Hawks promote assistant Brittni Donaldson to front office, announce additions
The Hawks’ offseason has been full of change on the court. That has carried over to basketball operations, with several new faces joining the team or a few old faces moving to new positions.
On Wednesday, the Hawks announced the promotion of assistant Brittni Donaldson to a front-office role. After the past two seasons behind the bench as an assistant to coach Quin Snyder, Donaldson now will serve as director of basketball development, methodology and integration, a new leadership and strategy role created within the organization.
Donaldson, the first female assistant coach in Hawks franchise history, will continue to work with the team’s coaching staff, but will work more closely with Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh. The position includes player development that incorporates her background in analytics.
Along with promoting Donaldson, the Hawks also promoted Rich McLoughlin to assistant strength coach.
McLoughlin previously was the strength and conditioning coach for the College Park Skyhawks, the Hawks G League affiliate, for the past three seasons. He also worked at Georgia Southern as an assistant strength and conditioning coach of Olympic sports.
In addition to those promotions, the Hawks made several hires, including Mychel Thompson as a pro scout, Calvin Torres as head of sports science, Dan Warnke as head of performance and Gordon Jeter as assistant strength coach.
Thompson served as a video coordinator and player development coach with the Warriors. He played 206 games in the NBA G League, with the Erie BayHawks, Sioux Falls Skyforce and Santa Cruz Warriors. He also played internationally with Pallacanestro Varese (Italy).
Thompson, who will work mostly on the West Coast, has deep basketball roots. His father Mychal, played 12 seasons in the NBA as the first foreign-born player to be selected first overall in the NBA Draft when the Trail Blazers drafted him in 1978. Thompson’s brother, Klay, currently plays for the Mavericks after 13 seasons with the Warriors.
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