The Indiana Pacers can answer big questions with intentional focus
The Indiana Pacers season will pick up and carry on, despite the odds that were against it. The NBA has announced its season will resume in late July at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
In a closed-campus setting, things are going to be different than ever before for the entire league, the Pacers included.
The Pacers, when the season was suspended in mid-March due to the global pandemic, were in a weird, indefinite state. Their star player in Victor Oladipo had just come back from a whole year recovering from injury and was finding his feel for the game. The team was not yet fully gelled. There was a lot of work to do and plenty of questions that needed to be answered for the next several years.
When it looked as if the season was to be canceled, that was a concern for the Pacers who needed answers on clear questions. But now, they’ll be able to get clarity on important items heading into the next season.
These are some of the most important things they
Pacers focus in Orlando: Is Nate McMillan a good coach?
With fewer outside factors taking hold during the season conclusion in Orlando, the skill level of each and every NBA coach of the 22 teams participating will be more obvious than ever before.
No longer can things like travel fatigue and environmental factors such as crowd noise get in the way of muddying up the reasons for a win or loss. It’s going to come down to a coach’s direction and the roster’s execution.
Pacers fans fall on two distinct sides of the aisle when it comes to McMillan based on how he performs.
I think he’s severely underrapreciated. Many others believe that to not be the case. He’ll have a great chance in Orlando to prove one of those two crowds right.
His situational awareness needs to be on point, and he’ll have to adjust on the fly especially once the postseason begins. With never before seen circumstances to winning a title and seeing postseason success, McMillan has his work cut out for him. The team needs a leader from the bench.