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McMillan Makes a Statement: Training Camp Still On

It was just a Wednesday afternoon practice, sandwiched between an exhibition victory in New Orleans the previous night and a home game the following night. That normally calls for a light workout – reviewing video, some shooting, maybe some work on Xs and Os.

And yet there was Nate McMillan, toward the end of a demanding two-hour session on the main court of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, scolding his players.

"This is still training camp," he told them, calmly but sternly. "Some of you are going through the motions. Not all of you, but a few of you. We've got to clean that up. We can't go through the motions."

If there's a simple way to describe the primary adjustment the players will have to make to McMillan's coaching style, that would be it. He's more demanding, unafraid of pushing the players when they don't want to be pushed.

McMillan's debut with the Pacers on Tuesday was encouraging, as far as exhibition victories go. They got up 104 shots and scored 113 points, a drastic change from last season, when they averaged 85 shots and 102.2 points. To maintain that sort of pace, however, they'll have to be physically and mentally tough enough to push through 82 48-minute games. McMillan made it a point to deliver that message on Wednesday.

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"We played last night, we won a game, we did some good things, but we're still in training camp," McMillan told reporters later. "There's still a lot of improvement that's needed. We wanted to go hard today. We wanted to get our work in and come back tomorrow and be ready for Chicago.

"I thought they worked, and at the end lost a little focus and got a little sloppy. One of the things we've talked about, a big key for us in practice in games, we want a good start and a good finish. We want to start quarters well and we want to finish quarters well. That's the same thing in practice."

Following his lecture, McMillan closed Wednesday's practice with a 12-minute fullcourt scrimmage, with starters and reserves mixed. Once the White team took a 24-14 lead with less than a minute remaining, he called it off and gave another lecture on the weather. Indirectly.

He talked about sunshine and clouds, and how people want to be in the sunshine but want to escape the clouds. In other words, people want to be around players who are upbeat and energetic, and want to get away from players who mope around all the time.

"When there's sunshine, you want to be part of it, you want to be in it, you want to be with it," he said. "That's what we've got to be. Every time we come out here, we've got to be sunshine."

He then closed practice with free throws. Players took turns taking two shots, with the entire team running a length of the floor and back for each miss until 20 shots were made. For the record, Thad Young, Myles Turner, Kevin Seraphin, Alex Poythress and Paul George each missed one attempt, unintentionally contributing to the team's conditioning.

"We definitely went hard," George said later. "But we're all committed. We trust him. It's going to be rough (on Thursday) trying to find legs. We'll have to will it (against the Bulls), but it's only going to be better for us when the season starts."

George said former coach Frank Vogel would likely have taken a different approach to Wednesday's practice.

"Today would have been lighter," he said. "One thing about Frank, he was very mindful of the body – legs and being fresh. Nate's approach is we do it now, it will be easier in the game."

McMillan will find his players more receptive to his practice demands if the games bring rewards, as happened on Tuesday in their 113-96 victory over the Pelicans. Seven players scored between 10 and 14 points, displaying the depth McMillan believes he has, and his team committed just 11 turnovers despite the pace of play and unfamiliarity with one another.

"I liked some of the things we did," he said.

For negatives, he pointed out his team's 24 fouls, which allowed the Pelicans 34 foul shots. But then he doesn't want to be a cloud. He saw plenty of sunshine, and so did George.

"I thought we looked good," George said. "We're still figuring things out, didn't shoot the ball well, still trying to understand spacing and flow, yet we scored 113 points. If we have a free flow where we're not coming down pounding the ball, looking to call plays, it puts us in attack mode every possession. Coach is fine with us getting a good look whether there's 23 on the clock or two on the clock.

"It's just exciting to have all of this talent and now it's, 'How can we figure it all out?' Last night was fun when we were pushing the break and just sharing the ball. Kick it up to Jeff (Teague), Jeff kicks it to Thaddeus and Thaddeus brings the ball up … it's just fun. Especially when we get stops it's going to be an unbelievable journey."

Notes

Turner, who returned to practice on Monday after missing the first week of training camp with concussion symptons, will not play on Thursday. He might play on Saturday, McMillan said … Aaron Brooks, who sat out Tuesday's game with a hip injury, was a full participant on Tuesday, and played well in the portion open to the media. His status for Thursday is uncertain … Jeremy Evans, acquired from Dallas in an off-season trade, was not expected to be ready to play until the regular season began, at the earliest, but made his practice debut on Wednesday. He is recovering from shoulder surgery. McMillan said he wasn't sure if Evans would play against the Bulls.

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