I don't know...Nate's time in Indy wasn't that much better since his teams got swept out of the 1st round 3 out of the last 4 years he was coach there. Is making the playoffs > NOT making the playoffs? Sure but it's not as if Nate got his team prepared for the postseason.
His best player was Victor Oladipo. What do u expect him to do with that? they took the Cavs to 7 in 2018, Oladipo didn’t even play in the 2019 playoffs where the Pacers were trotting out a starting lineup of Darren Collison, Wes Matthews, Bogdonavic, Thad Young, and Turner, and then last playoffs they had Oladipo, but he was a shell of himself post-injury, and they didn’t have Sabonis now they’re getting blown out by 27 to the Wizards in the play-in McMillan getting fired was BS
Maybe getting Stotts is what they need. I mean the guy is pretty efficient in getting his team to 1st round exits like McMillan.
Stotts had Dame, CJ, Nurk, etc, and did hardly anything in Portland for almost a decade…he got swept by the Pelicans in the 1st round in embarrassing fashion, and he wasn’t fired meanwhile, Nate McMillan gets 3 years with a mediocre roster dealing with injuries, and he’s outta there, and now Stotts who did nothing for almost a decade is 1 of the hottest names on the market, and we probably would’ve never seen Nate McMillan again if he didn’t get this opportunity in Atlanta as the interim coach…it’s messed up
Getting rid of Nate, when the roster is really the issue is on Kevin Pritchard. Getting a new coach may not make a dent if they don't re-tool some of that roster. Rafael Stone just started but right now, he's above Pritchard.
kinda bias. Idk how u can with a straight face state that our team situation is better than others when we literally got the worst record this season
McMillan had lost the lockeroom too AFAIK. Players had grown tired of him. It doesn't mean he isn't a good coach. but he had reached his expiration date in Indiana.
Expectations and situational stuff. Harden and Russ wanting to leave. Pacers not dealing that with Sabonis. For the flack Stephen Silas has gotten, he's given more than a year to prove. Bjorgren gone after one year. This firing and McMillan's firing is Pritchard correcting his own mistake.
My take is that in a relationship, two sides should meet each other somewhere in the middle. If McMillan 'lost' the lockeroom, how much that is the coach vs players. That Pacers squad hasn't done anything in playoffs, are they correct (or cocky) in tuning their head coach out. As if them young players think they know better. Result right now is kinda damning. Pacers missed the play-in, McMillan leading the hot young Hawks squad against one of the favorites in the 2nd round.
they had just given McMillan an extension like 2 weeks before firing him and Pritchard had came out and said this "What Nate has done in four seasons with our franchise merits this extension," said President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard. "Between injuries and changes in personnel, he and his coaching staff have adapted and produced positive results. He also represents the franchise, the city and our state in a first-class manner." Who reported that he lost the locker room because I honestly don’t recall that. If he did lose the locker room, then this new coach came in and lost that same locker room again after less than 1 year. Maybe the players and roster that Pritchard has assembled needs to get questioned. What’s probably even worse than the firing is that Nate McMillan, after clearly overachieving with that Indy roster, had to sign on as an assistant coach for the Hawks. Meanwhile someone like Stotts who hardly did anything in almost 10 years in Portland looks like he’ll have no problem finding a new job.
In year one, the seventh-seeded Pacers were swept by the eventual 2017 Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers, who were the No. 2 seed. The Pacers jumped from 42 to 48 wins in 2017-18, led by Most Improved Player Victor Oladipo, and pushed the No 4. seed Cavs (again, eventual NBA finalists) to seven games. In 2018-19, the Pacers won 48 wins again, earning a five seed again, but were swept by the Celtics in Round 1. However, on January 23, Oladipo suffered a ruptured quad tendon, and the Pacers — who jumped out to a 32-15 start — went 16-19 the rest of the season with Bojan Bogdanović as their leading scorer. Then last season was especially perilous. The Pacers had their highest winning percentage (.616) since their 2013-14 team, and that was despite Oladipo playing just 19 games while less than 100 percent, equating to the least productive basketball of his career. Additionally, the team’s All-Star, Domantas Sabonis, never played in The Bubble due to a foot injury. now he’s got the Hawks in the 2nd round…meanwhile, Indy finished with a superb 34-38 record and missed the playoffs looking to hire another HC…smh
Recall that victor was openly campaigning to leave. Sounds like toxic culture. What Willits take for Sam Cassell to get a sniff? Rocket River
at this point, I doubt he’ll ever get a HC job, and if he does, it will be in a bad situation where if he fails, he’ll never get another opportunity again
