By almost any accepted metric, this season was a failure for the Hawks. They didn’t win nearly as many games as they were supposed to. They failed to win a playoff round for the second straight year. They fired their head coach (Nate McMillan), drop-kicked their former head of basketball operations (Travis Schlenk) and at some point saw the franchise morph into a national punchline for its dysfunction.

But something significant happened over these past few weeks, something maybe more important than winning a few more games: Trae Young became sold on his head coach.

“I mean, Quin (Snyder) is the future,” Young said. “I believe with him here this city is going to win a championship.”

This was late Thursday night, after a 126-120 loss to the Celtics eliminated the Hawks from the playoffs in six games. I asked Young about what it has been like for him playing for Snyder these past two months and his thoughts on the future, which seemed important given Young feuded with his first two head coaches, Lloyd Pierce and McMillan. What followed was a love fest.

He called Snyder “really smart.”

He said he’s “really excited” for the future.

He said when it comes to defense, “There are things I’ve gotten better at. If I make a mistake, I’m going to apologize. I’m not going to be perfect right now but there are some things I’m going to focus on going into the summer and next season that I’m looking forward to.”