Coach McMillan

[boomershadow]

Because it seems to keep popping up in other threads, I figured it would make sense to have a central place to post opinions about Nate. What he does well. What he needs to improve on. Whether you think he's a positive or a negative for the team. I'll definitely be adding my own opinions at some point, but first I'm interested in reading everyone else's points of view on the topic.

[Vorda]

He needs to be fired... he choked last year when he hadnt answer to defense on Vic... this year we had to many holes in third quater... I m not satisfied with him

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[Wizop]

McMillan and Pritchard have a good relationship built over years going back to Portland. Colts fans understand how important it is for the coach and GM to get along. I'm in no rush to make changes. they have a lot of flexibility this summer. let's see what they do.

[pacers70]

McMillan is a slightly above average coach. I think he is good enough to consistently get teams into the playoffs and maybe as far as the second round. He is not a coach that will take a team to The Finals, let alone win a Championship. That is fine for us for a year or two, but eventually I think we will need an upgrade.

He seems to have a good relationship with his players. He has his system and sticks to it or very close to it. This would be fine except the NBA is passing him by. He needs to adjust and I don't think he is going to.

I think he sucks at making adjustments, especially during a game. Once he decides on what players he is going to use and when he is going to use them, it is very tough for him to make changes. Last season was a prime example. CoJo couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and Nate continued to play him...his normal minutes or more. I understand trying to keep a guy in the lineup to ride out a slump but CoJo's lasted a whole month or maybe a little more. Nate should have at least cut his minutes until he started hitting again.

Nate also doesn't do a very good job of developing young players. He is very hesitant to get them into games to get experience. I understand some guys may not quite be ready, but there is no reason why he can't get guys 5-10 minutes a game early in the year. Had he done that with Holiday, he may have been better prepared to step in when Vic got injured.

I'm also bitter and irritated that Nate didn't play Turner and Sabonis together more. Pritchard announced at the season ending press conference (2018) that he thought Turner and Sabonis could play 25 mpg together. Turner and Sabonis worked out together during the summer and both improved their games and their bodies. In training camp there was no reason Nate could not have played them together for 8-10 mpg starting in pre-season games. As the season progressed, either Turner and Sabonis would have started feeling more comfortable together and Nate could have increased their minutes, or if the struggeld he could have decreased their minutes. In either case, we would be sitting here right now and either know that we have to trade one or know they can start together.

Nate has a very good relationship with Pritchard. I don't see him getting fired or leaving until Pritchard does. Maybe, if we are lucky, Pritchard will promote him to a front office position and hire a better coach sometime in the next couple of years.

[pacers33granger]

I'm ok with him for now. He's solid and has the respect of the players. It would be nice to have someone who can coach an offense for once though. I do not think he is a longterm solution by any means.

The one area I have a big issue with is development. Part of this could be ownership mandate to do everything to win tbf. But he really didn't give opportunities to our prospects unless it was absolutely necessary. And it's not just rookies as Leaf got no real burn. Holiday would have rotted on the bench if it weren't for injuries. I don't expect him to be Pop, but we've seen him utilize end of the bench guys early on and give them a chance and have it pay dividends later. There were plenty of times we could weather a mistake of two but we kept our top 7 guys in. Development has been fine with the bigs in general, but it really should be on Nate to help the guards more as that should be his wheelhouse.

[Wizop]

I think he sucks at making adjustments, especially during a game. Once he decides on what players he is going to use and when he is going to use them, it is very tough for him to make changes.

while I generally agree, I think it is easy to push that too far. I hate substituting by the clock and he certainly is of the school that thinks players play best when they know when they'll be called on, but once a player hits the floor he will stick with a hot hand. so I agree he rarely pulls starters early if there are no injuries or foul trouble, but he is more flexible with the second unit and will keep a starter on the bench longer than planned when things are going well.

[Pacers_Freak]

There are things I certainly disagree with Nate on what he does. However, I will say I'm not at practice, don't watch film, etc. And to be honest unless you are a Spurs or Warriors fan I'm sure many disagree with what their coach does. My overall grade of Nate is high though. It doesn't make me right but I judge a coach off of how the team did vs. how I thought the team should do.

2016-2017- Team performed below expectations.
2017-2018- Completely exceed my and anyone else's expectations for the team.
2018-2019- Exceeded what I would have estimated our win total without Vic.

So he is 2 out of 3 so far in my book.

[Moooose]

Honest question: Why was Nate McMillan selected as an assistant coach for Team USA if he isn't good?

He was previously on Krzyzewski's coaching staff too isn't he? I don't know much about how Colangelo selects the coaches but he could have been in a good company with Kerr and Wright if he stayed.

As for him coaching the Pacers, well it's debatable. We should be better with better players.

[Topofthekey]

There are things I certainly disagree with Nate on what he does. However, I will say I'm not at practice, don't watch film, etc. And to be honest unless you are a Spurs or Warriors fan I'm sure many disagree with what their coach does. My overall grade of Nate is high though. It doesn't make me right but I judge a coach off of how the team did vs. how I thought the team should do.

2016-2017- Team performed below expectations.
2017-2018- Completely exceed my and anyone else's expectations for the team.
2018-2019- Exceeded what I would have estimated our win total without Vic.

So he is 2 out of 3 so far in my book.

I think the lion's share of the credit for the team's success last season goes to Vic

Look at what happened in the playoffs against the Cavs - they successfully shut Vic down, and the team got exposed

I mean, any team having its best player shut down is going to struggle a little, but the team looked genuinely lost

And look at this year's playoffs - without Vic, the team couldn't even steal a game at home, against a dysfunctional Celtics team

[Topofthekey]

Well, Mike D'Antoni is probably looking for a job now

Please please please have KP promote Nate to an executive job so that we can hire D'Antoni

[Grang33r]

I'm ok with him for now. He's solid and has the respect of the players. It would be nice to have someone who can coach an offense for once though. I do not think he is a longterm solution by any means.

I'm with you. I'm good with him right now. Players would go through a wall for him it seems. The past two seasons i don't think anybody, even the most optimistic fans on this board would've thought that they would be that good. They have not shown anything from the two seasons but you could argue Oladipo's injury this season.

The one thing that does bother me is the lack of three-point attempts by this team. Two seasons ago, they were attempting 24.5 threes per game, which was 5th least in the NBA. I saw a interview on NBA TV with McMillan during this past summer and he stressed importance of shooting more threes and how they want to become a team in the top half of shooting threes. They ended up signing guys like Doug McDermott and it made it seem like they would truly focus on changing. But, they only improved to 25.4 three per game, which despite a improvement, it actually dropped them league wide to second least in all of the NBA.

I'm not saying the Pacers have to play like Toronto or GSW or it's bust, because those two teams are special, and Raptors have been building up for this run it seems like the past 10 seasons, but seeing how modern basketball teams play, and how GSW and Toronto played tonight, it seems like McMillan really needs to change and give more of a green light or we'll never be able to reach our full potential. GSW attempted 31 and Toronto attempted 33 tonight.

[boomershadow]

Taken from the General Board about the guy coaching in the finals and just won a game against the GSW.

Many teams will try to copy the raps now. Load management, fluid lineups, being more stable hah ya'll can thank us later

Man, those line-ups. So many were pissed that Nurse would be tinkering like crazy all throughout the regular season. The dude had 21+ different starting line-up variations...

And then you see the adjustments occur this postseason. He boomed us all. x4

This is rehashing some topics to a certain extent, but I think it all needs to be said. With more load management, does Oladipo still sustain a season ending injury? Maybe. With more fluid lineups, do the starters still play darn near every game and look gassed by the time the post-season comes around? Maybe. Do the young players still rot on the bench most of the season? Maybe. With a little more tinkering, does the offense bog down so much that it certainly seemed like Brad Stevens and his players knew exactly what to expect from the team? Maybe. He's a good coach, and they're a good team.

I don't have a problem with Nate on personal level. He seems like a professional and a coach dedicated to winning the best way he knows how. But the stubborn Nate McMillan way isn't going to address any of those issues, so unless he changes that, the answer to all the questions above is still gonna be "Yes." That, in my opinion, is the main issue with Nate.

A season without Oladipo, because in many ways the pressure of high expectations for winning big were let up, was the perfect time to find out answers to questions about the Turner/Sabonis pairing, about Leaf, about Holiday, about devising an offense less reliant on Oladipo's individual playmaking abilities. And we really didn't see much of that at all. That's the main reason I would call this season a failure. Not the seeding, the win and loss totals, or the first round exit. Most of that was fairly expected the moment Oladipo went down, but the main problem was failing to capitalize ... or even really explore .... opportunities in other areas.

[Wizop]

I reminded of when Bird came on board and fired Isiah after one phone call. I've always believed it was because in discussing the prior season Isiah failed to take responsibility for anything he could have done better. I do not think McMillan has that problem. I'm reasonably confident that he and Pritchard (and more) are spending long hours discussing what changes need to be made going forward and that those changes include things that McMillan should do differently. I could be wrong but we'll see soon.

[Son Goku 25]

Taken from the General Board about the guy coaching in the finals and just won a game against the GSW.

Many teams will try to copy the raps now. Load management, fluid lineups, being more stable hah ya'll can thank us later

Man, those line-ups. So many were pissed that Nurse would be tinkering like crazy all throughout the regular season. The dude had 21+ different starting line-up variations...

And then you see the adjustments occur this postseason. He boomed us all. x4

This is rehashing some topics to a certain extent, but I think it all needs to be said. With more load management, does Oladipo still sustain a season ending injury? Maybe. With more fluid lineups, do the starters still play darn near every game and look gassed by the time the post-season comes around? Maybe. Do the young players still rot on the bench most of the season? Maybe. With a little more tinkering, does the offense bog down so much that it certainly seemed like Brad Stevens and his players knew exactly what to expect from the team? Maybe. He's a good coach, and they're a good team.

I don't have a problem with Nate on personal level. He seems like a professional and a coach dedicated to winning the best way he knows how. But the stubborn Nate McMillan way isn't going to address any of those issues, so unless he changes that, the answer to all the questions above is still gonna be "Yes." That, in my opinion, is the main issue with Nate.

A season without Oladipo, because in many ways the pressure of high expectations for winning big were let up, was the perfect time to find out answers to questions about the Turner/Sabonis pairing, about Leaf, about Holiday, about devising an offense less reliant on Oladipo's individual playmaking abilities. And we really didn't see much of that at all. That's the main reason I would call this season a failure. Not the seeding, the win and loss totals, or the first round exit. Most of that was fairly expected the moment Oladipo went down, but the main problem was failing to capitalize ... or even really explore .... opportunities in other areas.

It sucks it had to be Oladipo, I'm a big fan of his. There was a point where I was contemplating trading Demar for him. Wish he played in the playoffs but hopefully he comes back stronger for your team.

[Jake0890]

I'm probably one of the more outspoken people here in regards to wanting McMillan gone... and I still do. Unless we spend big this summer and flame out with a full, healthy roster, I think Nate is safe.

My dislike for the coaching decisions go back to firing Vogel. Not that Frank was a terrific coach by any means, but if we 're going to fire Vogel, replacing him with McMillan made (and makes) little sense to me. Vogel got canned for a variety of reasons but I attribute it to failing to have any sort of a functional offensive gameplan. Nate has control of the locker room just as Vogel did prior to his last season, but he's having the same issues putting the ball in the hoop consistently, especially with role players.

[Wizop]

My dislike for the coaching decisions go back to firing Vogel. Not that Frank was a terrific coach by any means, but if we 're going to fire Vogel, replacing him with McMillan made (and makes) little sense to me. Vogel got canned for a variety of reasons but I attribute it to failing to have any sort of a functional offensive gameplan.

wasn't it just about Bird believing that players tuned out coaches after 4 years and so a change needed to be made? if so, gameplans had nothing to do with it.

[Pacers_Freak]

There are things I certainly disagree with Nate on what he does. However, I will say I'm not at practice, don't watch film, etc. And to be honest unless you are a Spurs or Warriors fan I'm sure many disagree with what their coach does. My overall grade of Nate is high though. It doesn't make me right but I judge a coach off of how the team did vs. how I thought the team should do.

2016-2017- Team performed below expectations.
2017-2018- Completely exceed my and anyone else's expectations for the team.
2018-2019- Exceeded what I would have estimated our win total without Vic.

So he is 2 out of 3 so far in my book.

I think the lion's share of the credit for the team's success last season goes to Vic

Look at what happened in the playoffs against the Cavs - they successfully shut Vic down, and the team got exposed

I mean, any team having its best player shut down is going to struggle a little, but the team looked genuinely lost

And look at this year's playoffs - without Vic, the team couldn't even steal a game at home, against a dysfunctional Celtics team

For sure most of the credit goes to Vic. Just like at GS the credit goes to Durant, Curry, etc. It’s 100% a players league. The fact is any coach in the league has more knowledge in their pinky than I do in my whole body. And they do it 16 hours a day for 7 months and I do watch games. So if I’m going to be realistic in my assessment I think the only fair way for me to do it is to judge how they do vs expectations. Doesn’t make me right or wrong... just my opinion.

[Jake0890]

My dislike for the coaching decisions go back to firing Vogel. Not that Frank was a terrific coach by any means, but if we 're going to fire Vogel, replacing him with McMillan made (and makes) little sense to me. Vogel got canned for a variety of reasons but I attribute it to failing to have any sort of a functional offensive gameplan.

wasn't it just about Bird believing that players tuned out coaches after 4 years and so a change needed to be made? if so, gameplans had nothing to do with it.

Winning cures all. When we were making it to the ECFs to lose to Bron and co., we could stomach it because it was LeBron. But when we were struggling to get there, Vogel's weaknesses were on full display, in my mind his offensive gameplanning. If we had been winning, he never would have been tuned out by the locker room.