Hawks fire Pierce after 2-plus years amid swoon

ATLANTA — Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce was fired on Monday, given the hook less than halfway into a season which carried heightened expectations before being hampered by injuries.

Atlanta president Travis Schlenk announced the move in a short statement released by the team.

The Hawks have yet to officially name an interim head coach but are hopeful assistant Nate McMillan will choose to take the position, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. McMillan is meeting with Pierce and the rest of the Hawks’ coaching staff, sources said. McMillan has been fiercely loyal in his support of Pierce.

McMillan, the former Indiana Pacers coach who was added to Pierce’s staff in the offseason, filled in for Pierce when Piece was recently away from the team while his wife was giving birth.

The Hawks are 14-20 and 11th in the Eastern Conference, following a 109-99 loss at Miami on Sunday night. It was the Hawks’ 11th loss after holding a fourth-quarter lead. The teams play again in Miami on Tuesday.

Pierce, 44, gave no indication that he thought he was in trouble after Sunday’s loss. He even ran the Hawks’ practice on Monday morning in Miami.

“We would like to thank Lloyd for his work and commitment to not only the Hawks organization but the city of Atlanta,” Schlenk said in the statement. He added that the move to fire Pierce, which comes less than a week before Atlanta hosts the All-Star Game, is timed to help the team have a second-half resurgence.

“We have high expectations for our team on the court and we believe by making this change now that we can have a strong second half of the season,” Schlenk said.

The Hawks last appeared in the playoffs in 2017. The team has rebuilt around point guard Trae Young and forward John Collins and invested heavily in veterans in the offseason.

Key additions include Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari, Rajon Rondo and Kris Dunn. The Hawks’ talent also received a major upgrade with the addition of center Clint Capela.

The Hawks had free-agent money to spend, and Schlenk wasted no time in adding Gallinari (three years, $61.5 million), Rondo (two years, $15 million) and Dunn (two years, $10 million).

Dunn has yet to play, due to his ongoing recovery from ankle surgery. Bogdanovic has missed 25 games. Gallinari has missed nine games.

The biggest move came when Schlenk made Bogdanovic an offer — four years for $72 million — the Sacramento Kings didn’t match.

Injuries to Bogdanovic and others prevented Pierce from having a healthy roster, however.

Perhaps most disrupting to the Hawks’ progress was the loss of emerging star De’Andre Hunter to knee surgery. Hunter, who had emerged as a scoring complement to Young and Collins, has missed 16 games.

The injuries were not enough to overcome management’s disappointment with the slow start. This was supposed to be the season the Hawks’ return to the playoffs, and Pierce acknowledged before the season that it is time to win.

Atlanta began the season 10-9, but has lost 11 of its past 15 games. They’re on track for just a slight improvement over last season, when Atlanta had a 20-47. The Hawks finished in a virtual tie for last in the Eastern Conference, percentage points ahead of Cleveland. They were one of eight teams excluded from the NBA’s restart.

Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said he was “really shocked” by Pierce’s firing.

“Really disappointed,” Rivers said. “I just talked to him, I want to say five days ago. He just had a brand new baby. This is a tough business, boy. It’s tough. I’ve always thought it was really difficult in a rebuild. … Most of the rebuilds, unfortunately, go the way of Lloyd Pierce. You’re in the middle of the rebuild and then you blame the coach for the losses that you had no chance to win. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it’s worked in the league.”

Pierce, hired in 2018, was 63-120 (.344) with the Hawks, missing the playoffs in each of his two completed seasons.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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