[Project] Top 5 single season peaks by franchises: The Pacers

[Odinn21]

Hello.

Link to the project thread.

Pick the top 5 individual single seasons in the Pacers franchise history.

As Indiana Pacers from 1976-77 to today
As Indiana Pacers from 1967-68 to 1975-76 in the ABA

Things to follow;
- This project is franchise bound, not city bound. Quick example; Philadelphia Warriors from 1949-50 to 1961-62 is part of the Golden State Warriors franchise history and 1952 Arizin is eligible for the GS Warriors history.
- We'll follow continuity of the franchise. I.e. Seattle SuperSonics and Oklahoma City Thunder are the same franchise. We'll use BBRef as reference for this.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/OKC/
- ABA seasons are included.
- 2020-21 season is yet to be completed, so, it's not eligible for this project.
- One season per player, no duplicates within the franchise history. Quick example; Shaquille O'Neal can be voted for only once for the LA Lakers franchise history, and he can be voted for the Orlando Magic franchise history. They are separate occasions.

- Reg. season and postseason play, both are included in evaluations.
- Votes will be counted per player, not per version of player.
- An easy going point system of 10/7/5/3/1, the same as Retro PoY project, will be used. Number of higher placement votes will be the tiebreaker (if two players are tied at 27 points for the 1st place, the player with more 1st place votes will get it).
- Explanation is needed, even in short forms.
- We'll be going alphabetically with franchise nicknames. Linked to the voting threads as well.

Spoiler:

Philadelphia 76ers
Milwaukee Bucks
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Boston Celtics
Los Angeles Clippers
Memphis Grizzlies
Atlanta Hawks
Miami Heat
Charlotte Hornets
Utah Jazz
Sacramento Kings
New York Knicks
Los Angeles Lakers
Orlando Magic
Dallas Mavericks
Brooklyn Nets
Denver Nuggets
Indiana Pacers
New Orleans Pelicans
Detroit Pistons
Toronto Raptors
Houston Rockets
San Antonio Spurs
Phoenix Suns
Oklahoma City Thunder
Minnesota Timberwolves
Portland Trail Blazers
Golden State Warriors
Washington Wizards

Results on Google Sheet

- The time frame for each franchise is 2 days (10:00 EST).

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[Dr Positivity]

1. 2014 Paul George - Much like Kawhi the younger version of George when he's developed offensively but only a few years from being a hard working defensive role player is best combination. He is clear best player on 1 seed and CF team.

2. 1995 Reggie Miller - Best offensive Pacer, good in playoffs.

3. 1975 George McInnis - I don't love how his game translated to NBA, but tied Erving in MVP, had strong playoffs. I think he's around the 3rd or 4th best player in the ABA. He has an argument for first but not sure I want to pull the trigger.

4. 1971 Mel Daniels - ABA MVP and the competition for this spot isn't that bad, so why not.

5. 2018 Victor Oladipo - excellent defensive player by all measures, flawed offensively but still a good slasher, I'd probably take him on that end over O'Neal and Artest although is worse on defense than them. A one season wonder player unfortunately.

HM:

Jermaine O'Neal - While overrated by 3rd MVP vote, his +/-/RAPM actually checks out here. Not sure whether to rate him or Artest higher but people at the time seem to decide he was the main star.

Ron Artest - toss-up with O'Neal

Danny Granger - stats inflated by Jim O'Brien system

George Hill, Brad Miller - advanced stats rate pretty high for Pacers actually, but seem more like good, steady players than stars

Domantas Sabonis - want to see him do it on a better team

(Originally had O'Neal 5th but edited in Oladipo)

[penbeast0]

1. 2014 Paul George - Much like Kawhi the younger version of George when he's developed offensively but only a few years from being a hard working defensive role player is best combination. He is clear best player on 1 seed and CF team.

2. 1995 Reggie Miller - Best offensive Pacer, good in playoffs.

3. 1975 George McInnis - I don't love how his game translated to NBA, but tied Erving in MVP, had strong playoffs. I think he's around the 3rd or 4th best player in the ABA. He has an argument for first but not sure I want to pull the trigger.

4. 1971 Mel Daniels - ABA MVP and the competition for this spot isn't that bad, so why not.

5. 2004 Jermaine O'Neal - While overrated by 3rd MVP vote, his +/-/RAPM actually checks out here. Not sure whether to rate him or Artest higher but people at the time seem to decide he was the main star.

More impressed by peak Daniels than 75 McGinnis. More defensive presence relative to his competition plus those turnover numbers are ugly (though we see that with many high usage modern stars like Harden and Westbrook today).

[Odinn21]

1. 1995 Reggie Miller
Absurd level of efficiency translating into great team offensive efficiency. In terms of ts add, he had better seasons. In fact, 1995 looks like below average prime season for him. But he had a postseason run of 25.5 ppg & +10.5 rts (+4.05 ts add).

2. 1975 George McGinnis
I did not have much ABA footage, so this pick is more about numbers and results, without knowing enough about impact to be honest. In the NBA games I had, McGinnis looked like he might come off as slightly overrated in box numbers but he was still a decent impact on the court. It was not like he had those numbers and they did not mean anything.
But in a classical sense, this has a great chance to be the top individual season in the franchise history.

3. 2004 Ron Artest
He was a defensive monster with good offensive output/impact. Not much to say at this point. He's worse than the top 2 and better than the rest.

4. 2018 Victor Oladipo
5. 2003 Jermaine O'Neal
I had these 2 + 2014 PG pretty much on the same level and I went with O'Neal because he was slightly higher in RAPM. It was an easy escape route, but sometimes all it needs a tiebreaker.

HMs; 2014 Paul George, 2013 George Hill

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Edit; Forgot about Mel Daniels for a moment. I'll update this post accordingly.

[Dutchball97]

1. Reggie Miller, 1993/94 - Even though Miller had a ridiculously consistent prime he isn't known for peaking all that high. He was a great play-off performer though, which gives us multiple seasons to choose from. 95 is just as good as 94 for example but I ever so slightly prefer 94 overall.

2. Paul George, 2013/14 - Comparable to Reggie but slightly worse in both the regular season and post-season. Especially their play-offs look similar with them both showing out in the first round, somehow winning in the second round despite not so great performances and then showing up again in the conference finals where they ultimately fell short to better teams. I also considered 2016 for Paul George but his gaudy numbers came in a first round match up, the 2014 first round matches it more or less, while his performance against the Heat in 2014 is the tiebreaker for me.

3. George McGinnis, 1974/75 - Great regular season, even better post-season. I've got to penalize him somewhat for it being an ABA season, which is why I still have Miller and George ahead of him despite having the better numbers. I only do this because Miller and George didn't perform much worse relatively to their era to begin with, while they faced considerably tougher opposition. Roger Brown and Mel Daniels fell off relatively early like Haywood but neither of them peaked as high as Haywood did. Neither of them had an impressive enough peak for me to pick them here.

4. Victor Oladipo, 2017/18 - Not all that close to the guys ahead but a clear best of the rest in my eyes. He went a bit under the radar at first but especially his post-season was very impressive, while the regular season was still very solid and competitive with the other candidates.

5. Rik Smits, 1994/95 - I couldn't really justify going for Daniels or Brown like I mentioned in the McGinnis part. Artest and O'Neal were the guys I was looking at the most for this last spot but why not Smits? He doesn't look that great in the regular season but he was valuable enough for his post-season to make the difference. His 22.1 PER, .611 TS%, .193 WS/48 and 4.5 BPM over 17 play-off games in 1995 is clearly better than what Artest and O'Neal did in the post-season for the Pacers. Especially when others are voting for the 95 version of Miller it is worth it to look at the play-offs per round again if you don't think Smits deserves a vote. Miller dominated the Hawks in the first round but Smits was arguably the best player for the Pacers in the second round against the Knicks and he wasn't far off against the Magic either. I admit there is some bias involved because I really want to throw the best Dutch NBA player ever a vote but I do genuinely think he has an argument here.

[HeartBreakKid]

1) 1994 Reggie Miller - Most of the Pacers are really good defensive players, though not quite all time great GOAT level. I think Miller's offensive is freakish. It's unreal how good that guy could shoot from 3 given he grew up in a time when many schools did not have 3 point lines. Miller is probably the ultimate #2 option, but he never played on that type of team. Still had plenty of success being a #1.

2) 2016 Paul George - Not a super strong scorer during the RS, but it transfers over into the post season well enough. He's memed himself with poor play in LAC after naming himself Playoff P, but I always did think of him as a good playoff player. He gave the Raptors a ton of trouble despite having a low seeded team (I think #7), and took them to 7 games. I think he was better than his younger version, simply didn't get deep in the post season because the Pacers weren't as talented as the mid 10s.

3)1971 Mel Daniels - Great defensive player who could put up points but also stayed with in himself. O'Neal and Artest may have been better defenders, but they're not real two way players to me. They only start approaching mid-high volume by chucking basically, so it's not a surprise their efficiency tended to drop a lot in the post season. Daniels provides his team somewhat consistent scoring even if it's limited in its fashion and he seems like a good rebounder - obviously his numbers are inflated due to the meta of the ABA but you could say the same thing about his turnovers being inflated. As for George McGinnis, he was TOO turnover prone even for his era and he didn't play defense - so while his offensive does seem comparable to Paul George's he's giving up a ton of points to the other team.

4)2004 Jermaine O'Neal - Hmm I could see why some people would prefer Artest. I'm not really positive, but my gut says O'Neal was a better defender from that team.

5)1970 Roger Brown - Roger Brown was a major cog if not the biggest cog in the Pacers winning the championship. His scoring went way up, he was a good shooter and passer - he wasn't turnover prone for the ABA. He's lacking on defense, but he might get enough to get the nod regardless.
Top


Originally had Oladipo in but decided to favor Brown over him.

One other thing that bothers me about McGinnis is he's almost always had very stacked teams and a decent amount of them (slightly) underachieved. I'm alluding more to the Sixers and to a lesser extent the Nuggets. He doesn't seem to have the most portable scoring style in addition to turnover proneness and lack of defense. I'd have Artest over him.

[Odinn21]

Am I too low on Paul George in here?

He was a 22/7/4 player.
On Engelmann's RAPM numbers; 2014 George top 12% and 2016 George top 20%
On http://nbashotcharts.com/; 2014 George top 8% and 2016 George top 8%
(Engelmann's numbers have postseasons included)

These are not great numbers. These are good numbers, but not great numbers. Artest was in the top 3% in 2004 for instance.

I feel like there's something going on with PG that happened with Payton and Drexler. Playing against a goat candidate in the making made those players more visible, overshadowed the actual quality and made them slightly overrated.

Artest shot horribly against the Pistons in 2004. But then again, it was one of the most ugly series ever with teams averaging around 74 ppg on .360 fg, .444 ts.
Jermaine O'Neal in 2004 was a better teammate than George had in 2014. But I don't think that George had less help than Artest because the Pacers had a more well-rounded roster in 2014.
The 3rd best player on 2004 Pacers was nearly 39 yo Reggie Miller. The only players with 30+ mpg in the postseason were Artest and O'Neal.
In 2014 postseason, George, L. Stephenson, G. Hill, D. West all of these 4 played 36+ minutes per game.

And 2004 Pacers were closer to defeating 2004 Pistons than 2014 Pacers defeating 2014 Heat.

I just can't see a great case for George to be the best or be only 2nd to Reggie Miller in here.

[Dr Positivity]

Am I too low on Paul George in here?

He was a 22/7/4 player.
On Engelmann's RAPM numbers; 2014 George top 12% and 2016 George top 20%
On http://nbashotcharts.com/; 2014 George top 8% and 2016 George top 8%
(Engelmann's numbers have postseasons included)

These are not great numbers. These are good numbers, but not great numbers. Artest was in the top 3% in 2004 for instance.

I feel like there's something going on with PG that happened with Payton and Drexler. Playing against a goat candidate in the making made those players more visible, overshadowed the actual quality and made them slightly overrated.

Artest shot horribly against the Pistons in 2004. But then again, it was one of the most ugly series ever with teams averaging around 74 ppg on .360 fg, .444 ts.
Jermaine O'Neal in 2004 was a better teammate than George had in 2014. But I don't think that George had less help than Artest because the Pacers had a more well-rounded roster in 2014.
The 3rd best player on 2004 Pacers was nearly 39 yo Reggie Miller. The only players with 30+ mpg in the postseason were Artest and O'Neal.
In 2014 postseason, George, L. Stephenson, G. Hill, D. West all of these 4 played 36+ minutes per game.

And 2004 Pacers were closer to defeating 2004 Pistons than 2014 Pacers defeating 2014 Heat.

I just can't see a great case for George to be the best or be only 2nd to Reggie Miller in here.

George's +/- data isn't bad or anything. He is 36th in the league in RAPM on the nbashotcharts link. +6.3 raw on/off.

I don't consider RAPM the end all be all. George has excellent DRAPM in both 2014 and 2013 matching his reputation at the time as one of the league's best wing defenders. Artest's RAPM in 2004 is better only because his offensive RAPM is much better (around 15th overall in the league while George's is 152nd on the above link) which doesn't really check out to me when looking at boxscore production+skillset+etc. especially from two players that play the same position. I feel confident in saying George is better than the flawed Artest on offense, same with O'Neal, especially when skill level in playoffs are needed. I would buy the Artest>George thing based on RAPM more if it showed George was overrated on defense compared to Artest or something.

The Pacers in early 2010s as I recall were famous for playing all 5 starters at the same time. In 2014 their most used lineup played 1466 minutes and their 2nd most used only played 185. I don't know how that affects RAPM but I assume less lineups makes for worse data, if the raw on/off and RAPM numbers said West was the highest impact player over George, how few minutes with them playing apart was that based on exactly? The Pacers rode their starting 5 (+9.1) to 1st seed so I don't know what could be asked more of George in that situation. Hill, Stephenson, 33 year old West and Hibbert isn't exactly the most stacked lineup in the world around him.

[Odinn21]

George's +/- data isn't bad or anything. He is 36th in the league in RAPM on the nbashotcharts link. +6.3 raw on/off.

I don't consider RAPM the end all be all. George has excellent DRAPM in both 2014 and 2013 matching his reputation at the time as one of the league's best wing defenders. Artest's RAPM in 2004 is better only because his offensive RAPM is much better (around 15th overall in the league while George's is 152nd on the above link) which doesn't really check out to me when looking at boxscore production+skillset+etc. especially from two players that play the same position. I feel confident in saying George is better than the flawed Artest on offense, same with O'Neal, especially when skill level in playoffs are needed. I would buy the Artest>George thing based on RAPM more if it showed George was overrated on defense compared to Artest or something.

The Pacers in early 2010s as I recall were famous for playing all 5 starters at the same time. In 2014 their most used lineup played 1466 minutes and their 2nd most used only played 185. I don't know how that affects RAPM but I assume less lineups makes for worse data, if the raw on/off and RAPM numbers said West was the highest impact player over George, how few minutes with them playing apart was that based on exactly? The Pacers rode their starting 5 (+9.1) to 1st seed so I don't know what could be asked more of George in that situation. Hill, Stephenson, 33 year old West and Hibbert isn't exactly the most stacked lineup in the world around him.

Like I said, George's +/- data isn't bad. It's good, not great though.

Artest's offensive game was flawed but George's one was not like James or Nash either. Their creation volume and quality were pretty much on the same level with George's better scoring and Artest's better facilitating abilities. Also Artest was better at crashing offensive boards.
Also looking at surrounding seasons, the shifts in their games, there's not much to invalidate Artest's and George's O-RAPM rankings.

Lastly, I did not say George had the most sacked lineup around him. I stated that it was certainly better than what Artest had in 2004. Just take a quick look at the main rotations;

2004 Pacers;



2014 Pacers;



I mean, looking at 2004 Pacers without Artest vs. 2014 Pacers without George, the 2014 version had much much more well-rounded team. Also I think roster structure and quality is a reason for Jermaine O'Neal against George.
Then considering chances of the Pacers against the Pistons in 2004 and against the Heat in 2014, despite Artest's scoring worries against the Pistons (according to my notes, in the 4 games I tracked in that series, Artest kept the players he defended under 28% fg), I just don't see enough for George to have him over Artest.

[ZeppelinPage]

1. '94 Reggie Miller
50/40/90. A ridiculous 121 TS+. Strong playoff run. Incredible shooting ability to space the floor and create gravity. Fantastic season and still disappointing he wasn't an all-star.

2. '18 Victor Oladipo
Incredibly underrated season--injuries have really derailed his career. Was the main option and shot creator for the Pacers as well as the best perimeter defender on the team. Finished with a 109 TS+ (higher than '14 George) as well as a 5.8 BPM (higher than '14 George). Led the entire league in steals, finished with a ridiculous 0.8 BPG at SG ('14 George had 0.3), and looked like one of the better perimeter defenders in the entire league on film that season. Can create offense and playmake with his ability to score and pass. Was consistently top 5-10 in PIPM during the season. To cap it all off, in the playoffs he finished with a 7.6 BPM and took LeBron James and the Finals bound Cavaliers to 7 games, barely losing.

3. '14 Paul George
Good season, little bit overrated. Started the season flaming hot and fell off pretty hard by January. Even though the 8-seed Hawks brought them to 7 games, George still had a good playoff run. I like his two-way ability, just don't think he is quite good enough on either side to justify a top 2 spot.

4. '04 Ron Artest
Amazing defender all around, just not that good on offense compared to those ahead of him. Finished with a 99 TS+ and played well in the playoffs until he ran into the Pistons (abysmal 37.5 TS%, worst on team).

5. '75 George McGinnis
It is is ABA, but a really great season in comparison to other Pacers. A fantastic playoff run where he led in BPM to finish off an MVP campaign. Not as big of a fan of the ABA years, but he was no doubt a talented player and deserves to be recognized as an all-time Pacer.

[Doctor MJ]

1. '93-94 Reggie Miller - I believe he has the Top 8 seasons by Pacers NBA history by WS. I think the stat underrates him.

2. '69-70 Roger Brown - Really asserted himself as the top dog in the ABA with that post-season.

3. '70-71 Mel Daniels - continued to grow as a player, truly emerges as Pacers' best player, ironically a year after he won league MVP>

4. '13-14 Paul George - has a serious case for #2.

5. '74-75 George McGinnis - raw production majorly overrates him, but he was certainly a force

[HeartBreakKid]

1) 1994 Reggie Miller - Most of the Pacers are really good defensive players, though not quite all time great GOAT level. I think Miller's offensive is freakish. It's unreal how good that guy could shoot from 3 given he grew up in a time when many schools did not have 3 point lines. Miller is probably the ultimate #2 option, but he never played on that type of team. Still had plenty of success being a #1.

2) 2016 Paul George - Not a super strong scorer during the RS, but it transfers over into the post season well enough. He's memed himself with poor play in LAC after naming himself Playoff P, but I always did think of him as a good playoff player. He gave the Raptors a ton of trouble despite having a low seeded team (I think #7), and took them to 7 games. I think he was better than his younger version, simply didn't get deep in the post season because the Pacers weren't as talented as the mid 10s.

3)1971 Mel Daniels - Great defensive player who could put up points but also stayed with in himself. O'Neal and Artest may have been better defenders, but they're not real two way players to me. They only start approaching mid-high volume by chucking basically, so it's not a surprise their efficiency tended to drop a lot in the post season. Daniels provides his team somewhat consistent scoring even if it's limited in its fashion and he seems like a good rebounder - obviously his numbers are inflated due to the meta of the ABA but you could say the same thing about his turnovers being inflated. As for George McGinnis, he was TOO turnover prone even for his era and he didn't play defense - so while his offensive does seem comparable to Paul George's he's giving up a ton of points to the other team.

4)2004 Jermaine O'Neal - Hmm I could see why some people would prefer Artest. I'm not really positive, but my gut says O'Neal was a better defender from that team.

5)2018 Victor Oladipo - He's not a sexy name and a one hit wonder so it feels better to leave him off, but objectively speaking this season has very little holes in it. I could see him going over O'Neal for sure. I'm trying to think is the 1st team all defense level capability from Artest/O'Neal more useful to Oladipo's incredibly well rounded play? It's hard to say, but for now I'll give Oladipo a nod and leave Artest out to dry.


One other thing that bothers me about McGinnis is he's almost always had very stacked teams and a decent amount of them (slightly) underachieved. I'm alluding more to the Sixers and to a lesser extent the Nuggets. He doesn't seem to have the most portable scoring style in addition to turnover proneness and lack of defense. I'd have Artest over him.

I'm going to change my pick from 2018 Victor Oladipo to 1970 Roger Brown. Roger Brown was a major cog if not the biggest cog in the Pacers winning the championship. His scoring went way up, he was a good shooter and passer - he wasn't turnover prone for the ABA. He's lacking on defense, but he might get enough to get the nod regardless.

[Doctor MJ]

Roger Brown and Mel Daniels fell off relatively early like Haywood but neither of them peaked as high as Haywood did. Neither of them had an impressive enough peak for me to pick them here.

Realized this is the only other mention for Brown so thought I'd say a bit more.

I'd recommend folks take a look at Brown's scoring numbers from the last 3 games of the Finals in '69-70 against the team that had just upset Spencer Haywood's Rockets:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1970-aba-finals-stars-vs-pacers.html

(Spoiler alert: 53, 39, 45. Haywood's max against the Stars was 40.)

I'd argue that Brown was someone considerably more suited to playing winning basketball, and that his stats in those best ABA years were suppressed a bit compared to what he could have done because of how the team generally went about things on offense (which clearly worked quite well).

His career didn't last that long, but that's in part because of the Brooklyn gambling scandal that derailed the careers of Brown, Connie Hawkins, and many more...who would later be an essential part of how the ABA was able to gain the foothold it used to eventually force a merger.

With Daniels, his game really did peak early. I'd guess that part of that was that he was a bit undersized as a center and made up for it best in the early years when he was known for being insanely aggressive - the type of guy who left opposing centers bruised whenever they played him.

Daniels was not in the same league as Haywood (or Brown) as an offensive player, but Daniels I'd say was considerably more respected as a defender, and that Daniels' defense proved really helpful for the Pacers winning 3 titles while Haywood's offense wasn't quite enough in the end. Doesn't mean you can't have Haywood over Daniels, but I'd rather have Daniels on my team if I were trying to field an elite contender.

[Odinn21]

I'm going to change my pick from 2018 Victor Oladipo to 1970 Roger Brown.

When you make a change, can you update your initial vote post? This is how the tally gets tracked wrong.

[homecourtloss]

1. 1994 Reggie Miller. Very low turnover, high efficiency scorer who was an impact player just about every season he played.

2. 2014 Paul George. A two-way player who was the best player on a team challenging for a trip to the finals.

3. 2018 Dipo. Very good numbers in both RS and PS. Was a double digit plus on court in the series vs. the Cavs. Was creating offense out of nothing off of stepbacks that we haven’t seen since.

4. 1975 McGinnis. Very good numbers especially in postseason. Battled Issel and Gilmore and lost three close games in the finals.,

5. 2004 Artest. Good impact numbers, good post season play.

[Jaivl]

1. 1994 Reggie Miller

2. 2014 Paul George
Do not let his Playoff P antics cloud his percepcion of him - he peaked offensively in his later years, but he was at the highest tier as a wing defender prior to his injury. About the same overall value than peak Kirilenko, and Kirilenko would be a clear #2 for me here.

3. 2018 Victor Oladipo
Kind of a magic year for him. Star-tier scoring and playmaking while being probably both the biggest turnover generating machine in the entire league and one of the best small guard defenders.

4. 1971 Mel Daniels
Consistent history of getting average defenses to elite heights, plus an efficient scorer in a way Jermaine O'Neal cannot replicate.

5. 1970 Roger Brown
Have watched zero minutes of him, have zero clue of how he plays, it's early ABA so the competition is kinda suspect, but I've seen some mentions and his boxscore and finals performance are stellar. It's kind of enough on a franchise like Indiana.

Don't really like McGinnis although he's probably close. O'Neal and Artest are around here too.

[Odinn21]

3 hours and 40 minutes left on the clock for this one.

[70sFan]

1. 1994/95 Reggie Miller - probably the best pre-Curry shooting season ever, considering his postseason run. Unreal combination of off-ball game and efficiency, unmatched even in today's league (excluding Curry of course). One of the most resiliant postseason performers ever, playing like MVP against Knicks and Magic teams.

2. 2013/14 Paul George - I'm not a big fan of post-injury George, but in contrast I'm quite high on his Pacers version. He was far better defensively and still very solid offensively, in a time with mediocre spacing around him.

3. 1969/70 Roger Brown - probably the best player in the ABA during that season, he would have been the first choice if ABA had been stronger early on. I think he peaked the highest among ABA Pacers players, though his peak was very brief. Excellent all-around skillset and huge postseason performance.

4. 2017/18 Victor Oladipo - very underrated season from excellent two-way player.

5. 1974/75 George McGinnis - I have very mixed feelings about McGinnis. He's not particulary smart scorer and he shot too many inefficient shots, but at the same time he was very good passer (though turnover prone) and his combination of athleticism and handles made him proto-LeBron of the ABA. His 1975 season was truly 2015 LeBron-esque, his postseason was very, very impressive. Despite my criticism, I also like watching him play, he was fairly unique player.

HM: Mel Daniels - I wanted to have him above McGinnis, but I don't like his offensive game. He's not very efficient (relied heavily on turnaround jumpshot), he usually got worse in playoffs and on top of that his passing was very bad. He was like inefficient Moses Malone whose offense isn't resiliant in playoffs, I won't take someone like that over George. His defense was a big part of Pacers success, but I don't view him as the anchor of this team either.

Artest, Granger and O'Neal are good choices as well. Pacers franchise has far more talent than one might expect at first. They lack top tier level, but you can create different top 5s from alomst 10 players.

[Odinn21]

The Pacers results;

Code: Select all

1. 8-1-0-0-0 / 87 points / 0.967 share / '94 Reggie Miller
2. 1-5-1-1-0 / 53 points / 0.589 share / '14 Paul George
3. 0-1-2-3-1 / 27 points / 0.300 share / '18 Victor Oladipo
4. 0-1-2-1-3 / 23 points / 0.256 share / '75 George McGinnis
5. 0-0-2-2-0 / 16 points / 0.178 share / '71 Mel Daniels

6. 0-1-1-0-2 / 14 points / 0.156 share / '70 Roger Brown
7. 0-0-1-1-1 /  9 points / 0.100 share / '04 Ron Artest
8. 0-0-0-1-1 /  4 points / 0.044 share / '04 Jermaine O'Neal
9. 0-0-0-0-1 /  1 points / 0.011 share / '95 Rik Smits

Results on Google Sheet

[HeartBreakKid]

Wow, crazy. I was undecided about Roger Brown over Jermaine. Would have gave him the boost to get the 5th spot.

One of the closest rounds we've had.

I think Rik Smiths only got one point. There's a typo that shows four.