Pacers upset about Nuggets firing of Brian Shaw

By the time the Indiana Pacers had wrapped up practice on Tuesday, the news had circulated.

It had not been 40 minutes since Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reported that the Nuggets had fired Brian Shaw, and the move was not yet official.

But Brian Shaw is adored around Bankers Life Fieldhouse so it’s not surprising that word had spread. And guys — players and staff alike — were upset.

“Yeah, I heard,” Paul George said as he walked by.

“That’s bulls—, man,” David West told me, clearly irked by the news. “That’s bulls—. [Denver’s front office] never gave him a team. No grown-ups on the roster. You can’t win without grown-ups.”

The last two seasons have been challenging for Shaw, to say the least. From here in Indianapolis, we’ve read reports about players not being accountable, staying out to late, not eating well, and more. Most recently, there was a pre-game player chant of “1-2-3 … six weeks!” — players blatantly counting down until the end of the season. A change was made in 2013 and Shaw was hired, but he was never given the personnel nor the time to implement his system.

Shaw participates in a game of “Around the World” after a practice during his time in Indy. Shaw had a knack for connecting with guys, and challenging them to be better.

It’s a tough break for Shaw, who deserved an opportunity to be a head coach but was passed over in a number of better situations (and he turned down others).

Prior to landing his first head-coaching gig ahead of the 2013-14 season, Shaw served as the Pacers’ associated head coach for two seasons under Frank Vogel. Shaw developed a particularly close relationship with Paul George, George Hill, and Lance Stephenson.

“It’s unfortunate,” coach Vogel said of Shaw’s firing.

“It’s a tough business. He’s a hell of a basketball coach, a hell of a good man, and I’m sure he’ll land on his feet. I just know that he’s very strongly responsible for what we’ve built here, the impact that he had here in his two years. I’m sure he’ll land on his feet very soon.”

The last time Vogel spoke with his former top aid was probably on Dec. 20 in Denver, he said, adding that they had exchanged text messages since then.

Vogel is open to bringing Shaw back on staff, but says it’s not something he’s concerned with at the moment.

“Not right now,” he answered. “We’ll talk about that in the offseason. I would love an opportunity to work with him again. I would always welcome that. Right now, we’ve got three great assistant coaches here.”

It’s probably best to shelve the talk of Shaw possibly returning at least until the dust settles.

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Early Tuesday afternoon, Denver officially announced their decision.

“I want to sincerely thank Brian for his time with our organization,” Nuggets GM Tim Connelly said in a news release. “You won’t find a better guy than Brian and he is one of the brightest basketball minds I’ve ever been around. Unfortunately things didn’t go as we hoped, but we know with his basketball acumen that he has a very bright future ahead of him.”

Lance Stephenson working with Lance Stephenson prior to a game in 2013.

Shaw labeled last season, his first, as the year of discovery for the organization, personnel and more. By January, he still didn’t know what their identity was.

“We’re a team that doesn’t really have … a captain or a leader,” he told me during our nearly 30-minute phone conversation. “We’re a young team and everybody is kind of on the same level. Nobody has really stepped into the forefront and taken the leadership on.”

Within the organization, there was a disconnect and he got the vibe that everyone wasn’t happy to come to work each day.

“What I quickly found out was that the mindset and mentality that the guys have here is completely different than the guys on the Pacers,” he added.

Shaw was the head man for 141 games (56-85) and this year, they have The Association’s sixth-worst record, 20-39. The decision was made Tuesday while the Nuggets are in the midst of a six-game losing streak. They’ve lost 19 of 21 games since Jan. 16.

Here’s an interesting scenario for Brian Shaw — what if Charlotte hired him, in part, to help mentor Lance Stephenson as he did so successfully in Indy?