McMillan after being fired by Pacers: 'Sometimes you have some bad luck'
Former Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan sounded somewhat philosophical a day after his dismissal by the team.
While the firing - which came two weeks after he signed a contract extension - came as a surprise, McMillan said he expected the Pacers to get past the first round of the playoffs.
"Yeah, well that was the reason for signing the extension, I was going to get that chance," McMillan told The Athletic's Bob Kravitz on Thursday. "But in saying that, my thought at the time was we would get out of the first round of the playoffs because we were heading down to Orlando with a healthy roster."
While that was mostly true, the wheels came off when Domantas Sabonis was sidelined with plantar fasciitis.
"If we had gone down there with that full team, a healthy team, and lost, I would have made the decision for them," McMillan said. "But I understand, sometimes you have some bad luck. To me, it's like what’s happening in this country. We can't put the pandemic on the guy who's running the country, but you've got to take responsibility for what happens on your watch. And we failed to advance, so I have to take responsibility for that."
McMillan has encountered bad luck as head coach before. He coached the Portland Trail Blazers during the injury-marred careers of Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, and was without star Victor Oladipo for most of his last two seasons in Indiana.
Prior to his dismissal, McMillan said the Pacers just needed to get to full health in order to reach their potential. He cited not getting enough reps together from the team's optimal starting five of Oladipo, Sabonis, Malcolm Brogdon, T.J. Warren, and Myles Turner.
However, he said that Pacers president Kevin Pritchard knew exactly how many minutes they had played together.
"He was asking me what I thought of the team and I said, 'I think it’s a hell of a team but we haven't seen them together for about five games,'" McMillan said. "Then Kevin said, 'you've seen them for 86 minutes.' I said, 'you're kidding me.' So, I don't know, I think we have the talent. Can that talent come together? We don’t know because we haven't had that opportunity."
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