Wait, what? The way to be successful isn't to copy others? I'm all for paving your own road, but why wouldn't you try to emulate the program of a successful team? Slowing it down would work if you had a dominant big who could get his own shot / create for others (Yao, Shaq, Gasols) and/or if you have an excellent playbook in place. Indiana doesn't have the former and I'm not sure Paul George + scrubs will be able to suddenly turn it on. Indy's roster needs major help. McMillan, imo, was a wrong first step towards reaching the success they had 2-3 years ago.
He was actually my coaching suggestion after they let Adelman go and before they hired Mchale. I guess we'll see how he does.
That 2005 Seattle team should have been playing a style similar to the Warriors today if they had any forward thinking coach at the time. They were 27th in pace that year, yet Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Vladimir Radmonovic still combined for 510 threes, at around 39% from the field between the three of them. If the OKC Cronies hadn't stripped that team bare a year and half later, that Sonics team probably would have had Ray Allen, Lewis, and Durant as a core for a few years.
I guess anytime you can hire someone who in 12 seasons as coach has been to the playoffs 5 times with 1 series win, who's basically averaging 42-40 seasons as a coach, who's known for his slow offense even though you want a faster pace; you absolutely have to hire him. Well done, Bird.
All jokes aside, this could be the fact. How can he say "we need a new voice" and "the offense was too slow" and then promote McMillan? He has no excuse
Bird really has made some horrible moves lately, but who knows, Leslie & Morey might make him look like a genius soon.
i didn't realize mcmillan was so insanely slow-paced in portland, although to be fair i don't really remember anything of his time there. but to say you want more scoring and a new voice and then to hire the slowest-paced coach on the market, who also isn't a new voice is pretty mind-boggling.
Coaches can get better just like players do. Likely not a great hire but I'm not going to dismiss it entirely.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ty Lawson mentioned by Nate when asked about Larry building a roster for preferred uptempo style.</p>— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) <a href="https://twitter.com/CandaceDBuckner/status/732256954828128256">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Exhaustive search, this was not. The whole process w/ McMillan from 1 interview w/ Bird to contract negotiations: happened in span of 48 hrs</p>— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) <a href="https://twitter.com/CandaceDBuckner/status/732297576674779136">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mcmillan had some good seasons in Portland before getting fired. I think he's just as qualified as anybody right now. He's not as popular was the other coaches of European descent overhyped here, but I'll take him
JVG & Thibbs are have him beat by FAR. But for some reason the opinions are favorable here to towards them
a) i didn't recommend larry bird hire either of those european-descended coaches if he wants to go up-tempo b) mcmillan's last team spent 5 straight seasons at last or 2nd to last in pace. that's basically as slow as you can go. even jvg's rockets averaged about 24th in pace.
JVG might revert back to Horford and Harden inside out game in a slow painful half court at times but I can live with it.
