Pacers Fire Nate McMillan

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Anyone else hearing Mike D'Antoni?

[RPGenerate]

First off, the absolute incompetence of an organization to fire a coach they just extended is hilarious.

Second, Pacer fans seem to be really happy that he's fired. From what I've heard from them, his offensive system is putrid and their defensive schemes are archaic. Seems like a very similar situation to Dwane Casey with the Raptors.

[RPGenerate]

Anyone else hearing Mike D'Antoni?

I don't know how well D'Antoni would fit, especially with Sabonis and Turner still on the roster together. If he does get hired, Turner would probably be gone.

[gouki88]

It always seems as if the cards were stacked against Nate. The Sabonis injury, the Oladipo injury, Paul George demanding out. He never wowed me with his coaching, but I definitely think he'll get a job somewhere. Maybe Brooklyn?

[hwangjini_1]

Hold up, didn't they extend him just a few weeks ago? Like a few days before Brad Stevens got his?

yes, so the timing is odd. i think this is tied to the lack of success in the playoffs by the pacers under his coaching.

they were swept out of the playoffs in back to back years (as the 4 seed this year, 5 seed last year). this was viewed as "McMillan problem" it seems. They were also swept in the first round in 16/17.

his lack of success in the playoffs can be attributed to terrible injury luck (Oladipo last year, Sabonis this year) rather than bad coaching.

I suppose Indiana thinks they can land a top coach who can take the team to the next level (Woj has already speculated that they are looking at D'Antoni) but whether a new coach can get more out of that roster than McMillan did is anyone's guess.

[hpantazo]

It always seems as if the cards were stacked against Nate. The Sabonis injury, the Oladipo injury, Paul George demanding out. He never wowed me with his coaching, but I definitely think he'll get a job somewhere. Maybe Brooklyn?

He had some back luck with Sabonis' injury this year, but at the same time he had Oladipo back with a red hot TJ Warren and he was facing a mediocre opponent in the Heat and still managed to get swept. I could understand if they were facing the Bucks, Raptors or Celtics, but the Heat are an average playoff opponent. Losing to them would have been ok, but getting swept? During that series I was really surprised they didn't manage to grab a couple of games. The conclusion that he got totally outcoached by Spoelstra is reasonable at that point.