5 potential replacements for Nate Bjorkgren as Pacers head coach
By John Buhler
The Indiana Pacers have a great list of potential candidates to replace Nate Bjorkgren.
All the Indiana Pacers needed to see out of Nate Bjorkgren was one year before parting ways with their former head coach.
Indiana finished the 2020-21 NBA season with a sub-.500 record under Bjorkgren. They had the ninth-best record in the Eastern Conference this season, which meant they had to play in the play-in tournament. Indiana fell to the eighth-placed Washington Wizards in the nation’s capital for the last spot into the playoff field. Now, Indiana is looking for its third head coach in as many years.
Here are five suitable replacements the Pacers could hire to succeed Bjorkgren in Indianapolis.
Indiana Pacers: 5 replacements for Nate Bjorkgren as head coach
Assistant Coach. Chauncey Billups. 5. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. LA Clippers. 77
Chauncey Billups offers great upside as a coach, but is largely unproven
Former All-NBA guard Chauncey Billups has left the ESPN desk to begin his pursuit as an NBA coach. He serves on Tyronn Lue’s L.A. Clippers staff currently. Though we have seen many former players of his caliber go straight into the big chair, a la Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, the Pacers do want a proven coach to replace an inexperienced one who was in over his skis in Bjorkgren.
Most of the players on the Pacers grew up watching Billups play most notably with the Detroit Pistons and his hometown Denver Nuggets. He did play the point guard position, which usually translates into coaching success at the highest level. However, it may serve him to wait another year or so before leaving Lue’s Clippers staff. The Pacers is a good job, but he may get a better one.