Should Pacers look to add ousted coach to bench?

Rick Carlisle is an excellent coach for the Pacers, but he doesn’t do it in a vacuum. He needs good quality coaches on the bench to add to his game plan.

Recently, Mike Budenholzer of the Milwaukee Bucks was fired from his head coaching position. And the question is, where will Mike head next?

He has held multiple head coaching positions in the league, most notably with Atlanta and Milwaukee. However, “Bud” as he is known to many, has seemed to often struggle to close the deal the talented teams. Although he often leads teams to phenomenal regular seasons, the biggest complaint about him is his playoff adjustments, whether that is fair or not.

There is a chance that one of the current head coaching vacancies in the league will hire Bud for their head coaching job. However, that isn’t necessarily a guarantee that he will get added again to the ranks of head coach. If that is the case, should the Pacers take a look at the former head coach for their bench?

The Pacers already have one former head coach on the bench, and would certainly benefit from two.

Budenholzer has certainly brought innovation to his teams and been able to do more winning with less talent than many coaches in the league. The amount of innovation he could bring to the Pacers bench while adding significant playoff experience would be invaluable to a young Pacers team.

However, it is still very likely that Budenholzer wouldn’t take a bench job if he didn’t immediately get an opportunity, as many coaches will take a year off after getting removed from their head coaching positions.

Only time will tell what will happen, but if Budenholzer doesn’t get a head coaching job, the Pacers would be wise to at least give him a look for their program.