Larry Drew will return for a third season as head coach of the Hawks.

“We feel Larry’s experience, expertise and dedication to the game were a key ingredient to our success,” general manager Rick Sund said in a statement released by the team.

Drew will enter the final year of his contract next season.

“You can look at it one of two ways,” Drew said. “It is the perfect situation? No. But at this point I’ve had a lot of dialogue about the situation with my representative. At this point, we are going to move forward.”