INDIANAPOLIS — The words are few. The expression on Nate McMillan's face can say it all.

That's his posture with the Indiana Pacers on the sideline. He can remain silent for minutes at a time, an eternity by NBA coaching standards.

The Xs and Os are part of coaching. They're hardly everything. The Pacers are 38-20, five games better than they were after 58 games heading into the All-Star break a year ago. And that's with their best player, Victor Oladipo, missing 22 of them and out for the rest of the season.

Myles Turner signed his four-year extension for $80 million before the regular season. Known for staying late at practice and coming in early even when they were optional, Turner had taken a few days off.

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When the 6-11 center crossed paths with McMillan, he found the same man fans see on the sideline during games.

''You're 22 years old. You work so hard to get to this point, you can't change now," was the message Turner, who was shooting just 46.6 percent, 21.7 on 3-pointers, in the first month of the season, received. "He was pulling my leg a little bit but at the same time, I felt that. Just because you signed your first big contract doesn't mean you can take any days off now. You can never really get comfortable in this league. He reminded me of that. Keep being who I am."

After that slow start, Turner is turning into the two-way player the Pacers envisioned, a rim-protecting big who can space the floor with his shot. Turner should garner votes for Most Improved Player, won by Oladipo last season, Defensive Player of the Year and All-Defensive teams.

"That didn’t make sense to me. He’s a young buck, and at that time his percentage was down," McMillan says of that conversation. "You should be using that as work days to get your rhythm. You’re going to be in this league 15-20 years. The last five or seven you might take off those option days. Not now."

McMillan is old school in his on- and off-court approach, and it has worked in reviving his small-market team after it lost Paul George two years ago. He had to do it again after a quad muscle tear in Oladipo's right knee ended his season Jan. 23.

There's not much margin for error with the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers reloading their rosters at last week's trade deadline.

A coach who isn't good at communication isn't going to last long. Not in the NBA.

Not in 2019.

"He’s a little more open to hearing what we have to say," says Turner, who was a 2015 first-round pick under then-coach Frank Vogel. "When he first got here, it was more like his way. He was trying to establish the culture and put things in effect. Now he has to be a player’s coach with the personalities we have on this team."

McMillan's team is made in his image and the players like what they see.

Straight-talk express

If there's anyone on the Pacers who can respect McMillan's methods, it's the soft-spoken Croatian who has more edge than meets the eye.

Bojan Bogdanovic appreciates straight talk. In his first two NBA stops he didn't get much of it.

"(McMillan)'s a lot like European coaches. That's good for me," says Bogdanovic, who is averaging career-highs in points (16.8), field-goal accuracy (49.4 percent) and from 3 (42.6 percent). "They're tough. They're cursing at you, forcing you to do more, especially in practice. I think that’s the difference between us and the other NBA teams.

"There’s a lot of coaches around this league like, ‘Everything is good,' and it's not. But he’s honest with all of us. That’s what I love."

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If a player doesn't want to practice hard, believes punctuality is optional or can't handle being pushed, he's better off somewhere else.

"You have a job, right?" McMillan asks rhetorically. "You have to be on time. It doesn't matter what your job is or how much money you make. If you're not on time, you're always late, there are consequences."

Neither of the Pacers' two biggest free-agent acquisitions, Tyreke Evans and Doug McDermott, were known for their defense.

McMillan refused to accept it.

"You challenge them to work at it," said McMillan, who also suspended Evans one game for habitual tardiness. "A lot of times they’re capable of being average defenders. It’s better than just saying, 'You can’t defend.' I think that’s (expletive). You’ve got to make the effort to stay in front.”

Bogdanovic, a free agent from the Washington Wizards, had the same knock on him coming to Indiana. McMillan has gotten more out of him.

Sometimes, Bogdanovic will look for his offense too much. He'll drive into traffic for a contested shot with teammates spotting up open. The Pacers had a double-digit lead against the Atlanta Hawks and he sent an unnecessary high-risk pass down court.

The turnover didn't cost them the victory, but that's not the point.

"Are you (expletive) serious?" McMillan says with arms folded and head nodding.

That's as far as it goes.

Started coaching as a player

Kendall Gill knows what that's like as a teammate of McMillan's in Seattle.

During a game against the Boston Celtics, Gill was challenged. Not by the Celtics' Dee Brown or Rick Fox. But by McMillan, who spent his entire career with the SuperSonics from 1986-98.

"I was loafing," Gill says. "Nate told me on the court. That's actually the first time, the only time, a teammate has ever said something to me about playing hard. He was right."

Gill, who was McMillan's teammate for two seasons, recalls how the backup guard defused a ticking time bomb with coach George Karl.

"I really didn't like George," Gill said. "Personality-wise, we did not get along, but Nate helped me through that time. He noticed there was an issue right away and just stepped in. That's why Nate spent his entire career in Seattle. You need guys like that. That's why the franchise kept him around.

"If Nate hadn't been there, I don't know what I would've done. I probably would've Sprewell-ed George Karl."

Imagine playing in a pickup game on a random court in Raleigh, N.C., and being lectured by a peer about playing the right way. That's what McMillan, now 54, was doing about 40 years ago in his hometown.

A young player, he had the old soul of coach.

“I couldn’t tolerate it if we didn’t play the right way," says McMillan, who stayed in his hometown to play at N.C. State. "It wasn’t that a coach told me to be that way. I would say something to you about playing defense, rebounding or passing. That was just something that I grew up with.”

McMillan quickly ascended to a leadership role when he turned pro. He was known for stopping practices, slamming the ball on the floor and commanding everyone's attention. Veterans of 10-plus years fell in line. They voted him captain.

"I didn’t just go at you as an individual," McMillan says. "It might be in the back of the bus, at dinner. I didn’t embarrass you on the floor. If we weren’t playing the way I thought we should, I would address the team in the locker room at halftime before the coaches even got in there."

Turner searches for the correct words to describe what it's like to be in that moment. McMillan's methods engender respect, not fear.

"Nate is just very militaristic. Nate demands a certain structure and guys abide a certain code," Turner says. "I feel like (NBA) coaches are very loose about that. Nate is very adamant about his set of rules. Guys fall in line and follow his lead about that."

A culture that respects the details

It goes back to culture and fit, a necessity as president Kevin Pritchard has to work around the limitations of building a roster in a small market. The Pacers own an abundance of salary cap space but A-list free agents still don't take them seriously.

When a roster is loaded with expiring deals — Bogdanovic, Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Thad Young, Kyle O'Quinn and Evans — me-first problems can poison a good thing as players try to boost their numbers at the expense of the team.

Remarkably, that's not an issue with McMillan's Pacers.

"That's how you win games and championships," says Nicolas Batum, who spent most of his first seven seasons in the NBA under McMillan in Portland from 2005-12. "He's strict on details because if you don't respect the details first on the little things then at the end, the bigger stuff, what happens? As a coach he's right to do it."

Batum echoes Turner's comments as another young player introduced to the NBA by McMillan.

"He will use three words to say something to you. Something big," Batum says. "He won't do a crazy speech, or get you in his office five or 10 minutes. He'll look at you. He'll keep looking at you. You're like, 'OK, I messed up.' I've been there."

It's working. There are fewer instances of Bogdanovic and Young having tunnel vision when they have the ball. Evans finally has come around, knowing when to go 1-on-1 and when to give up the ball quicker.

Evans, McDermott, Domantas Sabonis and Turner have missed time with ailments. Wesley Matthews signed as a free agent a week ago after agreeing to a buyout with the New York Knicks. Rookies Aaron Holiday and Edmond Sumner have played more than expected.

Lineups have repeatedly changed. National interest has waned without Oladipo.

But success — and McMillan — remains the same.

"Sometimes you got guys that come in with egos. Guys that think they know more than the coaches," Turner says. "We don't have anybody like that here. We're able to have conversations with coach. It's not his-way-or-the-highway thing. It makes it easier for both sides."

A born coach

An NBA resume as a player isn't everything for a coach.

Jason Kidd, Brian Shaw and Derek Fisher combined for 52 years of experience in the league. They didn't succeed as coaches.

Gregg Popovich (Spurs), Brad Stevens (Celtics) and Nick Nurse (Raptors) haven't played a day in the league. Their success as coaches is undeniable.

"They have a presence. A certain charisma, an authority figure, a respect factor. The common denominator is they’re competitive," Danny Green says of successful coaches. Green won an NBA championship playing for Popovich and now plays for Nurse. "They want to win as badly as any player. They’re motivational speakers in a sense. They know how to get guys going. Most of them are never really satisfied."

A coach on the playground. A coach on the court. A coach off it. That was McMillan long before he was an actual coach.

The best diagrammed plays are just empty words if the players don't believe in him. The person.

"George (Karl) had a good system but Nate made sure everybody adhered to it," Gill says. "Nate ran the show. There were a lot of different personalities. You got me, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Ricky Pierce, Michael Cage, Detlef Schrempf. All those different personalities and all those guys could play and Nate was the calming influence with everybody."

When Karl took over the SuperSonics for 42 games in 1991-92, he immediately recognized that McMillan made his job easier. McMillan kept the drama at bay on a team where the players had as much personality as they had talent and unquenchable thirsts for the ball.

When it comes to McMillan, Karl stands on common ground with Gill.

"In less than a month, I knew Nate was a big-time key to the mentality of my basketball team. He was the guy that managed the locker room," Karl says. "He’s the guy when something had to be said that wasn’t comfortable, he would say it. I never coached a more selfless guy. There’s no question I thought Nate would be a head coach and a good one. I wish he would’ve stayed in Seattle forever."

Relationships matter. Empathy and patience go a long way. Good leaders have it in perpetuity.

Consistency wins

How does McMillan do it? It sounds easy enough to tell players to do something but it's not always that simple.

A coach such as McMillan, without a front office led by president Kevin Pritchard, might have difficulty thriving. McMillan sits down with new arrivals to make sure they're clear on where he draws the lines and the consequences for straying outside of them. He talked to the team before the season opened about all the Pacers' expiring contracts and how playing for oneself because of it will not be tolerated.

Fred Hoiberg didn't last with the Chicago Bulls. David Blatt was sent packing before long with the Cleveland Cavaliers. When Randy Wittman's relationship with his stars deteriorated, he was done with the Wizards.

Rick Carlisle (Mavericks) and Erik Spoelstra (Heat) haven't won recently, but they're on solid ground because not only have they won championships, they have an enviable support system that allows them to stick to their principles. When they butt heads with a player, they're undefeated.

That's a requirement.

"It's not a player's league everywhere. Certain organizations are different than others," says Green, who has spent most of his 10 seasons coached by Popovich. "With Pop it’s not a player’s league. If it’s what Pop says, that’s the way it goes. In other organizations, it's not like that.

"When there’s a beef between players and coaches there has to be a side to choose. That helps a coach more than anything, to have a front office that believes in them and backs them in a lot of the things, their theories, things they emphasize. It allows them to be more firm. They know their job is not on the line."

McMillan is in the final year of his first contract with the Pacers; the extension he signed before this season kicks in with a fully guaranteed 2019-20. He wanted a shorter deal and there's a team option for 2020-21, league sources tellIndyStar.

He continues to win his way, or as he'll often say, "the right way," which means valuing the mid-range, minimizing what he sees as unnecessary switches on defense and playing through the low post on offense to create open shots.

He doesn't have the personnel to run the Mike D'Antoni 7-seconds-or-less style offense. Being a high-possession copycat might look more pleasing analytically, but the Pacers wouldn't be No. 3 in the East.

"Nate's an old school coach. It’s a good thing because you want some of that texture today," says Jamal Crawford, who played for McMillan in Portland and is now in his 19th season with the Phoenix Suns. "It’s a different climate. Everybody had to evolve and adjust, even players. He’s shown that. He has (the Pacers) rolling. He’s playing to his strengths."

If a reserve has the hot hand, McMillan will keep his starters on the bench. When Turner didn't start the season strong, Sabonis earned more of the crunch-time minutes. If Holiday had it going, Evans remained seated. In the few games O'Quinn has gotten extended time, he shined. O'Quinn has not played in 26 games.

There's no public pouting by any of them.

"He’s not afraid to push buttons. I think they’re going to make the top 4 in the Eastern conference," Karl said, although that was before Oladipo's injury. "I thought he did a great job last year and didn’t get a lot of recognition. Somehow, someway, he’s doing a better job this year and still not getting that much recognition."

McMillan doesn't seek it.

The process can get mundane but the key is to not stray. That's what led to McMillan's reminder to Turner after the young center got his extension. When good defensive teams such as the Pacers drift from their identity to allow 116, 121, 123 and 135 points in consecutive games, McMillan is there to tighten his grip.

With the season 24 games from its conclusion, making the playoffs isn't the question. It's about how good the Pacers will be and how far McMillan can lead them. Advancing out of the first round would be a start. They came one win from eliminating the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers last season. Instead, James made his eighth consecutive appearance in the NBA finals.

It's not impossible, though it will be more difficult without a closer such as Oladipo. To win a random regular-season matchup is different compared with a seven-game series where there's only one opponent. There's more time for game-planning.

Every time the Pacers have been written off as no longer a threat this season, they have responded.

There was the 42-point win vs. James and his L.A. Lakers.

When Oladipo went down in the first half vs. the Toronto Raptors, the Pacers rallied for their first win against the Raptors.

The Pacers' six-game win streak was ended by the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, but they had the team with the best record in the conference down 10 in the fourth quarter after coming from 13 down themselves.

They're not pulling the plug just because they're missing their two-time All-Star, benching veterans and tossing young players into the fire. Why not? The season is over, right?

That would be incorrect.

That's the hot-take universe at work, using small sample sizes such as a four-game losing streak to draw big-picture conclusions for an 82-game season.

That would be quitting. That's not who the Pacers are. Only someone with no skin in the game might see a path to winning by losing as reasonable.

"The thing is this," Gill says, "if you have a coach like Nate, you will run through a wall."

They believe he'll do the same for them, not take the easy way out by bailing on the season.

To suggest he would might be greeted with a sneer. And, "Are you (expletive) serious?"