Indiana Pacers: 5 goals for the 2018 offseason

2. Extend Nate McMillan

It was funny listening to the end of season NBA awards conversations when they got to the Coach of the Year category. The discussion would always center on the usual suspects and then at the end someone would chime in with “and Nate McMillan should really be in consideration for the award.” The other party would agree and that would be that.

The point was clear: Even after a season in which the Pacers exceeded their preseason win predictions more than any other team in the league, McMillan was an afterthought.

He shouldn’t be for much longer. McMillan doesn’t get a lot of credit for this year because there’s nothing about Indiana’s scheme or style of play that was eye-opening in any way. They just went out, played hard, smart, stuck to their strengths and didn’t beat themselves. That alone should get him a contract extension (reports are that they are on the way to doing so) in a league where dissension and borderline incompetence within locker rooms are more the norm than the exception.