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Larry Bird’s Mistakes Set Up the Indiana Pacers for Mediocrity

By Ben Gibson

May 16, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers new head coach Nate McMillan and president of basketball operations Larry Bird speak to the press during a press conference at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
May 16, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers new head coach Nate McMillan and president of basketball operations Larry Bird speak to the press during a press conference at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Frank Vogel and Paul George of the Indiana Pacers
Apr 23, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers center Ian Mahinmi (28) coach Frank Vogel and forward Paul George (13) walk back to the bench after a skirmish with the Toronto Raptors during the fourth quarter of game four of the first round of the 2016 NBA Playoffs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Indiana defeats Toronto 100-83. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

Larry Bird’s Coaching Change Never Added Up

Let’s start with Vogel’s firing. Bird never justified the move with anything other than his 3-year rule that amounted to the team needing a new voice. All the other reasons he cited never added up. Vogel was asked by Bird to get more points and did from the Pacers despite a roster that clearly was in transition. You could point to him benching Myles Turner for Lavoy Allen as a instance of ‘getting after guys’. Getting what he did out of Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson at the time should count for something. Hibbert is now an end of the rotation player and Stephenson never looked as good as he did in Indiana.

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Maybe the time with Frank ran its course. But the offseason moves that followed shed more light on why Bird should take some of the blame.

The hiring of Nate McMillan always seemed like a rushed decision. For all of Bird’s comments on staleness and bringing in a fresh perspective, he promoted one of Vogel’s assistants. There was nothing inherently wrong with that move, but it was strange after everything Bird said.

McMillan’s past teams were slow, plodding, but offensively efficient. That sounds right for wanting the offense to improve, but the way Nate’s teams were in the past weren’t lining up with the current Pacers roster. Bird wanted faster team, but hired a coach that didn’t do either.

Here is what Jared Wade had to say at the time.

"There are legitimate questions as to whether he can do this. Again, coaches have styles. And Nate is a coach who has only ever led a slow team while rarely having any success on the defensive end. To the degree Nate has had success in the NBA, he has done it playing very slowly. Whether he can — or will — adapt his style and still oversee a good offense is the biggest question of the upcoming Pacers season."

Even if it wasn’t exciting, this is really where what Bird said and what he and the front office did started to clash more often than not. Even if Nate was a good hire, they ended up giving him a roster that didn’t fit McMillan’s old style or a pace and space one.

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