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INDIANAPOLIS – For the first time in nearly four decades of Pacers ownership, the Simon family has fired a head coach after one season.

Nate Bjorkgren’s tenure as head coach of the Indiana Pacers will be just one season after he was fired on Tuesday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news.

With Bjorkgren having issues in connecting with players and managing the locker room, team president Kevin Pritchard and the Simon’s decided a change was necessary.

“The 2020-21 season was not what any of us hoped or anticipated it would be, and our results on the court certainly did not meet the standards for what our organization and our fans have come to expect,” Pritchard said in a team release. “We have determined this is the right time to move in a different direction, and on behalf of the Simon Family and the entire Pacers organization, I want to express my gratitude to Nate for his efforts leading our team. While we do not have a definite timetable for our search, we will move quickly to identify candidates who will make our team and our organization stronger.”

The Pacers, amidst a slew of injuries to important players last season, went 34-38, before getting blown out in the play-in tournament to the Wizards, as they tried to claim the 8th seed.

During the head coaching interview process last offseason, Pritchard was enamored with the Xs and Os ability of Bjorkgren and thought his prowess on the whiteboard was the life that Indiana needed on the sideline.

It was something that Pritchard reiterated in his season-ending presser two weeks ago, as he evaluated Bjorkgren’s future.

“I’ve got a coach who has super talent in X’s and O’s but needs some improvement in human management,” Pritchard said of Bjorkgren.

After further evaluation, and a clearer picture on the candidate pool, the Pacers decided that a roster with no starter hitting free agency needed a new voice.

This is another stain on the Pacers resume of Pritchard.

Along with Indiana having not won a playoff series with Pritchard running the show (and having gone 3 straight years without a playoff win), an ugly drafting resume now also includes a mis-hiring at head coach.

Pritchard took a risk on hiring the inexperienced Bjorkgren and the hiring process was not thorough enough to discover the plethora of personality issues that showed up at head coach this past season.

The Simon’s are giving Pritchard another chance to hire a head coach, with one particular candidate jumping off the page.

Trailblazers head coach Terry Stotts was let go last week after Portland lost in the first round of the playoffs for the 4th time in the last 5 seasons.

Stotts, a Bloomington native, has ties to Pritchard and carries the NBA head coaching experience that Bjorkgren lacked.

Woj reported that the Pacers ‘are expected to pursue a more experienced, established head coach.’ The 63-year-old Stotts would fit that description. He is a 13-year head coach (517-486) with 9 playoff appearances (23-44, with 4 series wins).

Whoever is the hire at head coach will likely have ex-player and/or vast head coaching experience to bring to the head coaching chair.

No matter the new head coach, some personnel questions remain as the Pacers enter another critical offseason.

So far, there are 4 head coaching openings in the NBA: Indiana, Boston, Portland, Orlando.

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