The Atlanta Hawks may have failed to go past the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs, but head coach Quin Snyder doesn't think it's a total failure for the team considering what they have done.
Snyder–who took over the team in midseason after the firing of Nate McMillan–said as much during his postgame presser following their 128-120 loss in Game 5 on Thursday. While there's no doubt the fans expected more from the team, the veteran tactician highlighted that they did achieve one of their primary goals for this campaign: make significant improvements on their overall performance.
“Our goal was to be the best version of ourselves,” Snyder said before sharing his belief that they were able to achieve that over the last couple of months, per team reporter Kevin Chouinard.
True enough, before Quin Snyder took over, the Hawks looked like a team that's going to explode any time. They were barely in the playoff seedings, but they managed to make it to the postseason–even beating the Miami Heat to secure the seventh seed.
Against the Celtics, Trae Young and co. definitely didn't make it easy. A lot of people expected Boston to sweep the series or hand them a gentleman sweep, but for one moment, it looked like the Beantown team was in serious trouble.
Snyder loved how the team competed, which he believes will be crucial as they continue to build the franchise into a championship-caliber team.
“I thought our guys competed at the same level,” Snyder said of the Hawks' performance against the Celtics.
It remains to be seen what the Hawks will do next following their playoff disappointment, but as Snyder said, the team has laid out the groundwork in their bid to be championship contenders.
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