Pacers FIRE Nate McMillan (YES hot seat)

[Jamaaliver]

Can Mike D’Antoni Take the Pacers Further Than Nate McMillan?

Reports say D’Antoni is a front-office favorite to take the reins. But will any coach be able to get the franchise on track?



After getting swept by Miami, McMillan said he wanted to see what the Pacers could do with their full squad next season. Now, he’s a free agent, and it didn’t take long for the reports about his possible replacement to start surfacing. Minutes after the firing became official, Wojnarowski reported that current Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni will be a target for the Pacers if he becomes a free agent himself.

With McMillan at the helm, the Pacers were overachievers. In a small market with a limited payroll, they hit on a few players in the draft and made an opportunistic trade, sending Paul George to OKC and getting back Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo, who have turned into All-Stars. McMillan won 57 percent of his games during his four seasons in Indiana and made the playoffs each year. And though he did have a 3-16 record across those postseasons, his teams were saddled with injury setbacks the past two seasons. The Pacers’ projected best lineup of Oladipo, TJ Warren, Brogdon, Sabonis, and Myles Turner played only 86 minutes together this season.

Spoiler:

Neither D’Antoni nor McMillan has a résumé that screams “fireable,” but here we are: McMillan is out of a job, and D’Antoni is already being floated as Pacers coach next season while his team is still in the playoffs and has a decent shot at a title. D’Antoni in Indiana is intriguing from a basketball perspective, if only because of the stylistic overhaul the Pacers would have to make. Though McMillan consistently managed his team to more wins than expected, he was running an offense that ran counter to the modern game.

...the question about what the Pacers may do on the coaching side may be tied to what happens on the player side. Oladipo is entering the final year of his contract and is coming off a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee that sidelined him for most of this season. At his best, Oladipo has shown to be a superstar-type player, but the Pacers have to figure out whether they want to bet on him long-term.

Oladipo could explode in a D’Antoni offense, but the questions abound beyond him. Has the front office decided whether it wants to keep Sabonis and trade Turner or attempt to still play both? Should they give Warren an extension? And how do they even get D’Antoni on board if, as Woj notes, he won’t be cheap?

The Pacers aren’t exactly known for having deep pockets, and they will also reportedly look for coaches that are “program builders” over the long run. Two weeks ago, Indiana seemed like it wanted to keep the status quo. Now, it appears everything is on the table.

The Ringer

[Pacersike]

Thank you, Nate, welcome Mike .

I'm rather neutral on coaching these days. The entire staff has to eb and can be very good.

[jofanitres]

As a pacers fan, I'm happy.
But there was a radical change in 14 days.
Sign with him an extension before the palyoffs.
And if we had lost 4-1, would they have done the same?
There was that probability but they signed it with him anyway before the playoffs ...
He was stabbed in the back. No loyalty
from the pacers organization.

Sent from my SM-A505FN using RealGM mobile app

[8305]

FWIW, I hope it’s Kenny Atkinson. Young, energetic offensive minded coach.

[Scoot McGroot]

FWIW, I hope it’s Kenny Atkinson. Young, energetic offensive minded coach.

He's only 3 years younger than Nate

I do think he did really great with building that Brooklyn roster. And I don't hold any expectations for a coach asked to coach Kyrie and an injured Durant. I wouldn't hate it at all. Ultimately, I think I just want a coach that has a philosophy he's committed to. That has something to work towards. D'Antoni has that. Maybe Atkinsson does too. But ultimately, I'd prefer a new up and comer like a Becky Hammon vs a retread. I won't go so far as to label Kenny a retread, yet, though.

[Wizop]

Becky is an interesting name. You are not the first one to mention her to me.

Sent from my phone.

[boomershadow]

I like the idea of grabbing someone off the Popovich coaching tree. I even threw out the name Ettore Messina when we let Frank go. How much has Hammond learned while in San Antonio? Is she ready for that type of role? Those are questions harder to answer from my fan perspective. If someone were to tell me she is ready, I would be all for it.

[pacers33granger]

Guys like Atkinson and Brett Brown received some of the same criticism Nate did in the sense that, per a lot of their teams' fans, there wasn't a true system on offense in place. Both had tough assignments given the rosters, but so did Nate.

I'm more in line with Scoot here. We need something concrete to work towards. D'Antoni at least has that and could be exciting. I'm not that sure about other names mentioned.

[Scoot McGroot]

Becky is an interesting name. You are not the first one to mention her to me.

Sent from my phone.

Pop was grooming her to eventually take over after him, until Timmy decided he did want to get into coaching. I think there's a spot for her to jump out elsewhere without seeming ungrateful, or burning any bridge in any way.

[Scoot McGroot]

Guys like Atkinson and Brett Brown received some of the same criticism Nate did in the sense that, per a lot of their teams' fans, there wasn't a true system on offense in place. Both had tough assignments given the rosters, but so did Nate.

I'm more in line with Scoot here. We need something concrete to work towards. D'Antoni at least has that and could be exciting. I'm not that sure about other names mentioned.

As I've gotten older I've just come to the conclusion that you have to set a destination and truly sail toward it, with the knowledge of how you will get there. I don't love the Nate concept of "We'll get better and they'll figure it out". Tell me what your goal is, and your vision of how we'll get there.

[Topofthekey]

Oh wow. Yes

Very surprised by this. I didn't think Pacers would act this decisively this quickly. I thought they would at least give Nate one more year. But this is great news

Not that Nate is a terrible coach. It's just time to move on

I like some of the names floated here. Mike D'Antoni and Becky Hammond are both very intriguing choices

But most of all, I just want someone who can instill a system, find roles for everyone on the roster, and guide the development of the youngsters (which is like half the team)

In particular, I hope that Myles will flourish under the new coach (although that's going to be him being asked to adapt to a new play style YET AGAIN)

Utilize Doug's strengths in shooting and cutting, help Aaron and Sumner take the next step, prepare Goga to be an NBA player

Who knows, maybe even Leaf gets a boost, and we can actually trade him for a second round pick or something

I can't wait to see what happens next

[Topofthekey]

This simply would not have happened if we had not been embarrassed by the Heat on national television. Any semblance of a close series would've kept Nate as coach for next season.

Thank you Jimmy Butler.

We made their role players look like stars

They helped us move on from Nate

Win-win

[Moooose]

I like the mention of Kenny Atkinson, but if we really can bring in D'Antoni, it would be the absolute best, IMO.

I do think the Pacers have a roster that can work under D'Antoni. We have one of the best pick and roll big men in Domas and fits D'Antoni's style of play. We will need consistent shooters though.

Our pace has to change, we are the PACERS after all. We are 22nd in the league in pace in the regular season. 11th out of 15 teams in the playoffs.

[boomershadow]

FWIW, I hope it’s Kenny Atkinson. Young, energetic offensive minded coach.

He's only 3 years younger than Nate

I don't think I realized Nate was only like 36 when he got made coach of the Sonics.

I'm 33.

[Grang33r]

The Pacers’ projected best lineup of Oladipo, TJ Warren, Brogdon, Sabonis, and Myles Turner played only 86 minutes together this season.The Ringer

I'm not a McMillan truther, but i don't agree with this much. The team was never truly healthy this season. Brogdon was in and out of the lineup throughout the season, Vic returned and only played i think something like 16 games and was pretty ineffective in that time and Sabonis was out from the bubble team with his injury.

[Vorda]

Finnally, he had to be fire 2y ago when he was outcoached by Lue

[8305]

Sounds like the players may have been a major factor in this decision. I don’t think the results of the season merited firing the coach. How attractive is this job if the coach knows he has to make a Sabonis/Turner combination work? Seems to me the Myles Turner trade speculation just became more of a certainty.

[Scoot McGroot]

FWIW, I hope it’s Kenny Atkinson. Young, energetic offensive minded coach.

He's only 3 years younger than Nate

I don't think I realized Nate was only like 36 when he got made coach of the Sonics.

I'm 33.

It only gets worse

[Wizop]

Sounds like the players may have been a major factor in this decision.

reporters are saying exit interviews hadn't started when decision was made suggesting players' opinions were not an issue. I'm sticking with my guess that something happened in a meeting between Nate and Kevin until someone comes up with inside information.

EDIT the Star is saying 4 players spoke up. also saying Pacers want to modernize and make more in game adjustments. switching more on defense was mentioned.

[wco81]

Thing about D’Antoni is that he’s only won when he had MVP level players.