The Indiana Pacers have fired head coach Nate McMillan after the team was swept by the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.
McMillan just finished his fourth season as head coach of the Pacers after spending three seasons as the team’s associate head coach.
He led the team to a record of 183-136 in his four seasons at the helm, including a 3-16 playoff record, never making it out of the first round of the playoffs in those four seasons.
The firing comes as somewhat of a surprise, as McMillan signed a one-year contract extension earlier this month.
“On behalf of the Simon family and the Pacers organization, I’d like to thank Nate for his years with the team,” Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said in a statement. “This was a very hard decision for us to make; but we feel it’s in the best interest of the organization to move in a different direction. Nate and I have been through the good times and the bad times; and it was an honor to work with him for those 11 years (in Indiana and Portland).”
Here is the team’s official statement:
Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni, in the final year of his contract, will be an Indiana target should he become available, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
D’Antoni isn’t an inexpensive hire and the Pacers are considered a small market team.
The team plans to also consider those who they’d consider “program builders” over long-term, Wojnarowski also notes.
