Jazzfan1971 and FloppyMoose's Season Preview - The Pacers
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:12 pm
Indiana Pacers
Projected Roster
-----------------------------
PG - George Hill, CJ Watson, Donald Sloan
SG - CJ Miles, Rodney Stuckey
SF - Solomon Hill, Damjan Rudez, Chris Copeland
PF - David West, Luis Scola, Lavoy Allen
C - Roy Hibbert, Ian Mahinmi, Shayne Whittington
Trade Block: David West. I don't see much reason to hang onto him at his age. He'll be better use to a contending team. Which sadly, Indy is no longer this season.
Position Battle: CJ Miles vs. Rodney Stuckey. Both guys have their own flavor of sucking. It'll be interesting to see which flavor the coach prefers the most.
Mystery Man: Who is going to score? Where are points going to come from on this team? George Hill? David West? Roy Hibbert? There could be some painfully bad scoring nights coming up.
Floppymusings: The Pacers are one big stealth squad. They are a who's who of players that are pretty darn good, but are thought of as average by the casual fan. Hill, Hibbert, and West are good starters. The bench is not strong, but is not as weak as many might think. Losing George was huge huge huge, but losing Lance, less so. Pacers will lose a lot more games but will not be the cellar dwellers I see predicted around the web.
Jazzfanramblings: Man. The Pacers. Where do I start? I guess I'll start with the win they got against the Jazz on March 2nd of last year, because right after that the wheels started falling off. By my count they finished the season on a 10 and 13 run. They'd lost the same number of games in the previous 59 games. They were on a 78% winning pace up til then to drop off into a 43% pace to finish the season. It was strange to watch. Roy Hibbert seemed like he woke up one morning and simply forgot how to play. A local radio DJ put it as such, "It's like Usain Bolt showed up to a race one day and started skipping and was like, this is how I run now."
They traded off Granger. Scola sucked. Hill put in a 13ish PER for the year, where 15 is league average. Even with all that, they limped into the playoffs with the best record in the East and managed a very respectable run to the Conference finals where they forced the Heat to 6 games.
But now they let Lance Stephenson walk without compensation in a bit of a self inflicted injury. And of course Paul George did his imitation of a folding chair. (if you haven't seen the footage I don't recommend it) It's just a lot to handle. And I think they are doing so poorly. Miami lost the best player in the game for no compensation but they'll be fine because they went out and added pretty decent pieces in Deng and McRoberts. The Pacers brought in CJ Miles and Rodney Stuckey. I had the misfortune of watching CJ Miles for years and I can guarantee he's not worth the money he's being paid. It's just a huge step backwards.
But, what's weird is that I don't get the sense that Indy is going to blow it up. I get the feeling they are going to try and make the playoffs with what they have left. This is where I compare them to Monty Python's Black Knight bravely fighting on even with 3 of his limbs severed. And I imagine the rest of the league is looking at a trio of Hibbert, Hill, and West and thinking something along the lines of 'What are you going to do? Bleed on me?"
Hopefully I'm wrong. I hope that they sell off what veteran talent they can and reload with a top pick and a healthy George next year. But, I'm worried with how wide open the East is that they may try and make an ill advised run for the playoffs instead. I guess we'll have to wait and see, either way it shouldn't be a pretty season for the Pacers.
Projected Record - 39/43
Projected Roster
-----------------------------
PG - George Hill, CJ Watson, Donald Sloan
SG - CJ Miles, Rodney Stuckey
SF - Solomon Hill, Damjan Rudez, Chris Copeland
PF - David West, Luis Scola, Lavoy Allen
C - Roy Hibbert, Ian Mahinmi, Shayne Whittington
Trade Block: David West. I don't see much reason to hang onto him at his age. He'll be better use to a contending team. Which sadly, Indy is no longer this season.
Position Battle: CJ Miles vs. Rodney Stuckey. Both guys have their own flavor of sucking. It'll be interesting to see which flavor the coach prefers the most.
Mystery Man: Who is going to score? Where are points going to come from on this team? George Hill? David West? Roy Hibbert? There could be some painfully bad scoring nights coming up.
Floppymusings: The Pacers are one big stealth squad. They are a who's who of players that are pretty darn good, but are thought of as average by the casual fan. Hill, Hibbert, and West are good starters. The bench is not strong, but is not as weak as many might think. Losing George was huge huge huge, but losing Lance, less so. Pacers will lose a lot more games but will not be the cellar dwellers I see predicted around the web.
Jazzfanramblings: Man. The Pacers. Where do I start? I guess I'll start with the win they got against the Jazz on March 2nd of last year, because right after that the wheels started falling off. By my count they finished the season on a 10 and 13 run. They'd lost the same number of games in the previous 59 games. They were on a 78% winning pace up til then to drop off into a 43% pace to finish the season. It was strange to watch. Roy Hibbert seemed like he woke up one morning and simply forgot how to play. A local radio DJ put it as such, "It's like Usain Bolt showed up to a race one day and started skipping and was like, this is how I run now."
They traded off Granger. Scola sucked. Hill put in a 13ish PER for the year, where 15 is league average. Even with all that, they limped into the playoffs with the best record in the East and managed a very respectable run to the Conference finals where they forced the Heat to 6 games.
But now they let Lance Stephenson walk without compensation in a bit of a self inflicted injury. And of course Paul George did his imitation of a folding chair. (if you haven't seen the footage I don't recommend it) It's just a lot to handle. And I think they are doing so poorly. Miami lost the best player in the game for no compensation but they'll be fine because they went out and added pretty decent pieces in Deng and McRoberts. The Pacers brought in CJ Miles and Rodney Stuckey. I had the misfortune of watching CJ Miles for years and I can guarantee he's not worth the money he's being paid. It's just a huge step backwards.
But, what's weird is that I don't get the sense that Indy is going to blow it up. I get the feeling they are going to try and make the playoffs with what they have left. This is where I compare them to Monty Python's Black Knight bravely fighting on even with 3 of his limbs severed. And I imagine the rest of the league is looking at a trio of Hibbert, Hill, and West and thinking something along the lines of 'What are you going to do? Bleed on me?"
Hopefully I'm wrong. I hope that they sell off what veteran talent they can and reload with a top pick and a healthy George next year. But, I'm worried with how wide open the East is that they may try and make an ill advised run for the playoffs instead. I guess we'll have to wait and see, either way it shouldn't be a pretty season for the Pacers.
Projected Record - 39/43