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Now with James gone, the Pacers are the favorites to win the division. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, aren't in full-on rebuilding bode, but they're also not serious threats for the conference title for the first time in five years.

Indiana enters Monday's exhibition coming off an overtime loss in Memphis in which none of the Pacers' five starters played. Coach Nate McMillan wanted to get more minutes to his younger players, but there also might have been a little gamesmanship at play since the Blue & Gold open the regular season against the Grizzlies on Oct. 17.

Expect at least some of the starters to return to action against the Cavaliers, possibly even power forward Thaddeus Young, who has yet to play this preseason due to a bone bruise in his left foot.

Topofthekey wrote:Pacers finished higher on the standings and won the head to head series

Not saying the Bucks aren't a good team, but they are so far more hype than substance

Middleton is overrated (watch some of his low IQ plays), Giannis looked genuinely lost in their series against Celtics last season, and Bledsoe just doesn't come across as a winner

Still, they have someone called "The Greek Freak", and a recent RoTY in Brogdon, so it is inevitable that people who don't watch Pacers closely rates Bucks ahead of Pacers

Scoot McGroot wrote:Middleton is also a great glue guy on the wing (seriously, be prepared to hear next summer that we’ve thrown a max offer at him, it seems like a Pacers move.

Scoot McGroot wrote:I wouldn’t worry about tape. If that’s the worry, we shouldn’t run the play until the one time we need it in the playoffs.

Wizop wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:I wouldn’t worry about tape. If that’s the worry, we shouldn’t run the play until the one time we need it in the playoffs.

Memphis was an unusual situation as we play them again on the 17th. neither team chose to give anything away. the game was played like an NFL 4th preseason game. I won't be surprised if we play tonight like an NFL 3rd preseason game.

Scoot McGroot wrote:

Wizop wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:I wouldn’t worry about tape. If that’s the worry, we shouldn’t run the play until the one time we need it in the playoffs.

Memphis was an unusual situation as we play them again on the 17th. neither team chose to give anything away. the game was played like an NFL 4th preseason game. I won't be surprised if we play tonight like an NFL 3rd preseason game.

Again, I’d worry more about rust and misfiring than giving someone tape.

Pacers_Freak wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:

Wizop wrote:
Memphis was an unusual situation as we play them again on the 17th. neither team chose to give anything away. the game was played like an NFL 4th preseason game. I won't be surprised if we play tonight like an NFL 3rd preseason game.

Again, I’d worry more about rust and misfiring than giving someone tape.

We disagreed in the other thread about tape a little bit. I think the main reason of giving the starters off the Memphis game was the fact we play our 4 pre-season games in 7 days. No need to run off their legs in that stretch in meaningless games. When the pre-season schedule came out I thought Nate would sit them either Sat or tonight. Saturday obviously made more sense with Memphis up on the regular season schedule first.

Jake0890 wrote:Sumner looks GOOD. Great call Wiz.

Topofthekey wrote:Thad Young and CoJo did not play due to injuries

YET there weren't enough minutes for Aaron Holiday, Kyle O'Quinn, and Alize Johnson to play much

Partially due to the emergence of players like Leaf and Sumner, the Pacers roster is quite congested now; you want to encourage the continued development of these young players by giving them steady playing time, you do not want to stunt their growth by having them be cheerleaders

The roster is full of solid, decent players who all deserve playing time, but it's a finite resource, someone's going to end up being wasted on the bench

Perhaps they should address this now with a trade before it becomes a problem; an early trade also gives the team a bit more time to gel before the playoffs

Topofthekey wrote:Perhaps they should address this now with a trade before it becomes a problem; an early trade also gives the team a bit more time to gel before the playoffs

Topofthekey wrote:I think let's just trade Bogie

Myles/Domas/KoQ
Thad/Leaf
Doug/Tyreke
Vic/CoJo
DC/Sumner/Holiday

With him gone it would open up some minutes for Sumner and maybe Holiday as well

Topofthekey wrote:I think let's just trade Bogie

Myles/Domas/KoQ
Thad/Leaf
Doug/Tyreke
Vic/CoJo
DC/Sumner/Holiday

With him gone it would open up some minutes for Sumner and maybe Holiday as well