The Atlanta Hawks announced Wednesday that they have added three veteran basketball figures to head coach Quin Snyder’s coaching and development staff: Jason Love as an assistant coach, Ettore Messina as a coaching consultant and Sergi Oliva as a basketball strategy and development advisor.
The moves add a combination of player-development experience, European coaching expertise and front-office and analytics knowledge to Snyder’s staff ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Love joins Atlanta after spending the previous two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant coach focused on player development. Before Milwaukee, he spent five seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, progressing from player development associate in 2019 to skill development coach in 2021 and assistant coach in 2023.
A Philadelphia native, Love played at Xavier from 2006-10 and holds the school record for career wins with 108. He subsequently played professionally overseas for seven seasons before beginning his coaching career.
Messina brings the most extensive coaching résumé of the three additions. The four-time EuroLeague champion won titles with Virtus Bologna in 1998 and 2001 and CSKA Moscow in 2006 and 2008.
Messina also won multiple Italian and Russian league championships and coached Italy to a silver medal at EuroBasket 1997. He has been named Coach of the Year on multiple occasions and is a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame.
The 66-year-old also has significant NBA experience. Messina worked as a consultant with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011-12 before joining the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant coach from 2014-19.
His arrival also reunites him with Snyder. The Hawks head coach previously worked as an assistant under Messina at CSKA Moscow, giving the two an established professional relationship.
Oliva joins Atlanta after four seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers as assistant general manager. He also served as head coach of the Rip City Remix, Portland’s NBA G League affiliate, during the 2024-25 season.
Before Portland, Oliva spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz under Snyder from 2020-22. He previously spent six years with Philadelphia, finishing his tenure as vice president of strategy.
A native of Gelida, Catalonia, Oliva has combined coaching, analytics and front-office work throughout his career. He also spent 12 years coaching at youth and amateur levels in Spain and holds a Ph.D. in Computational Complexity from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
The additions come during a significant transition for Atlanta. The Hawks moved into the post-Trae Young era after trading their longtime point guard to Washington in January and have since reshaped the roster around CJ McCollum and a younger group of players.
Atlanta finished 46-36 last season and has undergone further changes during the offseason, including the additions of Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Ryan Nembhard, Kingston Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor and Henri Veesaar.
The Hawks also extended general manager Onsi Saleh and promoted Peter Dinwiddie to executive vice president of basketball operations, while former NBA journalist Tim Bontemps joined the organization as a strategic adviser.
With Snyder entering another season overseeing a substantially reworked roster, Atlanta has now added three more experienced voices to a coaching and development structure that includes Bryan Bailey, Mike Brey, Steve Klei, Antonio Lang, Sanjay Lumpkin, Reggis Onwukamuche, Ryan Schmidt, Ashton Smith, Ekpe Udoh and Jett Watkinson.
