8p9s Roundtable: Nate McMillan Is The New Boss

Considering all of what Larry Bird said about Frank Vogel, does this make sense to you?

Furr: No. McMillan is a voice the locker room has heard for 3+ years. If they’ve tuned Vogel out, it stands to reason that they’ve tuned Nate out too. McMillan’s offenses have been slow, and his defenses have been average.

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Comstock: Make sense: Not really, but I don’t really expect Larry to make sense. But firing a successful coach while giving only 3 reasons (change, points, locker room) and then hiring someone who seems to contradict all these reasons (been there, historically slow offenses, been there) is especially baffling.

Donahue: Yes, but that’s because I think Bird fired Vogel, because he was tired of him. Bird wanted something different. While I’m sure he probably thinks that will equate to something to better, ultimately, I don’t think it was particularly important to him. Vogel’s flaws had become too tiresome for him, regardless of Vogel’s strengths, and now he’s ready for somebody else’s flaws.

Eggers: It doesn’t make a French Lick of sense. Bird publicly held a relatively small checklist in things he wanted from a new coach, and McMillan doesn’t come close to meeting those requirements. Fast-paced offense, new voice, and an overall revitalizing change in the team. Nope, nope, and nope. The only sense anyone can make out of it is that Bird’s ideal candidate didn’t fall through, or perhaps more likely he just didn’t know what he was doing.

Ochoa: From my interpretation of the press conference in which we found out Vogel was no longer Head Coach, it sounded like Larry Legend wanted: 1) A fresh voice in the locker room 2) An offensive mastermind. To me, Nate McMillan is neither of those things. I don’t think he’s a bad coach, but he’s been with the Pacers for 2 seasons now so he’s not a fresh voice and his teams are not historically great at offense. No, this does not make sense to me. And, no, the fact that it doesn’t make sense to most Pacers fans is not surprising.

Next: The Pros and Cons of McMillan