When star shooting guard Victor Oladipo was lost for the season after suffering a devastating left knee injury, pundits around the league thought the Indiana Pacers would drop in the NBA standings.

That hasn't happened, though. After defeating the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday at home, the Pacers improved to 42-23 on the season and are now in the third spot in the Eastern Conference standings, ahead of the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Bulls head coach Jim Boylen has been really impressed with the job Indiana head coach Nate McMillan has done and believes the Pacers' leader deserves to be in the Coach of the Year race.

The prevailing thought around the league is that Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer is the frontrunner to win the award since the team has the best record in the NBA.

But we shouldn't ignore the job Nate McMillan has done. With Oladipo out, the Pacers lack star power, but they are still winning games because of how McMillan is leading the group and putting his guys in positions to be successful.

As long as Indiana keeps defying the odds and winning games without Oladipo, McMillan's Coach of the Year résumé is going to look really nice at the end of the season.