The new head coach of the Pacers is saying all the right things from a fan entertainment standpoint. Which sounds great to us as well. Here’s the Indianapolis Star:
The Indiana Pacers didn’t want to stick with the old when it came to their coaching search. They pushed the envelope. Got out of their comfort zone. Thought outside the box.
Amid all the cliches to conjure up, they produced anything but a cliche hire when Indianapolis met Nate Bjorkgren on Tuesday.
“Very disruptive. Very aggressive style,” Bjorkgren said about what his offenses and defenses will look like when next season starts. “We’ll be a fun team to watch. You’re going to see a lot of movement on both sides of the ball. You’re going to see weakside movement on the offensive end. You’re going to see different players handling the ball and pushing it up the floor. We want to look for more possessions. We want to utilize the free throw line getting to the rim. Utilize that 3-point line.”
In other words, these Pacers will look 180 degrees different in how they play compared with how Nate McMillan ran them for four years before he was fired in August.
The Pacers probably won’t be active in free agency this summer. The team’s key players, including Malcolm Brogdon, Victor Oladipo, Jeremy Lamb, T.J. Warren, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner, are signed at least through 2020-21. Their core, assuming it gets kept together, is pretty set, so coach Bjorkgren is walking into a situation where chemisty does already exist. Expect to see the Pacers in the 2021 NBA playoffs.
