Warriors will both interview for Atlanta’s head coaching spot, which was opened when the organization parted ways with Mike Budenholzer this week.

The Hawks’ interest in Tibbetts has been known since Friday when Portland granted permission for an interview, but Collins’ candidacy is new, notes Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Darvin Ham, who has been an assistant to Budenholzer for the past five seasons, will interview tomorrow.

Other identified candidates are David Fizdale, who interviewed Saturday, as well as Stephen Silas, James Borrego and Ime Udoka.

Collins, who played 10 NBA seasons, spent two years as a scout with the Clippers before joining Golden State as a player development coach in 2014/15. He was promoted to an assistant the following year.

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Hawks Set To Interview David Fizdale Today

April 28th, 2018 at 11:30am CST by marksuleymanov

The Hawks are set to interview David Fizdale later today for their now vacant head coach position, Marc Stein of the New York Times reports. Fizdale is among several candidates as Atlanta will also consider Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts and Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, Stein adds.

We relayed on Thursday that the Hawks were expected to consider Fizdale, Tibbetts, and Silas. Atlanta entered the offseason with Mike Budenholzer under contract for two more seasons but both sides parted amicably earlier this week after he interviewed with the Suns and Knicks.

Fizdale has been a popular candidate for various head coaching vacancies. He previously served as an assistant coach for four seasons with the Hawks under Mike Woodson.

He coached the Grizzlies to a 43-39 record during the 2016/17 campaign but the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

The 43-year-old was relieved of his duties 19 games into this season as Memphis struggled to win while Fizdale’s relationship with All-Star Marc Gasol reportedly deteriorated. Fizdale has been endorsed by his former players and fellow coaches as he looks for his next opportunity.

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Mike Budenholzer To Receive Full Hawks Salary

April 27th, 2018 at 12:08pm CST by Luke Adams

Although the end of the relationship between Mike Budenholzer and the Hawks was classified as a mutual parting of ways, it doesn’t appear the two sides agreed to any sort of buyout of the two years and $13MM+ remaining on Budenholzer’s contract.

Budenholzer will receive the full amount of the money left on his contract with the Hawks, reports Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That was a “lump Hawks owner Tony Ressler did not want to swallow,” according to Schultz, who suggests that the team was willing to agree to the arrangement in order to move on and begin searching for a new long-term head coach.

Continuing to pay their old head coach isn’t an ideal situation for the Hawks, but Schultz notes that Atlanta’s financial obligation to Budenholzer will be lessened if he lands a new head coaching job elsewhere. While the specifics aren’t clear, it sounds like the agreement between the Hawks and Budenholzer includes some form of set-off rights that will prevent the veteran coach from collecting his full salary from Atlanta while also earning a full salary from a new team.

In order for the Hawks to reduce their commitment to Budenholzer though, he’ll need to be hired by a new team. After interviewing with the Suns, Budenholzer withdrew from consideration for that job, so he appears to only be in the mix for the Knicks’ position for now. There have been rumblings in recent weeks that Budenholzer could be eyeing the Bucks’ job, but as long as Milwaukee remains in the playoffs, interim coach Joe Prunty continues to hold that role.

As Schultz observes, Ressler and GM Travis Schlenk initially wanted to leverage other teams’ interest in Budenholzer into compensation for letting him out of his contract. Not receiving any compensation and remaining on the hook for Budenholzer’s $13MM salary is almost a worst-case scenario for the franchise. However, with Budenholzer’s return having become increasingly untenable and Atlanta wanting to start interviewing candidates to replace him, the club felt it was time to make a move, even if the financial pill was a tough one to swallow.

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2018 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Atlanta Hawks

April 27th, 2018 at 9:50am CST by Luke Adams

After making 10 straight appearances in the postseason, the Hawks recognized that streak was in danger of coming to an end and decided to lean into it with a full-fledged rebuild. As a result, Atlanta’s win total dipped by nearly 20 games in 2017/18, as the team finished with a 24-58 record, tied for the NBA’s third-worst mark. The Hawks should have cap flexibility going forward, but they’re still fully immersed in the rebuilding process, meaning they’re more likely to use cap room to accommodate bad contracts in trades than to make a splash in free agency.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Hawks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

  • Mike Muscala ($9,500,000): Bird rights (if player option is declined)
  • Dewayne Dedmon ($8,280,000): Non-Bird rights (if player option is declined)
  • No. 4 overall pick ($5,864,636)4
  • No. 19 overall pick ($2,231,755)
  • No. 30 overall pick ($1,606,717)
  • Total: $27,483,008

Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000

Projected Cap Room: $33,401,355

  • For our Hawks’ cap projection, we’re assuming that both Dedmon and Muscala decline their player options, which isn’t necessarily a lock (Dedmon appears more likely to opt out than Muscala). We’re also assuming the team waives all its non-guaranteed players and renounces its free agents, which is hardly a sure thing either.
  • In that scenario, the Hawks’ seven guaranteed contracts, three first-round picks, and two cap charges for empty roster spots result in a team salary of $67,598,645. That’s nearly enough to accommodate any maximum-salary free agent, though Atlanta is unlikely to be in the market for any players of that caliber.

Footnotes:

  1. Taylor’s salary becomes guaranteed for $300K after June 22, then fully guaranteed after July 27.
  2. Cavanaugh’s salary becomes guaranteed for $450K after May 15, then fully guaranteed after July 7.
  3. Cleveland’s exact contract details, including guarantee info, aren’t yet known.
  4. The Hawks are fourth in the draft lottery standings. They could end up picking anywhere from No. 1 ($8,095,595) to No. 7 ($4,403,246).

Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hawks Get Permission To Meet With Blazers’ Tibbetts

April 27th, 2018 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks have been granted permission by the Trail Blazers to meet with Portland assistant coach Nate Tibbetts, league sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Wojnarowski describes Tibbetts as a “serious” candidate to fill Atlanta’s head coaching vacancy.

Tibbetts, who was recently identified by several league executives as one of the NBA’s up-and-coming assistants who deserves head coaching consideration, was reported to be a candidate for the Hawks’ job shortly after the team parted ways with Mike Budenholzer.

That list of candidates also included former Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale, Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, and Spurs assistants Ime Udoka and James Borrego. Meanwhile, Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution added one more name to the mix on Thursday, writing that Darvin Ham – a Hawks assistant throughout Budenholzer’s tenure – could be in the mix.

Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk has said there’s no set timeline for the club’s coaching search, but he expects to have a new head coach in place before the NBA draft on June 21, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“We are going to find the right head coach for the Atlanta Hawks,” Schlenk said. “That coach is going to have the same job description or same end game as I do and that’s to try to bring a championship to the Atlanta Hawks.”

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Hawks Expected To Consider Fizdale, Tibbetts, Others

April 26th, 2018 at 2:13pm CST by Luke Adams

2:13pm: Vanterpool won’t be among the Hawks’ head coaching candidates after all, tweets Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

9:30am: The Hawks are the latest NBA team to embark on a search for a new head coach, having confirmed on Wednesday that they’ve parted ways with Mike Budenholzer, who had held the position since 2013. While there’s no presumed frontrunner to replace Budenholzer yet, a number of potential candidates have already emerged for Atlanta.

The Hawks are expected to talk to former Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale and current Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts about their head coaching position, a source tells Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Fizdale has been one of this spring’s most popular head coaching candidates, having previously been linked to the Knicks, Suns, and Hornets. It’s the first time we’ve heard Tibbetts connected to one of the ongoing searches, however.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski adds a few more names to the Hawks’ list of candidates, reporting that the club is also expected to consider Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, Spurs assistants Ime Udoka and James Borrego, and another Trail Blazers assistant, David Vanterpool.

Borrego has been another assistant whose name has frequently popped up in coaching rumors this spring — he has been linked to the Knicks and Suns. Meanwhile, Silas was identified as a possible head coaching candidate in the wake of Steve Clifford‘s ouster in Charlotte. As Amick and Zillgitt note, Silas is “widely respected” around the NBA and was with the Warriors at the same time as current Hawks GM Travis Schlenk.

It’s no surprise that the initial group of candidates for the rebuilding Hawks includes a number of NBA assistants. Wojnarowski writes that the team wants to hire an up-and-coming coach who can evolve along with Atlanta’s young roster. Vanterpool, Silas, and Tibbetts all showed up near the top of a recent list of NBA assistants who should receive head coaching consideration — that list was voted on by about three dozen executives around the league.

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