Atlanta Hawks: Will David Vanterpool be their next full-time coach?

The Atlanta Hawks relieved Lloyd Pierce of his head coaching duties on Monday afternoon, making him the second NBA coach to get fired this season. A week earlier, the Minnesota Timberwolves fired their head coach, Ryan Saunders, and replaced him immediately on a full-time basis with Chris Finch.

This was an unorthodox move on Minnesota’s part because they already had a qualified candidate on their staff to replace Saunders, at least on an interim basis. That candidate was David Vanterpool, a man who has been runner-up in many head coaching searches in recent years.

Instead, the Timberwolves went outside of their own organization (Finch was an assistant with the Toronto Raptors) to make this hire in a nearly unprecedented move.

Should David Vanterpool be the next full-time coach of the Atlanta Hawks?

So far it looks like the Hawks are taking a more traditional route with their coaching replacement process. After firing Pierce, they moved their own top assistant, Nate McMillan, into the interim role. The full-time head coaching spot is yet to be determined.

McMillan led an overachieving Indiana Pacers squad the last few seasons, and he has over two decades of head and assistant coaching experience at the NBA level. He’s certainly going to be a candidate (perhaps the lead candidate) for the job, but the Hawks want to win big and win now, so from ownership through management you can expect a legitimate coaching search to be conducted at the end of the season or sooner.

This may be David Vanterpool’s time.

With the Minnesota Timberwolves mired at the bottom of the NBA standings and a new head coach on the sideline in Finch, this could be an ideal situation for Vanterpool. Finch will eventually want to bring in his own assistants, and Vanterpool wants a head coaching job.

Furthermore, NBA players want to play for Vanterpool. After the Timberwolves bypassed all coaching search norms to hire Finch, there was a furor on social media among players like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum (who played under Vanterpool with the Portland Trail Blazers) who demanded answers as to why a qualified minority candidate such as Vanterpool was instantly passed over for consideration.

Vanterpool coached for eight years in Portland under head coach Terry Stotts before making the leap to Minnesota last season as Ryan Saunders’ associate head coach.

He’s liked, he’s respected, he has a top resume among NBA assistants, and there’s an open full-time job to battle for. Expect him to at least get significant consideration from the Atlanta Hawks if there is a true head coaching search in the offseason or sooner.