Sources: Pacers finalizing deal to promote Nate McMillan as coac

The Indiana Pacers are finalizing a deal to promote assistant Nate McMillan to head coach, league sources told The Vertical.

For the past three years, McMillan had been the top assistant to Frank Vogel. This will be McMillan’s third head coaching job in the NBA, including stops with Portland and Seattle.
Indiana president Larry Bird declined to renew Vogel’s contract despite significant success on the job in five seasons as coach.

McMillan interviewed for the head job with Pacers officials late in the week, was offered the job and the two sides were ironing out contract terms on Saturday, sources said.

Across seven seasons as the Portland Trail Blazers coach, McMillan had a .497 winning percentage and advanced to the first-round of the Western Conference playoffs in 2009, '10 and '11. McMillan was fired in 2012.

McMillan spent five seasons as the Seattle Sonics' coach, where he reached the playoffs twice. In his final year there, McMillan led the Sonics to 52 regular-season victories and the conference semifinals in 2004-05.

This season, Indiana won 42 games, earned the seventh seed and pushed No. 2 seed Toronto to seven games in the first-round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.