Despite signing a one-year extension earlier in August, the Indiana Pacers have fired their head coach Nate McMillan, and will start the search for their new coach immediately, according to the team press release.
Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni is the Pacers priority if he becomes available when the season is finished, according to Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN.
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni — in the final year of his contract — will be an Indiana target should he become available, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 26, 2020
Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard thank McMillan for the time spent with the team working together, following comes from the press release.
“On behalf of the Simon family and the Pacers organization, I’d like to thank Nate for his years with the team. This was a very hard decision for us to make; but we feel it’s in the best interest of the organization to move in a different direction. Nate and I have been through the good times and the bad times; and it was an honor to work with him for those 11 years (in Indiana and Portland).”
McMillan joined the organization in 2013 as an associate head coach to Frank Vogel and in 2016 was promoted to head coach. In his four years, he led the team to a 183-136 record and got the team to the playoffs in each season.
In the postseason the team didn’t have any success as they were eliminated in the first round in all those years for a 3-16 record.
Most recently, they were swept by the Miami Heat in the Orlando bubble.
