The only coach that has beaten the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Playoffs just got a contract extension. The Knicks are no strangers to getting coaches paid by other teams, with several of their recent coaching search's top targets inking extensions to stave off New York's interest.
On Monday morning, the Atlanta Hawks joined the group — just not for the same reason as other squads. Teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Chicago Bulls extended their head coaches last summer because New York was looking to hire them away.
The Hawks may have just extended theirs, because he's the only guy in the league that's showed any signs of understanding how to slow these Knicks down. In the same way that New York owes Snyder a thank you for igniting a fire underneath them, the coach might just owe the Knicks one in return after signing on the dotted line.
Quin Snyder is ironically lucky Hawks weren't part of Knicks' sweep club
Snyder oversaw the 20-6 run that Atlanta went on at the end of their regular season. The Hawks entered the postseason with a 46-36 record overall, riding that momentum to a stolen road win at Madison Square Garden.
They even went back to Atlanta and clawed another one-point victory from out of the Knicks' hands, leaving New Yorkers worried about everything from their own coaching change to their roster's construction.
At the time, losing three games in a row wasn't viewed as any sort of accomplishment.
Watching the Knicks go on to sweep the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers in back to back rounds on their way to the NBA Finals, though, adds important perspective.
Jalen Johnson made the All-NBA Third Team over Karl-Anthony Towns, a nod from league voters to the production that Johnson sustained throughout the course of the regular season as Atlanta's de facto #1.
Playoff basketball, however, is quite unforgiving. And the Knicks' defense revealed quickly that CJ McCollum, not Johnson, was their most reliable creator. The veteran guard led them to two straight victories, each of them by just a single point, leaving New York searching their souls.
It just so happens that the Knicks, inside those souls, found the blueprints for quickly becoming one of the best two-way basketball teams of this century. In the moment, it was beyond fair to criticize Snyder for overseeing the collapse.
Now, it might be more impressive that it was the determination of his Hawks group that forced the Knicks to get real.
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