Hawks Fire Nate McMillan; Spurs Assistant Linked to Job?

San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mitch Johnson has been named as a head coach candidate for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Atlanta Hawks fired head coach Nate McMillan and now have their eyes on several candidates, according to The Athletic.

Among the candidates are Charles Lee (Milwaukee Bucks), Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez (Sacramento Kings), Kenny Atkinson (Golden State Warriors), Miles Simon (South Bay Lakers), Quin Snyder (former Utah Jazz coach) and San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mitch Johnson.

At 36 years old, Johnson would be the third youngest coach in the league should he take over in Atlanta.

Despite his young age, Johnson has a coaching resume befitting for a head coach. He’s been in the Spurs organization since 2016.

Johnson is the son of former NBA player John Johnson and played four years of college basketball at Stanford, followed by three seasons in the G League and overseas in Europe before transitioning into coaching.

Johnson started as a basketball coaching intern for Seattle University in 2011, prior to coaching in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. Johnson spent one season as an assistant at the University of Portland in 2016 before coaching the Austin Spurs for three years, where he would cross paths with players such as current Hawks star Dejounte Murray.

This past summer, Johnson coached the Spurs Summer League team in both Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich is the NBA’s oldest head coach, and over half of the league’s head coaches have been directly influenced by his coaching in some way, whether it be that they were his assistants or were coached by his assistants.

Some of Popovich’s mentees include championship head coaches Mike Budenholzer, Steve Kerr, and Doc Rivers, as well as Becky Hammon in the WNBA.

Hammon spent eight seasons under Popovich in San Antonio and, after accepting the Las Vegas Aces head coach position, became the first rookie head coach to win a title in WNBA history this past season.

Thanks to Popovich’s tutelage, his familiarity with Murray, and the recent success of Hammon, Johnson is as enticing a head coaching candidate as any to fix an Atlanta organization that currently sits below .500 but was in the Eastern Conference finals as recently as 2021. 

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