The Hawks have focused their energy on holding each other accountable for the firing of former coach Nate McMillan. But they also understand that moving forward and finishing the regular season strongly is how they do so.
On Tuesday, the team parted ways with McMillan after the Hawks lost eight of their past 13 games, but some players refused to point their fingers solely at McMillan. One day after the move, some of the Hawks veterans addressed the lack of accountability and consistency among the squad.
But John Collins, Clint Capela and Dejounte Murray, who spoke Wednesday, understand that the NBA is a business. The three, along with Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter, stressed that at the end of the day, results are what matter.
“This is the business, you know?” Bogdanovic said. “We wanted to win more games – everybody not just him. But at the end of the day, we got to move, we got to move on. We have (our) next game (Friday) against the Cavaliers, and we got to get ready. With Nate, without Nate, that’s not our job as the players to think who is going to coach us. We just got to be ready and ready to perform.”
The Hawks have 23 games left in the season and look to make their push into the postseason. They currently sit in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, three games behind the Heat, whom they face early next month. So, they face a bit of an uphill battle to try to get out of a situation in which they would begin their postseason in the play-in tournament for a second consecutive year.
“I feel like winning solves everything,” Bogdanovic said. “You win a couple of games, everything is good. Everyone talks how good you are. When you lose a couple, everyone talks about how bad you are, as simple as that. So we got to find that groove. We had good streaks. We had bad streaks. We just have to have more of the good streaks, basically. This is a competitive league. It’s a sport, so it’s normal.”
The Hawks have had two practices to try to shake off some of the rust from the All-Star break. Interim coach Joe Prunty said the team followed a spirited post-break practice with another as he looks to shuttle through the beginning of a new chapter.
Prunty said that in addition to the guys playing competitively, they went through some teaching. He shared that the coaches reminded them of how the offense and defense intertwined.
“So, for example, if you miss a shot in the paint, if you miss a layup, that can make your transition defense more difficult,” Prunty said. “So there was just sort of an emphasis on not only the finishing aspect and not how to finish but finishing, and then making sure how we rotate back defensively to take care of transition defense. And, obviously, that’s how they’re intertwined.”
This season, the Hawks have given up the fourth-most opponent fast-break points, averaging 15.4 per game. In their past two games, which seemingly played a role in the decision to move on from McMillan, they gave up 25.5, the third most.
A coaching change may not magically solve all of the Hawks’ issues this season, but the team anticipated that the players needed a new voice that resonated with them.
Hunter did not completely agree with that sentiment but acknowledged that sometimes a new voice could get the message across in a clear and different way.
“I wouldn’t say his message wasn’t getting across,” he said. “It’s just maybe we could use a different message, you know?”
Like Bogdanovic, Capela, Collins and Murray before him, Hunter said this team needs to step up to end on the right foot.
“It’s all of us,” Hunter said. “We all know what happened. You know, Coach getting fired, it’s not all on him. Like I said, I don’t know how many times I can express that. But it’s a lot on us. We weren’t producing on the floor. We have an under-.500 record. Coaching can only do so much. So it’s on us for these next 23 games. I think we have to produce.”
Injury notes
– Hawks star guard Trae Young had an excused absence from Thursday’s practice because of personal reasons. Prunty said Young should be back for the shootaround Friday ahead of their game against the Cavaliers at 7:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
– Collins remains in the NBA’s concussion protocol. When the team announced Collins’ entry into concussion protocol, it said it would provide updates as it deemed them appropriate.
He must go through the return-to-participation process, which can begin no earlier than 24 hours from the time of injury. The return-to-participation process includes a series of steps designed to ensure an athlete exhibits symptom-free behavior before resuming full basketball activities. There is no time frame to complete the process, as each injury and player is different and recovery time can vary in each case.
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