Per USA Basketball, Pacers head coach Nate McMillan won’t be adding to his medal count this summer, as he has withdrawn from his position as an assistant to Gregg Popovich for Team USA, citing “schedule conflicts.”
While said conflict wasn’t specified in the press release that announced Atlanta’s Lloyd Pierce as his replacement, Indiana is on tap to play the league’s first-ever preseason games in India on Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5. Should Team USA advance to the gold medal round of the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China on September 15, the turnaround to prepare for the opening of training camp (which will likely be earlier than usual to account for overseas travel) would be short — not to mention jet-lagged.