The Pacers Core (a clinic in how to build without tanking)

[darkangle901]

Well if Hibbert/West are viable options in the post, then yes, I think the Pacers have enough to be considered a dark-horse.

What I wonder is whether they have that "extra gear" they can switch to come playoff time. I think we've seen that Miami has one more level they can go to.

If they can get past Miami, then their length and size makes them a good matchup against OKC. Spurs and Clips however are on a different level in terms of ball-movement. That's how you beat physically imposing teams, so I think those might be bad matchups for the Pacers. Memphis would be an absolute dog-fight.

We'll see. I'm rooting for a Memphis/Indiana finals. I love hard-nosed inside-out basketball.

[Nuntius]

What I wonder is whether they have that "extra gear" they can switch to come playoff time. I think we've seen that Miami has one more level they can go to.

Miami defiitely has that extra gear. Or to put it differently, LeBron definitely has that extra gear. Durant showed that he has that extra gear as well (although on a lower scale).

But I'm not sure if any other team / player in the league has that extra gear apart from those two.

We'll have to wait and see, I guess

Spurs and Clips however are on a different level in terms of ball-movement. That's how you beat physically imposing teams, so I think those might be bad matchups for the Pacers.

Oh, I agree. We cannot defend the Spurs if our lives depended on it. Their ball-movement is too good. They are a horrible match-up for us. The Clips presented some similar match-up issues as well (got tons of open 3s that they missed).

[Nuntius]

IIRC B-R has them as having the easiest strength of schedule in the league, which dilutes their SRS.

Meanwhile Denver has had a pretty tough stretch while maintaining a similar margin of victory, which leads to a better SRS (Denver's SRS is just behind OKC/SAS/MIA/LAC's, fwiw).

Don't confuse things with "hypotheticals" like that.

Fyi, SoS and SRS are not hypotheticals. They are actual stats that hold value and I respect.

Your "formula" on the other hand? Yeah, that's hypothetical.

[SKR]

I'm rooting for a Memphis/Indiana finals. I love hard-nosed inside-out basketball.

Oh, I would just die to watch these finals. It ain't happening unfortunetly, but we can dream