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What are your goals with this team for the rest of the season? In my opinion, I think they really exceeded expectations so far with Vic being out so many games.

I personally think the goal should be to stay in the top 4 of the East and win at least 1 round in the playoffs. I think that will bring more interest in from free agents and get the team headed down the right path into next season. I think it's going to be hard hold off the 76ers and Celtics both for that 4 seed, but that is what my goal is.

What do you guys think? Can the Pacers do more than that? Less?

Hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend. Frustrating that there are no Pacers involved in All-Star weekend...

I think if your goals were obtained that would be a helluva year considering the circumstances. I'm not sure of the possibility of us beating Boston or Philly in a series, but it would be great if it happened.

Goals needn't be realistic. My goal would be to stay in 3rd even thought I wouldn't bet on us doing so.

Realistically? I'd love to develop Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf, and figure out what we have there, all while winning north of 45 games (ideally, 50+).

1. Winning record in our remaining 24 games; I don't really care about seeding that much as we can't control how well Boston and Philly play down the stretch. Even going .500 would put us at 50 wins.

2. At least a 6 game series; no matter who we play, we should be able to take 2 games. Milwaukee and Toronto are the real bad matchups for us and we won't be playing them under any scenario. Philly could kill us though too.

3. Feature Myles more; he's been trending upwards on offense, but we still need to get him going more with Vic out.

4. Figure out what we have in and develop our young guys more.

I'm optimistic about 1 and 2. Not so much 3 and 4 with where we're at, though we got a good look at Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf the past month.

If we can beat the teams below us, and steal a one or two from the teams above us (letting Milwaukee slip away was a bummer), we can still hit 50 wins, which would be a nice accomplishment given the injuries to Vic this season. Boston and Philly are both on pace to reach 52 wins, and Philly is probably likely to beat that number. Falling to the fifth seed will most likely mean Boston in the first round, and without homecourt, that's going to be tough. I think we'll compete against anybody, and I wouldn't immediately count us out against Boston.

But if we continue to fight and continue to move the ball and play tough defense, I'll be pretty happy. Would like to see Holiday and Sumner get some more minutes as well, and really hope Holiday gets some playoff minutes. That would be my goal as the coach: win as many as we can and make sure the young guys get some playoff minutes so they can see what it's like.

Pacers_Freak wrote:I think if your goals were obtained that would be a helluva year considering the circumstances. I'm not sure of the possibility of us beating Boston or Philly in a series, but it would be great if it happened.

I think Philly is beatable for Indiana. They have some chemistry issues, Butler doesn't get enough touches, and i think he will leave. Harris won't have many touches for his standards either. Home court advantage would be huge in a potential series against them.

It would be really awesome and much better for our chances in the playoffs if we could hang onto that 3rd seed.

Scoot McGroot wrote:Realistically? I'd love to develop Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf, and figure out what we have there, all while winning north of 45 games (ideally, 50+).

How do I and1 this like twenty times

I'm not saying the current season is a lost cause, but the primary focus should really be on getting the younger players more experience and exposure, in preparation for next season or three

It'd be nice to still finish with a winning record, and maybe even put up a tough fight in the playoffs, but that should be a secondary concern, which is why I'm not too enthusiastic about playing Wesley Mathews like 30 minutes a game

Topofthekey wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:Realistically? I'd love to develop Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf, and figure out what we have there, all while winning north of 45 games (ideally, 50+).

How do I and1 this like twenty times

I'm not saying the current season is a lost cause, but the primary focus should really be on getting the younger players more experience and exposure, in preparation for next season or three

It'd be nice to still finish with a winning record, and maybe even put up a tough fight in the playoffs, but that should be a secondary concern, which is why I'm not too enthusiastic about playing Wesley Mathews like 30 minutes a game

I'd tend to agree, but to play devil's advocate, the reason we got Tyreke, Matthews, etc. is partially because the team refuses to quit. Not that playing the young guys more is quitting, but we're sending the message to everyone that no matter what we're not throwing in the towel. We won't ever be telling healthy guys to rest, cutting minutes, or anything like that.

Plus it could send the wrong signal to our own free agents. They know we won't be winning anything this year, but it's basically telling them "you're not good enough."

Topofthekey wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:Realistically? I'd love to develop Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf, and figure out what we have there, all while winning north of 45 games (ideally, 50+).

How do I and1 this like twenty times

I'm not saying the current season is a lost cause, but the primary focus should really be on getting the younger players more experience and exposure, in preparation for next season or three

It'd be nice to still finish with a winning record, and maybe even put up a tough fight in the playoffs, but that should be a secondary concern, which is why I'm not too enthusiastic about playing Wesley Mathews like 30 minutes a game

I always knew you were smart. Not like all those other guys

pacers33granger wrote:I'd tend to agree, but to play devil's advocate, the reason we got Tyreke, Matthews, etc. is partially because the team refuses to quit. Not that playing the young guys more is quitting, but we're sending the message to everyone that no matter what we're not throwing in the towel.

we also don't want to send the message that it is okay not to play hard. we expect everyone's best and you risk a lot when you show you don't care about winning.

pacers33granger wrote:

Topofthekey wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:Realistically? I'd love to develop Holiday, Sumner, and Leaf, and figure out what we have there, all while winning north of 45 games (ideally, 50+).

How do I and1 this like twenty times

I'm not saying the current season is a lost cause, but the primary focus should really be on getting the younger players more experience and exposure, in preparation for next season or three

It'd be nice to still finish with a winning record, and maybe even put up a tough fight in the playoffs, but that should be a secondary concern, which is why I'm not too enthusiastic about playing Wesley Mathews like 30 minutes a game

I'd tend to agree, but to play devil's advocate, the reason we got Tyreke, Matthews, etc. is partially because the team refuses to quit. Not that playing the young guys more is quitting, but we're sending the message to everyone that no matter what we're not throwing in the towel. We won't ever be telling healthy guys to rest, cutting minutes, or anything like that.

Plus it could send the wrong signal to our own free agents. They know we won't be winning anything this year, but it's basically telling them "you're not good enough."

100% agree. I understand the thought to play the youngins. But, that's not how real life sports works. You do that, you're going to lose the locker room. Best players play, period. Not saying they can't be sprinkled in a little more. But, when they start taking minutes from guys they shouldn't it is going to be a bad deal.

Hang onto the third seed and advance past the first round while giving a hard fight in the second. Accomplishing this without Vic would be quite the achievement. I'm stuck between wanting to give Evans minutes to Holiday/Sumner or waiting and praying that he somehow wakes up and helps us with my first goal come playoff time. At this point I doubt he is able to put it together though. Just doesn't fit this culture.

Hoosier TJ wrote:Hang onto the third seed and advance past the first round while giving a hard fight in the second. Accomplishing this without Vic would be quite the achievement. I'm stuck between wanting to give Evans minutes to Holiday/Sumner or waiting and praying that he somehow wakes up and helps us with my first goal come playoff time. At this point I doubt he is able to put it together though. Just doesn't fit this culture.

Yeah the Tyreke experiment seems to be a failure. However, there is still a slight chance that he starts fitting in post all star break. Remember that he's never had a situation like this ever in his career. He said that no other team cared that he or anyone else was late to practice back when he got suspended. He also had that lingering knee issue that clearly affected his lift (still has issues making layups for whatever reason though).

Plus if we don't resign him, we don't have space to get anyone else. And there's also the whole potential issue of benching one of the few decent free agents who chose to sign with us in a contract year for him. Not a great look even if it may be justified.

pacers33granger wrote:

Hoosier TJ wrote:Hang onto the third seed and advance past the first round while giving a hard fight in the second. Accomplishing this without Vic would be quite the achievement. I'm stuck between wanting to give Evans minutes to Holiday/Sumner or waiting and praying that he somehow wakes up and helps us with my first goal come playoff time. At this point I doubt he is able to put it together though. Just doesn't fit this culture.

Yeah the Tyreke experiment seems to be a failure. However, there is still a slight chance that he starts fitting in post all star break. Remember that he's never had a situation like this ever in his career. He said that no other team cared that he or anyone else was late to practice back when he got suspended. He also had that lingering knee issue that clearly affected his lift (still has issues making layups for whatever reason though).

Plus if we don't resign him, we don't have space to get anyone else. And there's also the whole potential issue of benching one of the few decent free agents who chose to sign with us in a contract year for him. Not a great look even if it may be justified.

Moving back to the 2nd unit seemed to help him right before the break. Hopefully, that combined with some rest on the break will lead to a big finish.

One of the things that Vogel did very well was put his young guys in a position to step up and develop without making it seem like the team didn't care about winning or had given up on the season just to develop young guys. He was pretty adamant that doing one wasn't necessarily at odds with the other, and that's an aspect this team has lacked since his departure.

boomershadow wrote:One of the things that Vogel did very well was put his young guys in a position to step up and develop without making it seem like the team didn't care about winning or had given up on the season just to develop young guys. He was pretty adamant that doing one wasn't necessarily at odds with the other, and that's an aspect this team has lacked since his departure.

Did he though? Lance only got minutes because Danny got hurt, Solo only got minutes because PG got hurt, Myles only played 19 minutes as a rookie backing up Ian (and that's in large part because we had no other centers), and Joe Young/GRIII didn't get any minutes under him.

Vogel's also the guy who played Monta/Stuckey nearly 60 minutes a game combined so it's not like Young/Solo/GRIII had great players blocking them. In Nate's first year he cut that to about 45 for the pair and gave GRIII 20 mpg with 27 starts, then gave Joe real minutes last year.

Tbf Vogel didn't have a lot of young guys as we were a vet team, but I don't recall him giving young guys any more or less opportunities than Nate does.

Looking at the final 22 games, it's honestly going to be tough to get 10+ wins. I think getting to 50 wins would be an awesome accomplishment. I think it's reasonable they win 4 of the next 5, and then the following 10 games are just brutal.

Win 50+ games, and then we will see what happens in the playoffs. You never know what kind of injuries/problems other teams will face coming up. The Pacers have already adapted to Oladipo going down. It seems that there is always a team that deals with an injury early in the playoffs...