The Indiana Pacers were forced to reinvent themselves this offseason. After the blockbuster Paul George-for-Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis trade, sports betting sites set the team’s win total at 30.5.
As Victor Oladipo took his game to a new level, Darren Collison and Bojan Bogdanovic put together their best 3-point shooting seasons yet. Sabonis proved to be a strong post player off the bench. Thaddeus Young became “the glue” for a remastered team.
And The Current Indiana Pacers Head Coach Nate McMillan put it all together, resulting in a 46-31 record, the Pacers’ highest scoring offense (109.6 points per 100 possessions) since the 1994-95 season and the most wins since 2013-14.
“Nate McMillan, ” @N8_MC “, has been a brilliant Head Coach For The Indiana Pacers, states the current President of the Indiana Pacers, Kevin Pritchard. Our offensive and defensive strategies this year have been terrific. Without Nate, we don’t have this. We’re not talking about this. He’s overachieved, and more importantly, he’s put our players in a position where every single night they can succeed.
“Nate is such a low-key guy. We kind of have an organization where if you’re not over yourself, you’re going to get over yourself. You don’t see a lot of articles about us. Nate likes that. There have been times when Nate and I have worked together in the past where that might not have been the case, but right now, we want to do our jobs, do the best we can, and let the team enjoy their successes. It’s all about the players.”
It’s largely about the players. But it’s also about McMillan.
Here are some other facts that support Pritchard’s remarks about McMillan. The Pacers (33-25) have been solid in late-game situations, winning their last four games decided by five points or fewer. And the Pacers are better now than they were six weeks ago. On Jan. 3, they were 19-19. Since then, they are 14-6.
When that question was posed to McMillan, he paused. He seemed almost uncomfortable answering it.
“I don’t care,” said McMillan. “The players are working their butts off. My coaches work their butts off. We’re all working our butts off to create a culture with this new group.
“Being the man, having people talk about me? Sure, it’s nice when people talk good about you, but that doesn’t motivate me.”
So what does?
“Winning,” said McMillan. “Guys playing the game the right way. Putting a group of guys out there that your fan base respects. Seeing your hard work pay off.
“Those things for me, have always been the most important things. You respect this game. You respect the organization. We’ve become that group that plays the right way. It’s been good to work with these guys this year. We really haven’t had any issues. They work hard. They play hard.”
Sabonis knew nothing about McMillan’s personality or coaching style before he was traded to the Pacers. Through 58 games under McMillan, Sabonis is a believer.
“Coach is the main reason we’re playing like this,” said Sabonis. “He brings us that confidence. Ever since I got here, he’s been putting confidence in me and other players. He wants us to play loose, have fun, and defense is a priority. He’s always got our back.
“Everybody has their own way of coaching. He tells us exactly what we need to hear. He’s not going to sugarcoat or anything. He’s going to tell us straight to our face. That helps us a lot.”
“Victor is the reason we play up tempo,” said McMillan. “He’s the guy who’s pushing it, making us capable of playing that style of basketball. When I arrived here (as an assistant coach in 2013), the Pacers were calling their style smash-mouth basketball, when David West and George Hill and Roy Hibbert, Danny Granger were here. They loved grinding it out, being physical, playing halfcourt. We’ve changed.
“Paul can play fast, but Paul is probably better in a halfcourt situation. We tried to play small last year at times, having C. J. Miles play power forward. But this year, we’re more suited to playing the way we’re playing. Everybody talks about playing fast, but you have to have the ingredients.”
“The team wasn’t playing right,” said McMillan. “They weren’t together. I don’t want to be in a situation like that. They were going to rebuild the team, and they knew I didn’t want to be part of another rebuild. I got caught in a storm, and I just had to ride it out and see where it tossed me. It tossed me out of Portland.”
McMillan joined the Pacers as an assistant coach under his close friend Frank Vogel in 2013, and for three seasons, McMillan thoroughly enjoyed that role. However, after the 2015-16 season, the Pacers did not renew Vogel’s contract as head coach. McMillan was offered the job by Larry Bird, who was then the team’s president. Suddenly, McMillan was a head coach again.
“You’re going to say no to Larry Bird?,” said McMillan, explaining his thought process.
After hiring McMillan, Bird said he had admired McMillan from afar for a long time. Current Pacers assistant coach Popeye Jones understood what Bird meant.
“I think he is very underrated,” said Jones of McMillan. “Not knowing Nate and starting to work with him and being in meetings, I started to understand how smart he was. I was amazed he didn’t have a head job. People may have forgotten about him after Portland. That’s how the league works. Out of sight, out of mind kind of deal.”
McMillan has another year left on his contract after this season, and he clearly enjoys coaching this current group of players. But when asked how long he would like to be a head coach, McMillan was non-committal. Not that McMillan is looking for leverage. He doesn’t operate that way. Not that McMillan’s passion is waning. It has never been stronger.
“Every year, I’ll look at myself, and I’ll decide if I’m coming back or not,” said McMillan. “If I feel like I can’t do the job, then I’m not going to be there. Not that I got so much money. I’m not saying it like that. I just won’t do a job if I don’t think I can get it done, or if I’m not getting it done. Get somebody else in there, if that’s the case.
“I don’t assume anything. I don’t assume because I got another year on my contract, I’m going to be there that year. I have to work for it and earn it. Coming into this year, people were talking about what we weren’t going to be. I never approach any year like a honeymoon year for me. Like we can drop some games. Like you get a pass for this season. I don’t approach it that way. I’m going to give the best I’ve got.
The Pacers will return from the All-Star break focused on securing a playoff spot. McMillan has been to the playoffs six times as a head coach in Seattle, Portland and Indiana, but only once has his team advanced past the first round. Should the Pacers advance to the postseason, they will likely be first-round underdogs, and McMillan knows it will take another level of basketball for the Pacers to achieve playoff success – this season and beyond.
“You’re going to have to be able to play a possession game in the playoffs,” said McMillan. ”Once you get into the playoffs, everything slows down. That’s something we continue to work on.”
In the meantime, McMillan will keep coaching, tuning out what he calls the “outside noise.” He says he doesn’t spend time on social media. He’s not sure what his popularity level is among Pacers fans, compared to last season, when the Pacers did not play up to expectations.
However, know this about McMillan. He will do everything he can to help the Pacers keep winning. And he will not worry about who gets the credit.
MORE ON NATE MCMILLAN
McMillan grew up in the heart of North Carolina’s basketball country and attended Raleigh’s William G. Enloe High School, where he went unnoticed by major college scouts. After playing for two years at Chowan College(then a two-year school) in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, he returned to Raleigh to play for Jim Valvano atNorth Carolina State, before entering the NBA. McMillan helped lead NC State to a first place tie in the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season in 1985, and the Elite Eight in both the 1985 and 1986 NCAA Championship Tournaments.
McMillan was drafted by the Sonics with the 30th pick in the 1986 draft. He would spend his entire NBA career in Seattle. During his 12-year playing career, McMillan put up career averages of 5.9 points, 6.1 assists and 1.9 steals. He still shares (with Ernie DiGregorio) the NBA rookie record for assists in a single game with 25. McMillan played as the starting point guard position for the Sonics for most of his career. McMillan was known for his superb defense, leading the NBA in steals per game for the 1993–94 season and being named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team for the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons. McMillan was also known for his balanced play, which led to four career triple-doubles.
Known as “Mr. Sonic” for his 19 years of service to the team, his No. 10 jersey was retired by the Seattle SuperSonics. He was also known to be one third of the “Big Mac” team of the Seattle SuperSonics in the late 80’s and early 90’s, the others being Xavier McDaniel and Derrick McKey.
After retiring in 1998, McMillan stayed in Seattle as an assistant under Paul Westphal. He held this role until 2000, when the Sonics fired Westphal and made McMillan interim coach. Although the team missed the playoffs during his first year, he earned a winning record of 38–29 as interim head coach. He was hired as head coach for the 2001–02 campaign and led the club to the playoffs. As a result, he was named permanent head coach after the season.
McMillan’s Sonics had mediocre records the next two years, going 40–42 and 37–45. In the 2004–05 season, McMillan led the team to 52–30 record in the regular season. The team advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals, where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs.
After 19 years in Seattle, McMillan left Seattle on July 6, 2005, to become the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He took over a team riddled with cap problems and off-the-court drama, but steadily calmed the waters in Portland. His hard-nosed coaching style earned him the nickname “Sarge.” McMillan coached the Blazers until 2012.
McMillan was an assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski for the US national team in the 2006 FIBA World Championship and in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning bronze and gold medals, respectively. He is also a member of the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame, due to his All-American performance at Chowan.
On March 15, 2012, McMillan was fired as the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.
McMillan again served as an assistant coach under Krzyzewski for the US national team during the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
On July 1, 2013, McMillan was hired by the Indiana Pacers as an assistant coach for the 2013–14 season. He replaced Brian Shaw, who accepted the head coaching position with the Denver Nuggets. In May 2016, after former head coach Frank Vogel‘s contract was not extended, McMillan was promoted to replace Vogel as the Pacers’ coach.
