Pacers fire Nate McMillan

So much for the (1-yr) extension two weeks ago.

 

Amick: It’s no surprise, then, that they were almost immediately tied to Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni as a possible replacement, per ESPN. D’Antoni, whose Rockets have been firing 3s at a historice rate for years now, is a coaching free agent this offseason and widely expected to leave Houston. Even if it’s not D’Antoni in the end, I’d be very surprised if it’s not a coach with an offense-first profile.

There’s a through line from there to the Victor Oladipo situation too, as the 28-year-old guard is one year away from free agency and rumblings had persisted that he didn’t plan on re-signing with the Pacers. Could playing for a free-wheeling coach like D’Antoni whose style has sparked so many career years for players in the past improve the dynamic here, or might the Pacers trade Oladipo this offseason before he gets a chance with the new coach? The answer, as of now, is unclear.

 

Spoiler

Nate McMillan, the recently fired coach of the Pacers, isn’t angry about what transpired Wednesday, isn’t bitter about the end of this particular chapter in his long and successful coaching career. He is, however, a bit confused, especially after signing a fairly recent contract extension before losing in the first round of the NBA playoffs with a team that was ravaged by injuries.

At the very least, he thought he would get one more chance next season to develop a team that was blessed with a healthy Domantas Sabonis and Jeremy Lamb and a fully recovered Victor Oladipo.

“Yeah, well that was the reason for signing the extension; I was going to get that chance,” McMillan told The Athletic on Thursday. “But in saying that, my thought at the time (of signing the deal) was we would get out of the first round of the playoffs because we were heading down to Orlando with a healthy roster (except for Lamb). I felt confident we could beat those teams. …

“If we had gone down there with that full team, a healthy team, and lost, I would have made the decision for them. But I understand, sometimes you have some bad luck. To me, it’s like what’s happening in this country. We can’t put the pandemic on the guy who’s running the country, but you’ve got to take responsibility for what happens on your watch. And we failed to advance, so I have to take responsibility for that.”

The extension was signed before the team’s trip to the NBA bubble, but it was not announced until rumors began surfacing in Florida that McMillan was in trouble. That seemed to put a stake in those rumors, at least at the time. It never occurred to McMillan, who also was told about the scuttlebutt, that they might be true.

“At that time (of the extension), my contract was up June 31 so we had to talk about something (contractually),” he said. “I thought about it and said, ‘Even though we hadn’t started the playoffs, I really thought at the time we were going to advance. I had all my players (except Lamb). Domas was there. I always thought Victor was going to play. We had everybody and I really thought we could get out of the first round. So I signed that extension thinking, ‘OK, next year we’ll be healthy and I’ll give it one more try.

“And then we get down to the bubble and Domas has his injury and it was like ‘Ohhhhh-kay.’ But I know what I said to myself and told the organization, for me, it was about getting out of the first round, so when the decision was made yesterday, I understood. It was a hell of a run with this organization and I think we have a good team and good players – when healthy – but we’ve never really seen this team healthy where everybody was on the floor at one time.”

McMillan said he was always under the impression that his starting five of Malcolm Brogdon, Oladipo, T.J. Warren, Sabonis and Myles Turner had played roughly five games together during this past season. Then, in his conversation yesterday, team president Kevin Pritchard told him the actual number: Eighty-six minutes. They had played 86 minutes together this season. Total.

“He was asking me what I thought of the team and I said, ‘I think it’s a hell of a team but we haven’t seen them together for about five games,’ “ he said. “Then Kevin said, ‘You’ve seen them for 86 minutes.’ I said, `You’re kidding me.’ So, I don’t know, I think we have the talent. Can that talent come together? We don’t know because we haven’t had that opportunity.”

It’s not entirely clear whether last week’s sweep by the Heat, the third time the Pacers have been swept in McMillan’s four years (183-136 in regular season), was the deciding factor, or whether this has been in the wind for some time. Even before the playoff loss, rumors circulated that there were issues that went beyond his playoff record and that some players weren’t in tune with his style of play.

McMillan heard them.

“I don’t read or listen to a lot of what’s reported, but I had people tell me (the rumors were out there),” he said. “It didn’t faze me; I didn’t even think about it. It kind of surprised me, honestly, because at that time, I knew I’d signed the extension but it wasn’t reported yet. Shortly after those rumors came out, we released my extension (to the media).”

McMillan didn’t feel compelled to approach Pritchard about the rumors. They’ve worked together for 11 years, both in Portland and Indiana. He believed the rumors were misguided, that he was safe.

He wasn’t.

Throughout McMillan’s coaching career, the knock on him – fair or unfair – is that he doesn’t have postseason success and his old-school style of play didn’t mesh with the new-school style of small ball and jacking up 3-pointers. The Pacers’ news release on his firing mentioned McMillan’s 3-16 playoff record with the Pacers, a low-class move that never, ever should have occurred.

McMillan has heard those criticisms, too.

And he’s got some thoughts.

“The playoff record (17-36) doesn’t bother me because most of my teams I’ve had I’ve been developing,” he said. “I’ve had young players and we’ve been able to have success during the regular season but once they’re in the playoffs, it’s ‘Are they made for the playoffs?’ My teams in Portland were young. Even the teams here when I took over for Frank (Vogel), Victor was a young buck trying to come into his own, Domas was young. It’s been a young, developing group. It doesn’t bother me in the sense of how I feel about my coaching ability. I feel like I’ve tried to work with what I’ve had.”

It was reported in The Indianapolis Star that some players – Brogdon’s name was mentioned – chafed under McMillan’s playing style. But here’s the question: How are you supposed to play small ball, something the Pacers have been trying to do since Vogel was removed, with two big men (Sabonis and Turner) in the starting lineup and 7-foot center Goga Bitadze as the most recent first-round draft choice?

“There are styles sometimes that organizations want to play, but I always felt your personnel will dictate your style of play,” McMillan said. “A lot of people over the years have tried to become the Spurs or Warriors, and Coach Pop (Gregg Popovich) started the thing with spread shooters, shooting a lot of threes, especially from the corner. People were talking about that style of play and then all of a sudden Pop got two bigs, LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol, and now he’s playing big ball and people are saying, ‘He always coaches his team with the personnel he has.’ … I looked at my personnel and tried to put my players in the best position to win.

“I would love to run. When I was a player, that’s the way I played. But personnel dictates your style of play.”

This wasn’t an easy call for Pritchard and it also was reported in the Star that owner Herb Simon played a huge role in the decision. (McMillan changed the subject when the issue of Simon’s role was brought up).

“Sometimes it’s just time to move on, time for a change, and that was our conversation,” McMillan said “There wasn’t much to say, they’re just going in a different direction. I understood it. Maybe it is time for that and I wish them the best, and I think that the guy who takes over this team, if they keep the roster intact, he’s going to have a good team, if they’re healthy.

“This is a team where Lamb started for us and now he’s going to be coming off the bench. Aaron (Holiday) has turned into a really good young player. Justin (Holiday) did a lot more than we expected. Goga is going to be a good young player. And they will have a year under their belt so I think this team coming back, if they’re healthy, can win and win a first-round series in the playoffs.”

McMillan, 56, a lifer in this league, knows better than anybody how things work in professional sports and specifically in the NBA.

“I take responsibility for this in the sense that no matter what happens under your watch, if it happens under your watch, then it’s on you,” he said. “… Regardless of whether you have injuries or not, the bottom line is, it’s under your watch. The only reason I signed the extension is I thought I would have a chance to have a healthy team next season, but I had no plans of signing an extension until after the playoffs because if I didn’t get out of the first round with this team this season, I thought it might be time for someone else to have an opportunity to do it.”

For McMillan, the last 24 hours have been filled with texts and calls, too many to answer in one sitting. Or several.

“It’s been unbelievable,” he said. “I’m feeling some love that I didn’t know was out there. So many friends and family and coaches, even people I haven’t spoken to in years, they’ve reached out to me to show support. I’m blessed. I’m blessed. I’m blessed to have represented this organization and give what I could.”

The good news: McMillan gets to go home to North Carolina – finally – and not only see his wife (it’s been three months) but to meet his first grandchild, Micah, who was born July 1.

He will not, however, be a head coach this coming season, even though he figures to be a candidate for several of the NBA’s job openings.

“I’m going to take this year and just look at things,” he said. “A lot has changed, the league and the game have changed, so I’ll take this year and see what happens, but I won’t get back into it this season.”