Indiana Pacers: Mike D’Antoni makes sense for the Indiana Pacers

Mike D’Antoni could elevate the Indiana Pacers

Going into his new job with the Houston Rockets at the start of the 2016-17 NBA season, D’Antoni worked with the Rockets over the summer and started to realize something. This roster might have some holes depending on the way you look at it, but they sure have a lot of capable three-point shooters. Guys like Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson, and Sam Dekker are NBA employees largely or solely because of their ability to shoot from deep. D’Antoni saw this and ran with it.

That season, they obliterated the record for most threes in a season and most threes attempted, shooting on average over 40 of them per game. Even Patrick Beverley averaged four attempted threes a game that season. By taking advantage of one of the team’s offensive strengths and enhancing their production, D’Antoni took a team that finished 41-41 the past season to a 55-27 record and a third-place regular-season finish in the West. This is what D’Antoni does.

In a season where key players were sidelined for significant parts of the season, various Indiana Pacers role players were forced to step into meaningful minutes and were pressured to produce winning basketball almost immediately, something that unfortunately did not happen. It’s easy to get caught up as a fan and demand excellence, but the trajectory of an NBA player and their growth pattern doesn’t naturally grow the same way.

In the league we are in today, with how many advancements have been made in the field of scouting, grading prospects domestically and overseas, it has become much rarer for a team to draft a bonafide bust in the top picks. Players are overall more equipped than ever as far as skill and versatility.

But, no matter the skill or potential the player possesses, these are ultimately variables that are solely dependent on the system they are in and the coaching staff in place helping cultivate their growth as a player.

And as a coach, D’Antoni is exceptional at getting the most out of his players.

Mike D’Antoni took the job as Head Coach in Houston at the start of the 2016-17 NBA season, and at the time, he was coming into a roster with an absolute star in James Harden but there wasn’t a whole lot of star power on the roster to work with other than that.

Surrounded by capable league veterans like Eric Gordon and Lou Williams, the roster was ~good~, but nothing about that roster screamed excellence. One of the role players on that team was 21-year-old big man Clint Capela, a raw prospect who Daryl Morey took a chance on at pick 25 in the 2014 NBA Draft.

In the season prior to D’Antoni’s arrival, Capela was serving as a competent backup center for the Rockets, playing around 20 minutes a game and putting up 7.0 PPG and 6.4 RPG in his time on the floor. It was looking like Capela’s role in the NBA was to be a decent rim runner and rebounder off the bench, and possibly be a rotational piece on a winning team.

In his first season under D’Antoni, Capela’s production soared on similar minutes, mainly due to the explosion of the offense around him, averaging about 13 PPG and 8 RPG and starting in 59 out of the 65 games he appeared in during the 2016-17 NBA season. Capela has averaged a double-double in points and rebounds every season since and has led the league in rebounds and field goal percentage in following seasons.

Capela has always had plus rebounding and rim running ability, but in a high energy, fast tempo offense, his talents were amplified and he was able to grow exponentially under D’Antoni.

Looking at the Pacers roster going into the offseason, there are a lot of questions, and even more have arisen just recently with Nate Bjorkgren’s firing. Important rotational players like T.J. McConnell and Doug McDermott are going into free agency, the almost inevitable split of Turbonis (Myles Turner & Domantas Sabonis), and the control of multiple draft picks in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft, the Pacers have a lot of opportunity for change and a whole lot of soul searching to do this offseason.

With first-round selections Aaron Holiday and Goga Bitadze not panning out in the way many had hoped, do the Pacers do what they did with T.J. Leaf and see it out, or play for now and look toward the trade market? Questions. Lots and lots of questions.

As much as it hurts to see the Pacers come so close to making long runs in the postseason over the last decade, it is important to recognize the team we are and the markets we compete with. It is incredibly difficult for a team like the Indiana Pacers to entice star players and when a gem falls into their lap via the draft or trade, it’s hard to keep them here.

With the current roster as it is, things are far from hopeless. With the hiring of a respected, winning coach like D’Antoni who is an underrated player developer as well, a couple of offseason moves can catapult this Indiana Pacers team into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference once again.

I think of a player like Goga Bitadze. Since being drafted 18th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft, Bitadze played only 12.5 MPG in his sophomore season, and much of his increase in playing time from last year was due to the injuries of Myles Turner throughout the season. Goga shows flashes of excellence with his ability to rise up and block shots around the rim, and he sure loves to shoot threes.

These spurts give us hope but we consistently have been left wanting more. The reality is the Indiana Pacers have had a log jam at the five position, Goga has had two head coaches in his two years in the league, and will play under a third next season. I can see the Georgian being D’Antoni’s Clint Capela in Houston if they were to align next season.

Edmond Sumner, Kelan Martin, Oshae Brissett, and even Caris LeVert are other emerging young guys that could also use an experienced coach to guide them into the rising action of their careers

Turning 70 this May, D’Antoni is currently an assistant coach on the Brooklyn Nets bench, and if playoff trends hold up, D’Antoni will probably have a championship ring on his finger at the end of the postseason.

There is probably time for D’Antoni to help lead one more team through the postseason, and with uncertainty on Portland’s future with Damian Lillard, and Brad Stevens taking over for Danny Ainge as President of Basketball Operations and having full control over who fills his vacancy in Boston, D’Antoni might see Indiana as the best place to make a solid run.

The Indiana Pacers have a lot of opportunities this offseason to finally go out and get a roster together that resembles something a coach like D’Antoni can work with. If the Indiana Pacers really want to transition into an offensive-centric team and compete for a potential championship, I think hiring Mike D’Antoni as the head coach of the Indiana Pacers would be a great decision.