Fans haven’t fully embraced Nate McMillan as the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, but he deserves credit for the team’s progress.
It’s the All-Star break and the Indiana Pacers are already at 33 wins, which is more than most projected them to win this season. After spending most of last season being berated for not getting more out the team, this season the story is the exact opposite for Nate McMillan.
The Pacers never escaped the gravity of a .500 winning percentage last season, only getting as far away as a .560 win percentage after a seven-game winning streak. Right now they sit at 33-25, a slightly better .569 win percentage.
While being nearly one percent better in that regard might not seem like much, you have to go back to what was expected of this team. They were only expected to win around 32 games for the whole season. If they keep this up, that’s a 47 win season.
And McMillan deserves credit for that.
In theory, the roster this season isn’t as good as last season. It may work better together, but on a talent basis, the roster took a modest step back on paper.
They had current and former All-Stars on the team in Paul George and Jeff Teague. Until Victor Oladipo earned his spot this season, the current roster had none.
The Pacers of 2016-17 were expected to make a multi-round playoff run (but were stopped in the first round). This Pacers team was expected to tank.
While Kevin Pritchard deserves credit for building the team and players like Oladipo worked to get the best out of themselves, it’s McMillan who coaches the team.
The journey sometimes is two steps forward, one step back, but McMillan helped bring the best out of this team.
The Pacers aren’t tanking. They’re thriving
In October, the question for the Pacers was whether they should tank or not. As the games moved into November it just seemed to good to be true; the Pacers were winning games more often than not.
It’s always a mix of the player and the tactical approach, but things like letting Victor Oladipo attack passing lanes to create steals instead of playing a less aggressive style made Indiana one of the best transition teams in the NBA. Thaddeus Young’s deflections are part of that equation as well as the loose balls become fast break buckets.
McMillan pushed the Pacers to look for Bojan Bogdanovic and other shooters to squeeze more points out of the offense, which is now one of the best in the league.
McMillan deserves credit for Indiana’s offensive rating continuing to rise as the season wears on. The Pacers continue to make adjustments that keep them ahead of their opponents’ scouting. All those fears of things coming back to earth fade as Indiana keeps from getting stale.
Some of those changes are out of his control when injuries come, but not overcoaching players and giving them opportunities is paying off.
Chemistry is a huge factor in the team’s success, and McMillan is cultivating that by letting the player be themselves.
McMillan and the whole team kept their faith in Bogdanovic after his terrible pass cost Indiana a win against the Boston Celtics. Bojan continues to have his ups and downs, but the way the team rallied around him helped the Croatian put the play in his past.
The way he handles Lance Stephenson is perfect. McMillan lets Lance be Lance more often than not. However, enough careless plays earn Born Ready a spot on the bench, showing McMillan isn’t a pushover, either. He controls the chaos of Stephenson, the bizarre soul of this team.
In January, McMillan wasn’t afraid to give Joe Young another chance when injuries opened the door for the young guard, and Joey Buckets rewarded that faith with the best shooting of his career.
That faith in his players is a relief for them. A few bad plays don’t end a night prematurely. Chemistry is a huge factor in the team’s success, and McMillan is cultivating that by letting the player be themselves.
The team’s pace is a constant point of discussion, but it isn’t connected to the team’s success. Going faster hasn’t always meant more wins for the Pacers this season.
The Pacers picked up the pace at the start of the season and were in the top third of the league in that regard. The pace slowed in November and December while the Pacers bounced back and forth in the standings, but in January, the Pacers played their best basketball so far this season.
The pace stepped up again this month, but as far as net rating is concerned, the Pacers took a slight dip in performance.
While it’s hard to determine exactly how much of that was controlled by McMillan, the improvement of the team matters more than how fast or slow they went. January was the first time since November of 2015 that Indiana had a 10-win month.
The Pacers can go fast, but it isn’t necessary for McMillan to push the pace for Indiana to win.
Nate McMillan still isn’t perfect
While he deserves praise, there are a number of decisions that still perplex.
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When Indiana is in blowouts — either winning or losing — the starters and other key players rack up minutes when younger players could be getting experience.
The team’s success means fewer minutes for some of their prospects in most games, but McMillan doesn’t put a high premium on developing them within games — at least from an outsider’s view.
He still — at least in this writer’s mind — waits too long to call timeouts when other teams start gaining momentum. Maybe he is trying to let them fight their own way out, but sometimes it isn’t until after the initiative is lost that Nate calls for a timeout.
For all the things he does right, it’s the sort of things that can drive you crazy. McMillan obviously has his hands on the pulse of the team, but from the outside, you want to ask why these choices are made.
Nate McMillan probably doesn’t care what you think anyway
Determining exactly how much credit McMillan deserves is a fool’s errand. It often the case that our opinion of a coach dictates the amount of credit. Brad Stevens is rightfully loved, but he rarely seems to get the blame when things go wrong, though that’s much less often these days.
McMillan — whose biggest crime was not being an exciting hire — doesn’t get praise for the team’s success this season. Unless you think coaches have zero influence in the NBA, McMillan is part of the equation.
The Pacers are playing better than expected under McMillan’s watch. Whether you give him the right amount of credit or not, McMillan put his name in the hat for the coach of the year award. He may not win it, but he better get a vote or two for defying the low expectations placed on Indiana.
The coach is an old school guy focused on results. He doesn’t need to win a popularity contest. He just needs to win games.
Next: Checking in on a few recent departures from the Pacers
Pritchard dealt him a good hand with the players he is working with, but considering the Pacers already beat their win expectations, McMillan is getting more out of the roster than most expected.