ATLANTA – Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce was fired on Monday after a disappointing start to a season of high expectations.
Atlanta team president Travis Schlenk announced the change in a brief statement released by the team.
The Hawks hope that assistant Nate McMillan will choose to become the interim coach, ESPN sources told Adrian Wojnarowski. McMillan is meeting with Pierce and the rest of the Hawks’ technical team, the sources said. McMillan has been extremely loyal in his support for Pierce.
The Hawks are 14-20 and 11th in the Eastern Conference, after a 109-99 loss in Miami on Sunday night. The teams return to play in Miami on Tuesday.
“We would like to thank Lloyd for his work and commitment not only to the Hawks organization, but also to the city of Atlanta,” said Schlenk in a statement. Schlenk said the move, which comes less than a week before Atlanta hosts the All-Star Game, was planned to help the team recover in the second half.
“We have high expectations for our team on the court and we believe that, with this change, we can now have a strong second half of the season,” said Schlenk. Pierce, hired in 2018, had 63-120 (0.344) with the Hawks, losing the playoffs in each of his two completed seasons. Atlanta started the season 10-9, but lost 11 of their last 15 games.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.