Round 1, Game 2: Pacers vs. Celtics

[Jake0890]

I’m not gonna go and find it, but I did mention something about firing Nate earlier this season. People weren’t so receptive, I bet the tone would be different now/will be different should we lose in 4 or 5.

[Tom White]

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

I'd say you are half right.

[Pacers_Freak]

I’m not gonna go and find it, but I did mention something about firing Nate earlier this season. People weren’t so receptive, I bet the tone would be different now/will be different should we lose in 4 or 5.

My tone wouldn't change. I mean in all honesty without Vic we have inferior talent to Boston. Many would argue we have inferior talent with him. So being outmatched and losing in 4-5 is a reason to make a change? If there are things you don't like and you want change that is cool. I don't think getting whooped in this series is a reason for change. I mean I predicted Boston in 5 so I'm not really surprised.

I am not the biggest Nate fan. I made that known when he was hired. But, in all honesty this regular season was one of the best coaching jobs I've seen. When Vic went down they far exceeded anyone's expectations. I understand its easy to get on the coach and trust me I was yelling at him some Wednesday through my TV. But if you look at pure talent.... the result of this series should have been Boston in 4-5. We didn't have a lot of room for error in the playoffs with Vic, without Vic we have no room for error.

[Scoot McGroot]

Watch the game, Vorda. He played some absolutely amazing defense. He even played perimeter defense well.

Clearly, we ran a system last night where we put the ball in Bojan's hands and asked him to play one on one ball, and asked everyone else to defer to him. This was out of the realm of his normal dribble hand off success. He shot 9-21. We took the ball out of our center's hands; Dom and Myles combined for only 8 attempts. Myles may have only had 2 blocks on the record books, but he completely changed and affected all play at the rim and helped alter many more shots.

If you want statistics that don't win games on average, go for an Enes Kanter. If you want play that helps win games more often than not, or at least last night, helps keep teams in games, keep Myles Turner.

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

You’d lead RealGM if I could And1 this more than once. If Vorda was GM we could win a fantasy b-ball championship.

Let's not gang up on Vorda, and let's not assume anything. Vorda seems to care about the Pacers winning just as much as any of us do, he just has different opinions on how to go about it. That's all. And with him seeming to have some Toronto fandom, maybe he doesn't get to see the games as often as some others do. Sometimes, all we have to comment on games is simply the stats, and not the in-depth that watching a game in person allows us to have.

[Scoot McGroot]

I’m not gonna go and find it, but I did mention something about firing Nate earlier this season. People weren’t so receptive, I bet the tone would be different now/will be different should we lose in 4 or 5.

Was it moreso that you thought he shouldn't have been extended, and that many posters seemed to acknowledge that he had earned an extension by his results. I feel like I was at least uncomfortable in some ways with how he got the results?


But to me, losing in 4 or 5 after losing our star player to a massive injury in the 1st half of the season isn't a failure necessarily on McMillan's part. The fact he kept the team together all year says a lot about his leadership qualities, at least.

[pacers33granger]

I'm not the biggest Nate fan either, but for all his faults I don't think anyone would argue against him doing a good job this year. And who replaces him? I don't see any veteran coach out there I'd consider definitively better and rookie head coaches usually tend to flop. The organization, for better or worse, values stability and likely does not want to end up with a guy everyone hopes just improves.

[Wizop]

I'm not the biggest Nate fan either, but for all his faults I don't think anyone would argue against him doing a good job this year. And who replaces him?

and he and Pritchard have roots all the way back to Portland. I don't see a change in coaches although I'm sure Kevin will listen to Nate's complaint that "we don't have the pieces." [I looked for but didn't find the article where Nate says Brad could make more adjustments than he could because Brad had the pieces to adjust and we don't.]

[Tom White]

.....I don't see a change in coaches although I'm sure Kevin will listen to Nate's complaint that "we don't have the pieces." [I looked for but didn't find the article where Nate says Brad could make more adjustments than he could because Brad had the pieces to adjust and we don't.]

Wouldn't you love to be a fly-on-the-wall during a conversation where Nate discusses his ideas with Pritchard about players who he would like to fill in the missing pieces?

[Wizop]

Wouldn't you love to be a fly-on-the-wall during a conversation where Nate discusses his ideas with Pritchard about players who he would like to fill in the missing pieces?

I'd settle for listening to him explain why some of the pieces we had this year didn't fit. as most of you should know by know, I was a big fan of Tom Moore, the former offensive coordinator of the Colts. unlike so many pro coaches, he didn't have an inflexible system and expect the GM to obtain the talent that worked with it. he saw his job as getting the best 11 on the field and putting them in a position to do what they did best. In basketball, I see more flexibility at the college level than the pro level.

I think it's fair to say that we took more mid-range shots than most teams. the fly would wonder if that was because we lacked long range shooters or because Coach was old school.

[Tom White]

I think it's fair to say that we took more mid-range shots than most teams. the fly would wonder if that was because we lacked long range shooters or because Coach was old school.

I had not realized that was the case (about the number of mid-range shots). In all honesty, I don't watch a lot of games other than the Pacers games, so it is tough for me to compare. Certainly some of our guys are not afraid to let it fly from distance. Bogie, Doug, Leaf, DC and even Myles don't appear to hesitate. On the other hand, I don't think we want to see CoJo, Thad or Domas launching a lot of threes. Tyreke and Wesley? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

[Wizop]

I had not realized that was the case (about the number of mid-range shots).

perhaps I shouldn't say mid-range since the stat is 2 point shots which combines mid-range and shots in the paint. the stat is that only the Spurs took fewer 3 point shots per game than we did. I'll admit though that I cringe when Young takes 3's.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/shots-general/?sort=FG2A_FREQUENCY&dir=1&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season

[pacers33granger]

I think it's fair to say that we took more mid-range shots than most teams. the fly would wonder if that was because we lacked long range shooters or because Coach was old school.

This was one of the oddest things about this year with Nate's decisions in regards to Holiday. He is one of our better mid range shooters, he is the quickest at getting to his spot there, and that along with the three seems to be his shot.

Really it seemed that he could have been quasi-installed where Vic was supposed to be once he went down as they share some qualities on offense. I suppose there's the argument that we want him to learn to play differently than Vic, but still.

[Wizop]

This was one of the oddest things about this year with Nate's decisions in regards to Holiday. He is one of our better mid range shooters, he is the quickest at getting to his spot there, and that along with the three seems to be his shot.

put another way, I don't understand his loyalty to Evans. while he played his way to the 2nd unit, most think he should have played his way to the bench. Would Holiday and CoJo have been worse than Evans and CoJo?

I really hate substituting by the clock. one of the playoff announcers (I think Greg Anthony) backed it saying players like to know the rotation. I think a coach gives up his biggest stick when he fails to sit players who screw up.

[pacers33granger]

put another way, I don't understand his loyalty to Evans. while he played his way to the 2nd unit, most think he should have played his way to the bench. Would Holiday and CoJo have been worse than Evans and CoJo?

Yeah for awhile I understood it. He has talent and if he plays at the level he should, we're a much better team. But once it became clear that was just not happening here he should have pulled the plug on Evans. Ultimately we have no idea what was said in his meetings with Evans though.

Really even with Evans playing Holiday should have seen some minutes given his shooting ability. I'm still baffled why we rarely saw him thrown into a smallball lineup with the rest of the bench. Let Evans/Domas pick and roll to death with two shooters and CoJo on the perimeter.

[basketballwacko2]

Watch the game, Vorda. He played some absolutely amazing defense. He even played perimeter defense well.

Clearly, we ran a system last night where we put the ball in Bojan's hands and asked him to play one on one ball, and asked everyone else to defer to him. This was out of the realm of his normal dribble hand off success. He shot 9-21. We took the ball out of our center's hands; Dom and Myles combined for only 8 attempts. Myles may have only had 2 blocks on the record books, but he completely changed and affected all play at the rim and helped alter many more shots.

If you want statistics that don't win games on average, go for an Enes Kanter. If you want play that helps win games more often than not, or at least last night, helps keep teams in games, keep Myles Turner.

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

You’d lead RealGM if I could And1 this more than once. If Vorda was GM we could win a fantasy b-ball championship.

I don't want to beat him up, but it seems like he gets off on Gripping about players on the team and wanting guys that would end up causing us to enter the 8th layer of Cap Hell.

[basketballwacko2]

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

You’d lead RealGM if I could And1 this more than once. If Vorda was GM we could win a fantasy b-ball championship.

Let's not gang up on Vorda, and let's not assume anything. Vorda seems to care about the Pacers winning just as much as any of us do, he just has different opinions on how to go about it. That's all. And with him seeming to have some Toronto fandom, maybe he doesn't get to see the games as often as some others do. Sometimes, all we have to comment on games is simply the stats, and not the in-depth that watching a game in person allows us to have.

I agree he's passionate about the team and that is good. I just don't want to try to load the team up with a bunch of 29 year old high priced scorers who might decline suddenly. I'd rather go out and get 3-4 really good defenders and make the Pacers into a pain in the butt to play against kinda like the 2013-14 team that took LBJ and Miami to 6 games in the conference finals.

We've got Vic if he comes back fully healthy and Turner is the rim protector that everyone wants, let's add some more tough minded players this off season and turn Bankers Life into Victor's House of Pain.