NBA reporter Sam Amick joined Dukes & Bell to talk about his article on Travis Schlenk no longer being with the team and whether Trae Young’s relationship with Nick Ressler led to his relationship issues with Nate McMillan?
When asked if criticism of McMillan is fair with front office turmoil.
“As it relates to Nate, I would highlight the fact that if you’re a head coach and you have a prominent franchise centerpiece player like Trae Young, who at least in the past was known to be pretty tight with the owners son. I think in the coach’s ranks around the league there has for some time been a sense that Nate would have a tricky time really connecting and holding Trae accountable with the way he wants to run the team,” Amick said. “Because of these power dynamics that existed in the franchise and there was this sense, fair or not, and Nick I’m sure is feeling like some of this stuff is unfair.
"But Trae’s ability to kinda circumvent, whether it’s his coach, whether it’s the front office, whether it’s anything, his rapport with Nick was making it tricky on some of the other team officials, Nate among them. So yeah, I think that context should be apart of the Nate conversation.”
Amick talked about Nate’s future with the team.
“Nobody expects Nate to be around after this season," said Amick. "There’s very, very strong signs that the Hawks are already deciding what they wanna do on that front. So, I don’t think he’s gonna step down, largely because that would cost him a lot of money and he’s a smart guy, but yeah I think Nate at this point is mostly just cost up in this stuff.”