Pack in the Pros
Former NC State Player, Nate McMillan, Now Officially Atlanta Hawks’ Head Coach
This last four months has been wild for McMillan. From bottom dwellers to two wins from NBA Finals, the loss of ‘Interim’ from his title was eminent. Monday, according to Woj himself, McMillan signed a four-year deal with the Hawks to become their longterm head coach.
Enter Nate McMillan
Heading into the All-Star break, the Hawks were 14-20 and 11th in the East. On March 1, they fired Head Coach Lloyd Pierce and named McMillan interim HC. Since that point, Hawks have been arguably the hottest team in the NBA. They went 27-11 the remainder of the year, won the Southeast Division, upset the Knicks in the first round, had a miracle comeback against the 76ers to win that series and pushed the Milwaukee Bucks to the bring in the Eastern Conference Finals. I can assure you, every single person in Atlanta would have accepted this team knocking on the Finals door back in March.
Every. Single. Statistical. Category has been improved under McMillan. The team not only is clicking on all cylinders production-wise, but 1000% believe in themselves. The swagger they played with in Madison Square Garden was intense. Then they backed it up in Philly and almost again in Milwaukee.
Road to Coaching
If you focus on regular seasons, Nate McMillan has quite impressive record. In his last seven full seasons behind the bench, every team is above .500 and in the playoffs. Prior to Atlanta, McMillan was the head coach of the Pacers, where his last three seasons were all 2nd in the Central and floating around 60% winning percentage.
The problem has always been the playoffs.
While McMillan has a .535 overall winning percentage in the regular season, that drops to .321 in the playoffs. Outside of this run by the Hawks, his teams have been bounced in the first round 8 of 10 tries.
Yet you look at his back-to-back 48-34 seasons, followed by 45-28 shortened season and now this crazy run with the Hawks and realize; maybe he finally has the postseason answer?
Trae Young loves him and wanted him to stay. When news of hiring broke, Young had three words to say,
“Let’s Work Coach!”
State Career
After spending two years at Chowan College, McMillan came home to Raleigh to play for Jim Valvano. In his first year back, he helped the Wolfpack grab a share of first in the ACC regular season. Both years, State made it to the Elite Eight. During his career, he spread the wealth across the stat sheet; 5.1 REBs, 6 ASTs, 2.2 STLs, 1 BLK, and 8.5 PTS.
Hew was an intense competitor.
and he was a bean pole… put on lots and lots of weight since then. V loved him.