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Nick Nurse’s foal takes flight

The game of musical chairs continues on the benches of the NBA and the last participants will have to hurry because the number of opportunities is rapidly melting. This time, it was the Pacers’ place that found a taker, the Indiana franchise trusting a rookie, Nate Bjorkgren, to succeed Nate McMillan.

A breath of fresh air is blowing through the NBA right now. Winter is not coming, after all the Draft has not yet taken place and the Free Agency has not started. No, it is simply the landscape of the benches that is changing all over the League. Unlike the Sixers, the Bulls or the Clippers who decided to trust already well-established coaches, the Pacers preferred to give a new kid a chance according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Assistant to Nick Nurse in Toronto for two years, Nate Bjorkgren takes the lead and has just accepted his first position as NBA head coach. Even if the name means nothing to you, the hidden son of a famous tennis player already has a nice CV. For two years, he has therefore participated in the rise of the Raptors as an assistant to his mentor recently elected Coach of the Year. Before that, he had spent two seasons as an assistant in Phoenix but it was in the D-League that he proved himself in various franchises between 2007 and 2015. At 45, the native of Iowa feels ready to endorse a role more exposed in the media and will therefore have the mission of extending the series of five consecutive Indianapolis playoff qualifiers and more if affinity.

Sweeped by the Heat in the first round of the Playoffs in the bubble, the Pacers backed down by parting with Nate McMillan to whom they had just offered an extension two weeks earlier. Often underestimated, the Farmers are fun to watch, but they don’t want to be content to appear in the postseason every year. This is where Nate Bjorkgren comes in. Appointed head coach for the first time at 23, in a high school in his native Iowa, this former playmaker is also on the staff of baseball and football teams in addition to giving history and PE lessons or to drive the team bus every Saturday. Responsibilities in spades that have allowed him to mature faster than the others. One day, he decides to leave his hometown to live life on a grand scale in a US metropolis. Direction Phoenix where another high school recruits him. But Nate is not satisfied and leaves everything to join his former NCAA coach in D-League. In 2007, he therefore became assistant coach volunteer of Iowa Energy in the staff of Nick Nurse before finding his mentor in the opposing camp during the Finals of the NBA antechamber in 2013. At that time, the rocker in glasses is ambitious for him and his friend.

“There’s no reason we can’t do this at the next level. “

Always in touch during all these years, the double N wanted at all costs to have him by his side for his first steps as NBA head coach in 2018. A collaboration which immediately materialized by an NBA champion title with the Raptors. But a year later, the Toronto coach can’t hide his nugget any longer and for the second time, he’s letting his colt go on its own, in Indianapolis.

It’s not a complete stranger who the Pacers have bet on. Trained by the best working coach based on jury votes, Nate Bjorkgren is a hard worker who shouldn’t hang around sharing his values ​​with the Indiana squad. With or without Victor Oladipo, expect to see Indy playing hard in the fall. The an appointment with Toronto in the Conference Finals has already been made.

Source texte : The Athletic et Open Gym

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