RealGM

The Pacers continue to fly up our rankings, despite being essentially a .500 team. In August, they rose a whopping nine spots, from No. 26 to 17. This time, the team rise six more spots to 11th place.

While the Pacers don't excel in any category except money, a couple of factors fuel our optimism.

For starters, big man Roy Hibbert looks like a Most Improved Player candidate. The 24-year-old, 7-foot-2 big man is averaging 15 points, eight rebounds and two blocks and still hasn't reached his ceiling. Add in point guard Darren Collison, who was acquired this offseason, and star swingman Danny Granger and the Pacers suddenly have a terrific young core to build around.

The team has also been helped by the sudden emergence of Brandon Rush. After three passive, inconsistent seasons, Rush is hitting his jump shots and locking down players on the defensive end. If he can keep it up, he becomes a fourth piece to the puzzle. The Pacers also have a wealth of other young players -- such as Tyler Hansbrough, Paul George, A.J. Price and Lance Stephenson -- who barely play but all have promise down the road.

Clearly, president of ops. Larry Bird and GM David Morway have done a terrific job of drafting in the middle and back end of the draft. But they've also managed the books well and go into the trade deadline with a myriad of expiring contracts and/or a ton of cap space next summer. They have an impressive $27 million in expiring contracts to play with, and the fact that most of the players who are on expiring deals (Mike Dunleavy, T.J. Ford, Jeff Foster) can be major contributors on playoff teams improves the Pacers' chances of getting a significant piece in return.

If Indiana can't make a deal, it walks into next summer with the second most cap space of any team in the league. Given their young, up-and-coming stable of talent, they should be able to persuade a good free agent to come aboard.

(Previous rank: 17)