RealGM

Hi all, Celtics fan here. I stumbled across an interesting tid-bit about the Pacers, and thought I'd post it here.....

Apparently when people use statistical models to predict the success of NBA teams for the upcoming season, they generally match up pretty well with popular opinion. However there is one exception: the Indiana Pacers. While nearly every media "expert" is predicting them to finish as one of the two or three worst teams in the East, most statistical models predict that the Pacers will actually finish 6th, with some even predicting that the Pacers will win enough regular season games to have home-court advantage in the first round. The link below takes you to the general prediction page, mention of the Pacers is about 1/2 way down, and there are links provided to lead you to more Pacers' info. Good luck this year (except when playing the Celtics, of course).

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/projecting-the-2008-09-nba-season/

John Hollinger has a similar opinion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingc ... recast0809

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/s ... iem-081103

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime ... review0809

They all just see 36 wins last year and no more O'Neal so they think the Pacers will suck. They ignore the fact that we played half last season with O'Neal. We keep our best players from last season in Granger, Dunleavy, and Murphy; and add Ford, Jack, Rush, Hibbert and Nesterovic. Yes, we don't have Orlando's frontcourt, but it is still a huge improvement over last season. And the point guards don't even compare. Add to this Granger continued improvement and it's easy to understand why the analyst who actually do research think the Pacers will be good.

You guys (Celtics) will probably return the favor next game we play and hand it to us

Thanks Celtic Fan and good luck to your team as well