Doyel: Victor Oladipo isn't only Pacer having a career year

INDIANAPOLIS – We talk about Victor Oladipo, because of course we do. He has become a superstar before our eyes, the former IU great becoming an NBA great this season, and using that greatness to spur the shocking Indiana Pacers toward their best season since Roy Hibbert and David West roamed the downtown earth.

We talk about general manager Kevin Pritchard, because we have to talk about Kevin Pritchard. He’s the guy who stole Oladipo and young double-double machine Domantas Sabonis, from Oklahoma City this past offseason, sending OKC only Paul George. So of course we talk about Kevin Pritchard.

But, um, we ever gonna talk about Nate McMillan?

More: In a season full of surprises, Bojan Bogdanovic may be Pacers' biggest

You know, coach of the Pacers, whose Vegas-approved over-under win total entering the season was 30.5. And I hope you took the over. After thrashing the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors by 20 points Thursday night — read that again — the Pacers have 47 victories.

This 126-106 blowout of a Golden State team missing Stephen Curry but still featuring Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green (read that again), this scorched-earth beatdown of the same Golden State group that won two nights earlier at Oklahoma City despite 44 points and 16 rebounds from Russell Westbrook, left the Pacers in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, closer to the No. 3 seed than No. 6.

Read all of that again.

And then tell me, because I’m asking seriously, why Nate McMillan isn’t a serious candidate for NBA Coach of the Year.

More: Here's how Nate McMillan stacks up for NBA Coach of the year

The favorites seem to be Toronto’s Dwane Casey and Boston’s Brad Stevens, and it’s hard to poke holes in either resume. The Raptors are beating Cleveland and Boston for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, while the Celtics have won 53 games (and counting) despite losing one prized offseason acquisition, Gordon Hayward, five minutes into the season opener — and having to play without the other, Kyrie Irving, for one-fourth of the season.

But McMillan’s genius, and I’m using that word to describe what he’s done with the 2017-18 Pacers, isn’t rooted in X’s and O’s, though his team has the franchise’s highest-scoring offense in 21 years, and the No. 7 scoring defense in the NBA, and he was given four veterans this season who have started at least 19 games — Oladipo (21 points, six rebounds, seven assists against Golden State), Darren Collison (15, five and five), Sabonis (13 points, nine rebounds), and Bojan Bogdanovic (28 points on 13 shots) — and milked career years out of all four.

That’s some special X-and-O’ing.

But what he does best, where Nate McMillan’s genius lies, is the way he milks a complete team effort — effort, teamwork and camaraderie — from his team every single night. In professional sports, and I know you know this in Indianapolis, getting max effort from a roster of millionaires isn’t a given. Not on a nightly basis. Look at the Cleveland Cavaliers. No excuse for that roster being just two games ahead of the Pacers this late in the season. Those millionaires, a lot of them used their money to buy big books of stamps, which they’ve used to mail in way too many games this season.

The Pacers don’t mail in anything. Ever. Nate McMillan gets these guys to go hard every game, in part because the roster (thank you, Kevin Pritchard) is full of true pros, and in part because these guys simply don’t want to let their coach down. McMillan was manic in Seattle and Portland, an uptight young coach the players called “Sarge” behind his back, but Sarge now seeks the counsel of the rank-and-file.

“He’s been letting players kind of help him a little bit,” says 10-year vet Thad Young, who had 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists Thursday. “He listens to what we’re saying, and we listen to what he’s saying. It’s a really good relationship. That’s why we’re here today."

Case in point: The Pacers just got back from playing four games in eight days out West. The players told Nate they were tired, so he told them: Go home. Get some sleep. No practice Wednesday, no shoot-around Thursday morning. See you Thursday night.

You see what happened Thursday night? The Pacers splattered Golden State, embarrassed them, had mild-mannered Steve Kerr so angry that he kept calling timeouts with finger-splintering fury, and then picked up a technical foul for yelling at referees because it’s not like his players were listening to him. Or trying.

Late third quarter, Pacers leading 89-71. Loose ball near midcourt. It rolls between Golden State’s Shaun Livingston and Indiana’s Trevor Booker.

Livingston watches it. Booker dives on it, claws at it, punches it toward Oladipo, who sails toward the rim and punches home a dunk for a 91-71 lead.

After the game I find Booker at his locker. He’s 30. This is his eighth season in the NBA, the Pacers are his fifth team, and when I find Booker he’s slumped in a folding chair with huge packs of ice on both knees. Also, his right ankle is soaking in an ice bath because he sprained it three games ago.

Why, I’m asking him. Why dive.

“First man on the floor usually gets the ball,” Booker says. “And I just try to be the first man.”

That’s a Booker thing, and a McMillan thing. Players dive for coaches they either love or fear, and this team loves McMillan. No, this isn’t youth sports and we’re not giving out orange wedges, but there is power in a locker room as united — playing for each other, and for its coaching staff — as this one.

And Steve Kerr, one of the smartest basketball men in the game, this is what he said Thursday when asked “about the job Nate McMillan is doing.” Note the words there. Nothing about “coach of the year.” Now then, note the words you’re about to read, the words Steve Kerr said:

“Nate’s one of the guys on the list for Coach of the Year, for sure,” Kerr said. “There’s always four or five guys who stand out. Brad Stevens is on the list, obviously. Nate’s right up there. He’s having a tremendous season as far as putting together a new group, and building it around a brand-new player.”

This season wasn’t supposed to go this way. Ask the odds makers, who set the over-under at 30.5 victories. Ask the media, me included, hell me especially, who predicted doom. From the start of training camp, McMillan knew what was being said about the Pacers: They stink. They need to tank. No, look at that Paul George trade: They are tanking.

“Obviously guys had their opinions,” Oladipo was telling me Thursday night, smiling when I pointed at my own fat head — Vic knows what was written — and then offering the classiest of olive branches. “And on the outside looking in, that might have looked correct. But Nate has done a great job instilling in us that belief factor that we can win in this league.

“I remember early in the year, win or lose, he’d say: ‘We’re going to be all right, we’re going to be all right.’ He’d walk around the locker room after a loss: ‘We’re going to figure it out. We’ll be all right.’”

The Pacers were 1-2 after three games. They were 5-7 after 12. They were the definition of mediocrity — they were 19-19 — after 38 games.

Look at them now. They are 47-32. They can finish no worse than fifth in the East, and could finish third. Third. This cannot be happening, but it is.

For whatever reason, Nate McMillan doesn’t get much credit for it. Nationally, they’re going to do what they do. Around here, let’s be smarter than that. Let’s be more informed. Let’s acknowledge the monster season, the career season, Nate McMillan is having.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.