Fieldhouse Files: Scott Agness on the Indiana Pacers

The Pacers’ brand isn’t the only thing getting refreshed …the team’s roster is, too.

Kevin Pritchard was promoted to General Manager and he had the challenge of trading Paul George, and he did so just before free agency. Then, he swiftly worked to remake the roster. That work is ongoing.

The Pacers currently have 13 players under contract for the 2017-18 season.

They will look very different next season, with as many as four new starters. Myles Turner is the only one sharpie’d into the starting lineup.

On this podcast, I catch you up on most of what has occurred over the last month.

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* All of the Pacers’ moves in free agency

* Just six players are left from last season’s 42-40 team

* How six more players from last season remain free agents

* Contract flexibility for next offseason

* Lance Stephenson being the face of the Pacers’ rebranding campaign

Jamelle McMillan is excelling as a coach in the NBA. It wasn’t his plan, but it worked out that way.

Jamelle, 28, is the son of Pacers head coach Nate McMillan. He remembers watching his dad play growing up, and was a ball boy for Nate’s Seattle SuperSonics team. The two also worked together with USA Basketball in 2012 when Nate was an assistant.

“This game has provided so much for me and my family,” Jamelle said.

The youngest McMillan played four years of college basketball at Arizona State University (2007-11), where he averaged 7.2 points, 3.9 assists and 2.5 rebounds during his senior season as the team captain.

He then remained in hoops as a Director of Basketball Operations at Drake University, and a year later was hired on Monty Williams’ staff in New Orleans. His title was “coaching intern,” but it was a great start being in his early twenties.

After two seasons, Jamelle was promoted to player development coach and later to assistant coach, now under Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry.

This summer, Jamelle had the opportunity to serve as head coach for their Summer League team in Las Vegas. That had to be special for him. (For the record, they went 1-5.)

“This thing never stops. It’s a tough deal going through the grind of a season,” Jamelle was saying to me earlier this year.”

Because it is a grind, McMillan even takes computer coding classes and turns his attention to his passion for technology to decompress after games. But he continues to work his way up the bench.

Nate explained how he advised his son not to walk in his footsteps and coach in the NBA. It demands so much of you and your family — and is obviously very stressful. They lived through that together.

Jamelle didn’t listen, though, as things worked out following their time together with USA Basketball. Dell Demps, the Pelicans GM, offered young Jamelle a job — and it was one he could not refuse.

(I first wrote about Nate and Jamelle back in 2014.)

When the Pelicans were in Indianapolis earlier this year, I spoke with Jamelle about growing up in and NBA family and choosing to remain in it. Also, he said he didn’t even consider or ask Nate about joining his staff last summer when he was promoted to Pacers head coach.

“These guys here [with New Orleans] asked me to stay. The players. That meant a lot,” Jamelle said.

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* Coaching against his father

* His interest in technology and writing before hoops

* Whether he can remember watching his dad play

* How much, if at all, do they talk basketball during the season

* Whether he has any desire to join Nate’s Pacers staff

* How his dad has evolved as a coach

* The importance of player development coaches

[Photo: Frank McGrath/PS&E]

Georges Niang, the 50th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, still has a lot to show. His rookie season is behind him, though he didn’t get much of an opportunity nor did he make much of it.

The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 0.9 points and 0.7 rebounds in 23 appearances during the 2016-17 season where the Pacers finished 42-40. He made several trips north to Fort Wayne to play for their Development League team, the Mad Ants. And after January, Niang played a total of five minutes for the Pacers.

Summer League in Orlando was supposed to be a time for Georges to show what he can do. The first time, last summer, can be overwhelming as it comes after the draft and shortly after rookie/free agent camp. It’s a lot at once.

This time with one year under his belt Niang was ready … only to suffer a bone bruise in his left knee 87 seconds into the first game. He was then ruled out for the rest of the games.

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* How summer league is different this time around

* What he’s been working on this summer

* Head coach Nate McMillan’s message to him

* Having several Iowa State players on the team

* The pressure of not having his salary guaranteed

* How he, as a player, observes free agency

The Pacers went with young talent with great potential in the 2017 NBA Draft. … That’s what a draft is all about, right? Potential.

They used their first-round pick on 6-foot-10 forward T.J. Leaf at 18. With ties to the state and city, including his father, Brad, playing at Lawrence North High School, Leaf made it clear to the Pacers that he wanted to be here. Through his agent, through reporters. And that meant something.

Leaf, who’s 20, led the 31-5 Bruins with 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds as a freshman.

[First reaction: Pacers coach Nate McMillan on T.J. Leaf]

Pacers President Kevin Pritchard was then ecstatic to see 18-year-old big man Ike Anigbogu still available when they were up again at 47. He’s raw, and not 100 percent, but the team felt comfortable with their medical evaluations of the “physical specimen,” who’s 6-foot-10 and weighs 252 pounds.

Oh, and Anigbogu was also a Bruin for one season.

To learn more about these two, I talked with Mike Yam of the Pac-12 Network. He’s a studio host with Ashley Adamson, the former WISH-TV reporter here in Indianapolis, and he’s also the host of Give Me a Sense podcast.

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* Why Ike Anigbogu was a great pick at No. 47

* What type of player Anigbogu could develop into

* T.J. Leaf’s strengths and weakness

* How both are great at pushing the ball up the floor

* UCLA fans’ feelings toward head coach Steve Alford

Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard spoke with reporters after the 2017 NBA Draft late Thursday, into Friday morning. The Pacers had drafted three players, including UCLA’s T.J. Leaf at No. 18. It was his first draft with the organization as president, elevated to this role after Larry Bird decided to step down.

But for more than 17 minutes, the conversation centered around Paul George and his change of heart, according to Pritchard, who spoke candidly but was obviously frustrated.

“For me it was a gut-punch,” he said. “It was a total gut-punch because we’d had many conversations over the summer about players that we’d like to add, a little bit of the style that we’d like to play, and I was, in my opinion, very inclusive with him. And the message over the summer, up until this weekend was ‘Let’s build a winning team.’ And so when that came in that he wanted to look at another place, it was a gut-punch for us.”

With the draft now over, George remains a Pacer. Pritchard, admitting that George’s message couldn’t have come at a worse time, is still confident they will get a good deal done.

“We’re not going to make a bad deal. We want to get what we want and that’s what we pursue. We’re going to do something that we feel comfortable with.

“Right now there’s enough on the board that we feel good about, that we could pull the trigger at any time.”

Watch as Pritchard discusses the situation and what’s next:

AUDIO:

At No. 18, the Pacers drafted T.J. Leaf out of UCLA. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel while his father played professionally basketball. Leaf, who played just one year of college basketball, met with the Pacers Draft Combine in Chicago and then came to Indianapolis for a workout on May 23.

Leaf’s father, Brad, attended Lawrence North High School and he has roots in Indianapolis and Evansville.

See Also: T.J. Leaf discusses getting drafted by the Pacers

Shortly after the Pacers’ selection, head coach Nate McMillan came down to the media room to talk about Leaf’s game and what he’ll bring to the Pacers.

“He’s a very skillful big guy that can spread the floor,” McMillan said. “I think his basketball IQ is very high. His ability to spread the floor from the 3-point line. He can put the ball on the floor. He can pass the ball. His ability to stretch the floor I thought was the main thing that he did well. Defensively, he’s going to have to work in that area.”

Watch McMillan’s first comments on Leaf below:

AUDIO:

Brian Windhorst is one of the best NBA reporters. He first started in the business with the Akron Beacon Journal, and as a young reporter he was assigned to go check out a stud basketball player with great potential.

It turned out, it was LeBron James, who attended the very same high school Windhorst attended: St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio. Windhorst is now a led NBA reporter for ESPN and his work appears on all of their networks, plus ESPN.com and various podcasts.

With the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, it seems like every time I look up at my television, which is on ESPN, there is Windy. That’s why I appreciated him spending some time with me on Friday.

He continues to be a great friend and mentor to me, and for that I am thankful.

After the Cavaliers improbable 3-1 comeback in the NBA Finals last year, it was a no-brianer for Windhorst to author a book on LeBron, and his return which led to a title. “Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History“

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* LeBron and fatigue

* What’s the challenge and fun in covering LeBron

* Where the Cavaliers go from here due to the Warriors’ dominance

* Paul George’s future in Indy, or value elsewhere

* Why the elite NBA reporters don’t ask questions as press conferences

You see Sage Steele all the time on ESPN … on NBA coverage, on SportsCenter, on SportsCenter On the Road. She’s a self-proclaimed military brat, moving around frequently as a child.

She eventually graduated from Carmel High School and Indiana University, and would later work at WISH-TV in Indianapolis before ultimately ended up at The Worldwide Leader. She remains a Pacers fan, and she’s raising her three kids — in the sixth, eighth, and tenth grades — to be fans of the Indiana teams as well.

Steele will soon be moving back to Bristol, Connecticut to host SportsCenter AM – which, as she explains, should get back to the highlight-filled rehash in the world of sports that we all enjoyed until the format changed several years ago.

She’s a great follow both on Twitter and Instagram.

VIDEO: Sage Steele at IU Commencement — ‘Choose the Harder Right Over Easier Wrong’

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* Covering her sixth NBA Finals, and why it’s her favorite sporting event

* On the dominance of the Cavaliers and Warriors

* What her colleagues believe Paul George will do

* The Pacers and what they need to consider

* Her new role at ESPN, and moving from Scottsdale back to Bristol

More from Sage:

* Paul George visits with Sage Steele at All-Star Weekend, says he’s still getting used to being the vocal guy

* Sage drives pace car in 20th running of the Brickyard 400

* Sage shares stories and advice with avid IU students

C.J. Miles will decline his player option and is set to become a free agent on July 1, the Pacers’ versatile forward confirmed to VigilantSports.com on Tuesday.

This move was entirely expected considering he was set to pull in $4.772 million for the final year of a four-year deal he signed in 2014 worth $18 million. The news was first reported by Ben Gibson of 8points9seconds.com.

“If it does come to opting out, it’s not because I want to leave. It’s just solely a business decision,” Miles told VigilantSports.com last month. “It’s just solely because it would be in the best interest of myself, my family, and the people that I have around me.”

Just last offseason, Miles saw Solomon Hill ($58 million) and Ian Mahinmi ($64 million) move on from the Pacers to sign lucrative new contracts elsewhere. With New Orleans and Washington, respectively.

Miles, meanwhile, has earned an estimated $34.265 million over his 12 seasons in the NBA, according to Basketball-Reference.com. He was drafted 34th overall by Utah in 2005, and spent his first seven seasons in Salt Lake City. He then played two years in Cleveland, and the last three in Indiana.

Miles turned 30 in March, (and his birthday surprise party included ‘the illest cake of all time’.)

The Pacers have six players guaranteed to be under contract for the 2017-18 season: Paul George, Thad Young, Monta Ellis, Al Jefferson, Myles Turner, and Lance Stephenson.

The organization has decisions to make on Glenn Robinson III, Rakeem Christmas, and Joe Young by July 1; Georges Niang by July 15; and Kevin Seraphin by August 1.

WATCH: C.J. plays the piano in NBA All-Star Talent Challenge

Indy officially put in a bid for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game last week. On Monday, April 24 — deadline day for 2020 and 2021 bids to be sent in — Larry Bird and Rick Fuson, Pacers Sports & Entertainment President, delivered Indy’s plans to the NBA Headquarters in downtown Manhattan.

And, of course, they did it in style. As in Bird riding five blocks in a specially-designed IndyCar. Talk about making a strong impression…

[Commissioner Adam Silver on Indy hosting All-Star Weekend: ‘The ball is in their court’]

One man who has plays an important role in Indianapolis hosting big events is Ryan Vaughn, the President of Indiana Sports Corp. This is a world-class organization that is one of the main reasons why this city continues to attract and excel at putting on events like Big Ten Football Championship Game, the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament, the Final Four, and the 2012 Super Bowl.

Vaughn attended Wabash College and was a swimmer. He then earned his law degree and practiced in downtown Indianapolis at Barnes & Thornburg. Before taking over ISC, he was Mayor Greg Ballard’s Chief of Staff.

I hope that you enjoy this podcast with Vaughn on Indy’s desire to host NBA All-Star Weekend.

Subscribe to the Pacers Podcast on iTunes.

I welcome your questions and comments @ScottAgness on Twitter or via email.

Topics Discussed:

* Why 2021 works for the city.

* How Indy excels when hosting big-time events.

* Specific requirements to bid for the weekend.

* Indy’s goal to touch every visitor in some way and leaving a lasting impact.