Indiana Pacers assistant Lloyd Pierce taking lessons for next opportunity as head coach — Andscape

OKLAHOMA CITY – As Indiana Pacers lead assistant coach Lloyd Pierce stands on the sideline during his first NBA Finals, it’s inevitable that he may daydream a little about being a head coach again in this elite situation one day.

It wasn’t that long ago that Pierce was the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. While the current head coaching job cycle has just two job openings (New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns), the 49-year-old Pierce believes his experience under Carlisle will have him ready once his opportunity comes again.

Until then, Pierce’s focus is helping coach the Pacers to their first NBA championship. Oklahoma City will host Indiana in Game 1 of the Finals Thursday night.

“I took a head coaching job and I learned a lot,” Pierce told Andscape. “I want to be able to prove to myself. More than anything, I want to propel an organization to where we are right now, the NBA Finals. Every competitor struggles with the day they were let go. And so, everything you do moving forward is first self-awareness, and then second it’s do what you need to do to get back in that seat and prove everybody wrong, and more importantly prove it to yourself.

“And I’m definitely more about proving myself, and so I’m not stressing over it. But I definitely feel like I deserve an opportunity to get back in that seat again.”

Pierce has been the Pacers’ lead assistant coach since 2021 under Carlisle, who led the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA title in 2011. The Pacers won three ABA championships but have not won a title since merging into the NBA in 1976.

Prior to coming to Indiana, Pierce was the head coach of the Hawks from 2018 to 2021, compiling a 63-120 record in three seasons while coaching the likes of All-Star Trae Young. The former Santa Clara men’s basketball star and assistant coach also was previously an assistant coach with Cleveland, Golden State, Memphis and Philadelphia from 2007 to 2018 before joining the Hawks. Pierce also was an assistant coach for USA Basketball’s gold medal-winning 2020 Tokyo Olympics men’s basketball team.

For Carlisle, Pierce has been his right-hand man and confidante. Carlisle also believes Pierce deserves an opportunity to be an NBA head coach again.

“I was fortunate to have Lloyd join my staff here in 2021,” Carlisle told Andscape. “Strong presence, great communicator with diverse and fertile basketball mind. Great leader. Most important to me is that he’s a person I can learn from every day. Zero question that he will be a head coach again soon.”

The following is a Q&A with Pierce in which he reflects on his time coaching with Carlisle and Atlanta, the key to the Pacers making it to the NBA Finals, his time serving as the inaugural chairman of the NBA Coaches for Racial Justice initiative, two former Santa Clara stars being in the NBA Finals in himself and Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams, the state of African American coaches in the NBA, the love of basketball in Indiana and much more.

What was key for the Pacers making the Finals?

Trust and belief. Our players trust us. We believe in our players and I think they understand it and they feel it. Rarely do our players doubt the gameplan. We’ve earned enough trust in the last couple of years, and we’ve earned it in small doses, but it carries a huge reaction. The first dose I thought was making it to the [2024 NBA] in-season tournament [championship game] last year. We played some really big games leading up to that and we were on a grand stage. I thought our guys had a huge belief coming out of the in-season tournament, which led to the playoffs. And then we got to the conference finals and they trusted what we asked them to do, which was to pick up full court [defensively], to play faster and to play unselfish. It earned us the Eastern Conference [finals berth] last year. So, it wasn’t a hard sell coming into this [season]. We brought back most of our guys and a lot of our guys got paid. So, they believed in us, we believed in them, it showed in the contracts and they trusted us and I think that showed throughout the regular season this year.

In terms of just making the Finals personally as a coach, somebody who having not played in NBA, do you have a deeper appreciation for it?

All season long, you try and preach what it’s going to look like. I use the term reverse engineer. You try and reverse engineer what you need to do to end up as one of the last two teams and the last team standing. As a coach, it just validates what you preach all along. Possessions matter, playing hard matters, playing unselfish matters, staying ready matters. I think now that I’ve arrived at this moment, you feel you can carry your message a lot stronger moving forward about why possessions matter, about why staying ready matters.

I can say, ‘Hey man, I’ve been to a Finals. This is what it took.’ Experience matters at this level. We learned it last year getting to the conference finals, which propelled us to the [2025] Finals. So as a coach, it’s the same — experience matters. Being able to say I’m coaching in the month of June for the first time is a huge accomplishment and privilege.

What have these years with the Pacers meant for your development as a coach?

As a leader, someone that’s been in a leadership position, your biggest challenge is finding ways that you’re constantly evolving and improving. So, I had three years as a decision maker in Atlanta, and then I came and joined someone that’s had a wealth of experience and knowledge in Rick. And you get to see together how to build something, using my knowledge, relying on his expertise, experience and knowledge, and then turning a program around step-by-step, not skipping steps and knowing that we got our ownership and management team that’s going to allow us to do it primarily because of Rick’s experience.

So, it’s been helpful to take what I thought I needed as a head coach and apply it to my assistant coach responsibility to help a head coach who knows exactly what to do and is relying on all of us to help execute it. The value in that trust is important, delegation is important, empowerment is important. And we’ve had the opportunity to receive all of that from Rick and from management and from ownership.

What has Carlisle done for you, and what have you done for Carlisle?

Well, I think Rick believes in me. I think he believes in all of our staff. He’s allowed all of us to coach our specific areas and really have a strong presence and voice. We did an exercise a few years ago where we took a word and used it to describe ourselves. He said, ‘I think I’m very resourceful.’ And for me to see him operate as a very resourceful person has been very beneficial. Whether it’s reaching out to [the media], reaching out to an agent with regards to one of our players and trying to help echo the same messaging, or like he did the other day, taking the grandest stage for the Indiana Pacers and making sure he gave a sincere thank you to Ernie Johnson and TNT in their final broadcast call.

He’s very resourceful in what to say and how to say it, and when to say it and who to speak to in appropriate times. And our players understand that he’s always thinking ahead. He’s always thinking of advantages and that’s the job. The job isn’t the X’s and O’s. He lets us do a lot of that. But he is great about managing the situations, the moments, the players, the opportunity, and that’s how you earn trust and belief of everyone.

And what do you think you’ve given coach Carlisle?

When I took the job, one of the things I expressed to him was finding joy in the organization and making sure that when we came to work we enjoyed it. We both were leaving a different situation. We both wanted to enjoy who we coached and how we coached and what we were doing. He has a greater appreciation of wine now, and he’ll be the first to admit he knows exactly where that came from.

But I think, more importantly, he relies specifically on me to be a sounding board when it comes to speaking to the agents. Anytime he calls the agent, I’m usually involved; anytime we’re speaking to a player and an agent, I’m usually involved. I do a lot of head-coaching responsibilities with him, exit meetings, free-agency conversations or meetings. He knows he has a guy that can give a different perspective on the same message so that it’s not lost in translation.

What will you take into your next head coaching job from your time with Carlisle?

The thing I’ve learned the most is you can never over communicate your messaging. You can never miss an opportunity to correct confusion if a player doesn’t know his role. If you know a player’s struggling with his minutes or our play call, being able to communicate the message is something you got to get right on top of. And I think sometimes we take communication for granted.

These guys are human, they’re emotional. We have to have players and staff and organizations that are on the same page. So, just the nature of communication. Sometimes it’s hard communication. Sometimes it’s positive communication. But you can’t miss the moment to get everybody on the same page.

What were your proudest memories as head coach of the Hawks?

Anytime you take the job, did you leave it better than you found it? And at the end of the day, Trae was an All-Star. DeAndre Hunter has turned into a hell of a player. Kevin Huerter turned into a hell of a player. And I think the organization really came into the realm of relevance again, shortly thereafter. They went to the conference finals the same year I got fired. So, none of that happens without myself and my staff in the development of our players. And the organizational structure, the wins and losses aren’t what you really measure it by. It’s just is the organization in a better place? And obviously I think they are.

On the court, they’re still going to argue that they were trying to find themselves. But I enjoyed the people. I enjoyed [Hawks principal owner] Tony Ressler, [former Hawks president] Travis Schlenk, who gave me a great opportunity. I still communicate with both of those guys somewhat regularly. So, I definitely feel like I left my mark there on the court and off the court obviously with the voting, community work and the messaging that I still get from fans and people in Atlanta about the work that I did there. So, there’s a lot to be happy about in Atlanta, and you don’t beg for extra time. You just try and maximize the time you have and make sure you leave it better than you found it.

You are a mentor for several African American coaches. You hosted an event for Black coaches during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas last year and served as the inaugural chairman of the NBA Coaches for Racial Justice initiative. What is the latest with the NBA Coaches for Racial Justice initiative?

Behind the scenes, I’m still pretty active and a lot of stuff with our coaching association, it’s not all necessarily on racial justice. Part of the programming I did in Vegas was about incorporating other assistant coaches to do more. The burden isn’t just on me or the other coaches that were involved. The burden is allowing coaches to feel like they do have a voice to participate. So, I’ve worked with [NBA Coaches for Racial Justice initiative executive director] James Cadogan and the staff that he used that worked with our association to develop some programming and some things like that. The year 2020 was such a drastic year. None of us are activists and none of us are primarily in the field, in the community as our main ordeal. But we do find opportunities and ways to communicate about how we can amplify those [messages]. So, that’s still active, it’s just not as prominent and out there as it was in 2020.

What do you think about the state of African American coaches in the NBA?

Well, I’ve said this since Day 1, speaking on any of this, the number will constantly fluctuate. Coaches get fired, white and Black. We’ve probably seen more white coaches get fired this year. So, the number will constantly fluctuate because the carousel just changes. Often what you get excited about are [Detroit Pistons president of basketball operations] Trajan Langdons and the [Charlotte Hornets executive vice president of basketball operations] Jeff Petersons and the [New Orleans Pelicans head of basketball operations] Joe Dumars of the world that are getting opportunities to be in the decision-making process. What you are hoping for is some of the ownership to have some variety. And until that changes, the coaching thing really doesn’t matter. It’s really about the decision making and the ownership.

We have a lot of Black coaches, assistant coaches, head coaches. We make up probably [much] of our league. But we definitely would like to see the relationships between coaches and front office and ownership have more people like Jeff and Joe Dumars in those seats.”

Your alma mater, Santa Clara, is going to be represented on both sides during the NBA Finals with yourself and Thunder All-Star forward Jalen Williams. Do you have much of a relationship with Jalen and what are your thoughts on Santa Clara getting a ring either way?

I’ve been proud of Jalen since he got in the league. I’ve gotten to know him from afar. [NBA agent Bill] Duffy represents him. The biggest thing is Jalen has been himself since he’s gotten in the league on and off the court, his personality. People know his game continues to evolve and grow and he has been rewarded both as a team and as an individual in this season alone. So, it is great for Santa Clara.

It’s really good for him. It’s really good that he is representing Santa Clara in a way that shows that you can do it coming from anywhere. This is really about the mid-major and the small schools than it is just Santa Clara. So, I’m happy for him. I don’t know him great, but we do have a relationship. Always been respectful and going out of his way to show a little love and say hello to the older guy. But obviously we’re trying beat him with this one.

What have you learned about the love for basketball in Indiana since you’ve been there?

It’s unheralded. It’s kind of unexplainable. I went to Ty’s camp [Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton]. He had one of his free camps in the summer, and it’s on one of those multiplex courts. And you got six games going at the same time. And, I kid you not, everybody can shoot. Nine-year-olds, the 13-year-olds, everybody can shoot. Everybody got a jumper and I’m loving it. I’m walking in and the 9-year-olds are draining 3s and it looks good. They’re holding their follow through. And it’s still Hoosier country. The [Purdue] Boilermakers are right up the street. Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish football. But basketball, it’s just godly out here. People call themselves Hoosiers, which is a basketball term at the core of it and a movie. And they know the game. They love the game. They support the game. I live in a community where Pacer flags are in the windows throughout the community. It feels like it’s a small town, college town for the basketball, but the reality is the whole state up and down loves basketball.

What do you think about your journey, from playing at Santa Clara, to becoming an NBA assistant coach, to becoming an NBA coach, to coaching the Olympics, to now coaching in the Finals?

Live, love, give is what I say. Often, I’m living in the moment. The best thing about the NBA experience is if you stay present, you’ll appreciate the opportunity that much more. You’ll appreciate the humility of trying to get better that much more. And that has been my pathway and that has been my growth. It’s really about just being present, living in the moment. Someone gives you an opportunity, it’s your responsibility to take advantage of it. And I was granted an opportunity 18 years ago. It led me to a head coach [position] after 12 seasons, and I’m aiming to have a 20-year mark here pretty soon.

And along the way, what comes is a result of hard work. It’s a result of integrity. It’s a result of credibility. It’s a result of being a good person more than anything. So, the Olympic journey, the head coaching opportunity, the NBA Finals working for [coaches] Pop [Gregg Popovich], Rick Carlisle, Mike Brown, Brett Brown, Lionel Hollins, Keith Smart, those things are a result of them seeing my body of work, trusting me enough, and then empowering me. So, again, if someone gives you an opportunity, it’s your responsibility to take advantage of it. And I’ve just tried to do that the entire time.

There was a picture of you and your wife, Melissa, and your young daughters Maya and Londyn wearing NBA Finals gear after the Pacers won the Eastern Conference finals last Thursday. What did that moment mean to you and your family, and what was going through your mind?

It is my first time making the Finals. And so, we essentially scripted the moment that it was important to have the girls at the game that night. It’s a late game. It’s hard to get them to the late games. But we were intentional about having them there and being able to bring them on the court and just having a lasting memory. I didn’t get the opportunity to do that at the Olympics because we were in the pandemic and family couldn’t go. So, I knew far and few do you get those grand stages and opportunities. This was one that we were able to script and prepare for and really wanted to capture the moment as a family.