Former Pacers coach has joined the Trailblazers' coaching staff

The Indiana Pacers were on a coaching roller coaster during the pandemic. After firing Nate McMillan just a year after giving him an extension, they were looking for a new voice. They wanted a younger guy who could relate to players and grow with a roster that was trying to gel.

Kevin Pritchard settled on Nate Bjorkgren and he was hired as the head coach for the 2020-21 season. It was a disaster almost immediately. He was disliked by almost every Pacers player and he was not able to get the rest of the coaching staff to respond to him.

In what perhaps was the most unhappy season of the century, Indiana finished 34-38 despite having made the playoffs the prior year. It was a clear mistake by Pritchard and he fired him after the season and hired Rick Carlisle. Carlisle has worked out and Bjorkgren has a new job this year.

Former Pacers coach is headed to Portland to join the Trailblazers' staff

Bjorkgren had been in Toronto as an assistant following his failed stint in Indiana as a head coach. Now, he is moving on to Portland to join Chauncey Billups' staff with the Trailblazers. He is trying to learn as much as he can to get another chance at being a head coach.

Bjorkgren was a young guy when he was hired by Indiana. He clearly wasn't ready for the job and mistakes were made. He has acknowledged some of those mistakes. Now that he's been a few different places, he might be in line for a head coaching job sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Pacers fans don't have a lot of love for Bjorkgren and I can't say I do either. Still, fans shouldn't want him to never get another job again. I would like to see him get another head coaching gig and see if he has changed at all. I'd like to see what he's learned in his years since the failed experiment in Indiana.