Atlanta Hawks. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The Atlanta Hawks have had a much better end to their season than many NBA experts predicted. They qualified directly for the playoffs after so many expected them to only be good enough to make the play-in tournament. This would have been the case had they had stayed with Lloyd Pierce as their coach.
However, the Hawks decided to remove Pierce and installed Nate McMillan as the interim head coach just prior to the All-Star break and they have not looked back since. He implemented systems and structures which helped the Hawks squad get their season back on track.