Official: Burke and Popeye to return to staff

[Scoot McGroot]

Not that we were surprised, but McMillan has reached an agreement with Dan Burke to return to the staff. A tad surprising, though, is that Popeye Jones will also return.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16083023/dan-burke-popeye-jones-remain-indiana-pacers-staff

So, a coaching staff that "needed a fresh voice" has returned almost essentially the entire same coaching staff, minus the head coach, of course. The article states that McMillan is looking for the 3rd, and final, assistant coach, but claims that it won't necessarily be an "offensive coordinator" kind of thing.

We'll see. Either way, keeping Burke is a great thing. Hopefully, we should continue to see great defensive play due to it.

[Wizop]

And Popeye is the big man's skill development coach. Perhaps they'll add a former guard or an analytics guru.

[boomershadow]

I know most people won't see it this way, but I actually do think the path we have taken so far this offseason is a good compromise between keeping the same coaching staff and continuing to stagnate in areas that we hadnt made much progress in the last few years and on the other end of the spectrum doing complete coaching and system changes every year or two the way some dysfunctional franchises around the league seem to. A new head coach, a new leading voice, some different priorities, but we should also be able to maintain a lot of continuity with the coach and player working relationships and hopefully build on much of the progress we have already made in the post-Hibbert/West/Stephenson era.

Not everything I have read about Nate as an offensive coach is encouraging, but if change is necessary then I would much prefer to give this a chance as constructed and see if some tweaks and a new leader can bring some positive change rather than tearing it all down just for the sake of doing it.

[pacers33granger]

Not everything I have read about Nate as an offensive coach is encouraging, but if change is necessary then I would much prefer to give this a chance as constructed and see if some tweaks and a new leader can bring some positive change rather than tearing it all down just for the sake of doing it.

Agreed. And honestly, if he can just get our guys to stop taking dumb shots and be held accountable like Bird mentioned before, then the offense will be better without any real tweaks there.

[Miller4ever]

Yay, Burke. Meh, Popeye. I want to go young with the 3rd spot.

[Wizop]

today's Star quotes McMillan that he won't have an offensive coordinator as such because he wants all of the coaches to be able to coach both ends. says last hire is close.