ATLANTA — The Atlanta Hawks fired Coach Nate McMillan, who was unable to follow up on the success of leading the team to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals.
Hawks GM Landry Fields announcing the firing on Tuesday night.
The Hawks are 29-30 and eighth in the East this season.
Assistant coach Joe Prunty will serve as interim coach. Prunty joined the Hawks in July 2021 as lead assistant.
McMillan went 99-80 as Atlanta’s coach, including a 27-11 record as interim in the second half of the 2020-21 season. His success that season earned him the full-time position.
Overall in 19 seasons, McMillan has a 760-668 record with the Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers and Hawks..
The Hawks finished 43-39 in the 2021-22 season, and after escaping the play-in tournament, lost to the Miami Heat 4-1 in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Atlanta then added more emphasis to a win-now approach by trading Danilo Gallinari and three first-round picks to the San Antonio Spurs for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray.
The trade formed a backcourt pairing of All-Star guards in Murray and Trae Young and placed more heat on McMillan to guide the Hawks back to the top of the conference.
Instead, the Hawks have struggled near .500 most of the season. They lost four of six games before the All-Star break and are only one game ahead of 10th-place Toronto in the East. The slide left Atlanta closer to falling out of the play-in tournament than moving into the No. 6 spot for a guaranteed playoff position. The New York Knicks are sixth, 3 1/2 games ahead of Atlanta.
NETS: Jacque Vaughn, who has coached the Brooklyn Nets into playoff position despite the trades of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during another turbulent season for the franchise, has agreed to a multiyear contract extension.
Vaughn replaced Steve Nash early in the season and the Nets announced they were extending his deal. Terms were not disclosed, though GM Sean Marks said the Nets looked forward to Vaughn leading the team “for years to come.”
The Nets (34-24) are fifth in the Eastern Conference and have gone 32-19 under Vaughn, the fifth-best record in the league.
He replaced Nash on an interim basis on Nov. 1 and took the full-time position on Nov. 9 – after the Nets had discussed the position with former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka.
Vaughn quickly steadied the team and the Nets surged to a franchise-best 12-1 record in December, earning coach of the month honors in the East.
The Nets climbed all the way to second in the East before Durant was hurt in January. He never played for the team again before being traded to Phoenix, days after Irving was dealt to Dallas.
BULLS: The Chicago Bulls ruled point guard Lonzo Ball out for the season because of lingering discomfort in his surgically repaired left knee.
The team said the focus now will be on resolving the discomfort he feels performing “high level basketball-related activities” and making “a full return” for next season.
Ball hasn’t played since Jan. 14, 2022. He had surgery for a torn meniscus a few weeks later and experienced setbacks when he tried to ramp up basketball activities.
The Bulls had him rest for 10 days at one point, hoping it would resolve the issue and allow him to return. But he felt pain again when he started preparing to play.
Ball was still unable to run at full speed or even walk up stairs without experiencing discomfort when he had another operation in late September. He said at the time he expected to play this season.
MAGIC: The Orlando Magic waived third-year guard R.J. Hampton. He’ll have 48 hours to clear waivers — until 5 p.m. on Thursday. Any team with an open roster spot can claim him off waivers and take on the remainder of his contract during this period.
If he clears waivers, Hampton will become an unrestricted free agent, meaning he’s free to sign a new contract with any team and the Magic will take on Hampton’s full $2.41 million cap hit for the remainder of the season.
Hampton is in the third season of his 4-year, $11.1 million rookie scale contract after being drafted with the No. 24 pick in the 2020 draft.
NUGGETS: The clubs that Nikola Jokic might be on the cusp of entering are highly exclusive.
There’s the three-consecutive-MVP club, with only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird as its current members. Then there’s the averaged-a-triple-double club, which includes only Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook.
Jokic doesn’t care about being added to either of those lists. It might happen anyway.
The best team in the Western Conference so far has been the Denver Nuggets, and the biggest reason why they’re atop the standings coming out of the All-Star break is the 28-year-old Serbian big man who was the league’s best player two years ago, was the league’s best player last year and very well might be the best again this year.
Jokic’s numbers: 24.7 points, 11.5 rebounds and 10.1 assists per game, on 63% shooting from the field, 39% from 3-point range. Such a collection of stats is unprecedented; others have scored more, assisted more, rebounded more and shot better, but nobody has ever had all those averages and percentages in one season – especially not a big man.
The Nuggets are five games ahead of Memphis – Denver has 23 games left, the Grizzlies have 25 – for the top spot in the Western Conference. They’re well on their way to securing the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout at least the first three rounds of the playoffs.
CLIPPERS: Russell Westbrook could make his debut with the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday once he clears waivers, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Westbrook still needs to clear waivers before he can sign with a new team.
The nine-time All-Star was waived by the Utah Jazz on Monday. He is expected to clear waivers Wednesday since no team has the salary cap space to take on the remaining $47 million he is owed on his expiring contract.
There is an outside chance Westbrook could practice Thursday if he signs and passes his physical. The Clippers – fourth in the Western Conference with a 33-28 record – host Sacramento on Friday in their first game after the All-Star break.
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