It appears that the Indiana Pacers have found their new head coach. According to the Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the team is finalizing a deal to promote assistant coach Nate McMillan to the lead man on the sidelines.
The Pacers shockingly did not renew the contract of Frank Vogel after their narrow first round elimination at the hands of the Toronto Raptors.
McMillan was previously the head coach in Portland from 2005-2012 where he led the Trail Blazers to a 266-269 record.
From the outside looking in this is certainly a surprising hire. McMillan is known as a defensive coach and his teams have almost always played at league-low paces, something that seems to go against the philosophy that team GM Larry Bird is leaning towards. Vogel was seemingly let go for that reason so hiring McMillan does not seem like much of an upgrade from the Pacers’ previous situation.
Having said that, despite the jarringly slow paces from McMillan’s teams, the former Sonics and Blazers lead man has actually led several great offensive teams. The Blazers teams that he led to the playoffs, especially, were very apt on that end of the floor.
Time will tell whether this is a good hire or not but for now it seems very much redundant. If Bird thought that McMillan was the coach his team needed to take the next step forward, what did he see from Vogel to say otherwise? It is a strange situation and the answer to that question may only be known by Bird. It is also worth noting that star forward Paul George will be entering unrestricted free agency in 2018 and the coaching decision could play a role in his eventual decision to stay or leave.
For now, all we know is that the next head coach of the Indiana Pacers will be Nate McMillan.
