Mcmillan back, Hawks finally have no players in protocols

Hawks coach Nate Mcmillan officially cleared health and safety protocols and has returned to his coaching duties.

That means Mcmillan returned two negative COVID-19 tests, 24 hours apart. He coached Tuesday afternoon’s practice and will be back on the bench for today’s game vs. Miami. Mcmillan said he experienced some fatigue the past few days but was feeling much better Tuesday.

The Hawks have been shorthanded for weeks as they navigate a COVID-19 outbreak, which began when Trae Young tested positive Dec. 19, but the team looks to be on the other side of that outbreak for now. Getting Mcmillan back was one of the last dominoes. They now have zero players in health and safety protocols, with Gorgui Dieng, the last remaining player in protocols, also clearing them.

One of the toughest parts of being in protocols was how disconnected Mcmillan felt from the team, he said after practice. He hasn’t seen some personnel in person for close to a month. “Extremely (tough), I’ve never had to go through anything like that,” Mcmillan said. “To coach during this time with COVID ... that’s just never happened, except for the offseason, to go that period of time without seeing your guys. You’re talking to them, you’re texting them, you’re Zooming them, but not to be able to see them was just, I mean, awful.

“Very difficult to coach from afar. To be, really, 3,000 miles away from your team and you’re trying to coach from that far, it’s just very difficult to do. I thought my assistants, Joe (Prunty) and Matt (Hill) and Chris ( Jent), they did a good job of just trying to hold, keep the team together.”

With the Hawks five games under .500 (17-22) and looking disconnected on defense, Mcmillan hopes roster stability can give the team a boost entering the second half of the season. “The league is going through this as we are, and all we can focus on is ourselves, and we haven’t been able to do that because of the number of guys that have been out . ... Just the timing was very difficult to do and this is a really important time of the season. This is when you feel like you should have your chemistry going, guys should be conditioned, in-shape, to be playing their best basketball. If you look at starting in October, November, December, January is when you hope to be playing your best basketball, and that chemistry and the connection on both ends of the floor is there.

“And we just have not been able to have this group together, because of the number of guys going into protocols, because of injuries prior to that. But ... We have to find a way to change, and we’re close to the second half of the season, starting really with this practice (Tuesday), turning it up. We’ve got to be better than we were . ... We’ve got to figure out that we’ve got to bring it. Change the mindset, your approach to this second half.”