Indiana Pacers: Is Nate McMillan the right coach for this team?

Head coach Nate McMillan will be leading the Indiana Pacers into a new era. Is he the right coach for this young, restructured team?

The Indiana Pacers spent a great deal of time trying to determine which players were the right ones to add to the roster this summer.

However, one important facet of the team’s rebuild that hasn’t been in the spotlight recently is the man leading this new-look Pacers club, head coach Nate McMillan.

Indiana changed the franchise’s direction during the offseason, trading All-Star Paul George and focusing on young players that the team can develop over the long haul.

The team-building game plan has been significantly altered, yet Nate McMillan is still the coach. Is McMillan the right guy to lead the Pacers’ reboot?

Management, coaching staff and even the players have talked extensively about wanting the team to play up-tempo basketball, but Nate McMillan’s coaching resume is built around strong defense and efficient (slower-paced) offense.

In McMillan’s 13 years as an NBA head coach, his teams’ average league-wide rank in terms of pace has been 24th out of 30. He has never coached a team that ranked higher than 15th in pace, and Indiana’s attempt to “play fast” in 2016-17 placed them 18th in the league in this category.

Nate McMillan’s coaching style does not seem to fit what the Pacers and most other NBA teams are trying to do these days, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Indiana does not have the kind of talent to run up and down the floor with the top teams in the league, so an emphasis on defense and scoring efficiently is actually a solid plan.

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Given more time, perhaps McMillan can adapt to today’s fast-paced NBA game, but even if he doesn’t, the Pacers can still be competitive with a slower, more defensive-minded approach.

When looking at Nate McMillan’s coaching record, he has led some good teams in the past, but his clubs have been average (or worse) more often than not.

McMillan has a career regular season record of 520-492 (.514), and he’s lost in the first round of the playoffs four times in five appearances (losing in the second round on the fifth occasion).

Nate McMillan’s coaching record could be described as bland and ordinary, but in the early stages of a rebuild, this should not be a problem.

McMillan has a great deal of NBA head coaching experience and he has led several NBA teams who accomplished more than this current Pacers team is capable of in the near future.

The team needs to decided what its identity is going to be, but no matter what tempo Indiana plays at, McMillan can be an asset to a team that is in the lottery or looking to secure a low-end playoff berth.

Realistically, one must also consider the other alternatives. No elite-level guy is going to be interested in coaching this roster, so even if the team wanted a big-time head coach on staff, that’s simply not an option right now.

If things go according to plan, the Pacers will make steady progress under Nate McMillan and become a middle-of-the-road team in a fairly short amount time.

Once McMillan takes Indiana about as far as he can, management can then look into hiring a new head coach who has the ability to take the team to the next level.

For now, Nate McMillan is a good fit as coach of the Indiana Pacers and should be able to help this young team grow. However, his ceiling as an NBA head coach is not very high.

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Looking ahead, if the Pacers are serious about building this team and eventually having an opportunity to compete with the best in the Eastern Conference, they’ll need to hire someone else who can get that done.

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