5 potential replacements for Nate Bjorkgren as Pacers head coach

Dave Joerger has achieved head-coaching success recently with Grit and Grind

If the Pacers are adamant about their next head coach having ample head-coaching experience, Dave Joerger would certainly fit the bill. The former Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings head coach is in his first year serving on Doc Rivers’ Philadelphia 76ers staff. If they win another playoff series or two, that might be enough to catapult him into his third head-coaching job in a decade.

Despite being in the NBA for nearly 15 years now, Joerger does have Midwestern roots as a native Minnesotan. He had coached at three Midwestern NBA G-League stops before arriving in Memphis in 2007. Though there is a ceiling to what he can provide as a head coach, it may actually serve him to be coaching in the easier of the two conferences this time around with the Pacers.

Upon arrival, Joerger should be able to get the Pacers back into the playoffs in the way that Bjorkgren could not. Memphis made the Western Conference Playoffs all three years he was with the team. While the Kings never qualified for the postseason, nobody does that anymore, as they boast the longest active playoff drought in the entire league. You can’t blame him for Sacramento.

Overall, hiring Joerger is not going to move the needle all that much. Frankly, it will largely be panned because we have already seen what he can do in his six years as an NBA head coach previously. However, the third time might be the charm. If he can bring the tenacity he had in Memphis with him to Indianapolis, the Pacers will play hard enough to be NBA playoff regulars.