Nate

Bjorkgren

Bjorkgren met with management on Tuesday and was informed Wednesday morning that he was being dismissed. The Pacers are expected to pursue a more experienced, established head coach to replace Bjorkgren. In his lone year at the helm, Bjorkgren went 34-38 and missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. With the core pieces that Indiana will bring into next season of Domantas Sabonis, Malcolm Brodgon, Caris Levert, TJ Warren, and Myles Turner, the Pacers expect to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference and did not want to move forward with a coach who struggled to manage the locker room and his staff.

There have been reports about Bjorkgren rubbing people in the organization the wrong way, and Pritchard didn’t commit to Bjorkgren’s return next season. “He’s very specific in the way he likes things,” Pritchard said, tactfully. He did compliment his coach’s “super talent and [knowledge of] X’s and O’s,” and talked extensively about how injuries hindered the team’s potential, but Bjorkgren is obviously on the hot seat after Indiana missed the playoffs with a 34-38 record.

Bjorkgren’s time with the Pacers may come to an end after just one season at the helm, due to the team’s crumbling chemistry and tenuous place in the Eastern Conference standings. According to the report, things got so bad for Warren (who was with the Suns when Bjorkgren was a member of that team’s coaching staff) that he requested a trade before undergoing season-ending foot surgery in January. It’s worth noting that Warren’s representation has denied the report that he requested a trade. The Pacers currently lead 10th-place Washington by one-half game in the East, and 11th-place Toronto by 3.5 games, with seven games to play. Indiana should make the play-in tournament, even with the chemistry and injury issues. But that may not be enough to save Bjorkgren.

The timing of this report is strange, with only eight games left in the regular season and the No. 9 seed Pacers on track for the play-in. The report suggests that the root of the problem is “Bjorkgren’s style of coaching and communication,” without citing specific examples. “Bjorkgren has significant work to do with his relationships among players throughout the team and with some members of the organization,” Wojnarowski writes. It sounds like he’ll at least finish the Pacers’ current campaign, though, with his future “expected to be addressed after the season.”

This is the third Suns game to be postponed this week due to ongoing contact tracing. The Suns played against the Wizards — who had a third player test positive on Thursday — on Monday. The Suns’ next scheduled game is on Monday against the Grizzlies.

“I don’t have starters yet,” Bjorkgren said. “I haven’t designated a starting five.” Doug McDermott is fired up about his new coach’s approach, saying “The energy has been off the charts, the attention to detail... and they’re not afraid to call guys out.” It’s looking like everything is going to have to be earned by Pacer players this season, which will likely make some of them angry. But after disappointing endings to several promising seasons over the last five years, a fresh approach and some new ideas make sense for the Pacers.

Bjorkgren has been a long-time member on Nick Nurse’s staff, first serving as a key assistant while they won a championship in the G League, and he remained on Nurse’s staff while they won a championship in Toronto. He also coached T.J. Warren at times during his rookie year when Warren was sent down for some G League stints, so Warren’s value should be safe under the new regime. It’ll be interesting to see how Bjorkgren decides to use Victor Oladipo and Jeremy Lamb, and how much he allows Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis to share the floor together.