RealGM

Hey guys,

I wrote an article for the site going over each of the Central Division team's offseasons, complete with 2016-17 grade and a grade for the longterm future.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/243298/2016-NBA-Offseason-Review-Central-Division

Any feedback and thoughts are always appreciated.

Enjoy!

Smitty

Smitty731 wrote:Hey guys,

I wrote an article for the site going over each of the Central Division team's offseasons, complete with 2016-17 grade and a grade for the longterm future.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/243298/2016-NBA-Offseason-Review-Central-Division

Any feedback and thoughts are always appreciated.

Enjoy!

Smitty

Pretty darned fair, re: the Pacers. I think you might overestimate Solo Hill a bit, though. He was a below 30% shooter from 3 on the year, minus the last week of the season (especially game 82 when he hit 7 3's when everyone else was benched in the meaningless game). He had very little impact the rest of the season, but he was on fire that last week (specifically, it was exactly 7 days) and for most of the playoff series against Toronto. Would it be nice to have him? Sure. Would he have finally put the work in for that last week of the season if his option was picked up? Likely not. He showed up to camp very overweight and had one of the worst summer league appearances, ever. He didn't follow the coaches and trainers expectations, and didn't kick into gear until well after his option was declined. So, hard to see if he's the Solo we've seen for 95% of his career and that we declined his option over, or the Solo that played that last week of the year like he was playing for a contract.

Good article Smitty. I think you're a letter grade low on the pacers off season. Of those lost only Ian Mahinmi will be felt because even though we love George Hill getting Teague offsets his loss. Solo Hill would have been kept if not for his showing up to summer league looking like he's been eating Papa John's pizza all summer and riding the sofa. The Pacers decided not to extend him. That contract he got from N.O. is the stupidest thing I've seen a team do this summer. He may end up earning it and proving us all wrong, but dayam! That's a lot of money for a guy who looked good only at the end of the season.

I think the Pacers win 50 games as long as health permits. Remember last year at this time people were saying the Pacers would struggle to win 30.