Criticism of Nate McMillan is warranted in some cases, but ultimately he and the Indiana Pacers are limited by the roster Larry Bird assembled.
To call the Indiana Pacers frustrating this season is an understatement. Nate McMillan has seen his team sweep the Houston Rockets while nearly getting swept by the New York Knicks. They can’t handle the Charlotte Hornets on the road but beat them down at home.
So should we be blaming the coach for these troubles?
Not if you ask me or Ball Don’t Lie’s Kelly Dwyer.
Dwyer, like me and most people watching the Indiana Pacers this season, noticed that despite the best efforts of the coach, it is next to impossible for this roster to do anything consistently.
"Here’s the issue. We’re just a month removed from the end of the 2016-17 regular season, and even after 67 games (34 of them wins, good for No. 6 in the East) we still don’t know who the Pacers are. We don’t know what “that” is, and if what we saw on Tuesday (for a team that struggles on the road, ranked 18th offensively) is closer to what we should expect from “that” than what coach McMillan and president Larry Bird expects."
He then linked to my tweetstorm from Tuesday night, but I’d like to expand on those thoughts.
Let’s start with the fact that the worst part about this is we saw this coming once Larry Bird began building a roster of talented players, but not a team with an identity.