Pacers eternal playoff woes and the Wizards

Post #1 » by **Zonkerbl** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:20 pm

Hey guys,
Couldn't find a random thoughts thread like we have on the Wizards forum, feel free to move this wherever. I lived in Bloomington from 1993 to 1999 and at the time there was a lot of talk about how the pacers had made something like 5 consecutive trips to the playoffs but always as a seventh or eighth seed.

I noticed this year you're an eighth seed again -- is this still going on? I'm kinda worried the zards will end up the same way if the draft is as weak as they say this year.

chube · Post #2 » by **chube** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:46 pm

This was actually our first trip to the playoffs since 2006. So we welcomed being an 8th seed with open arms and then many of us were pleasantly surprised with how tough we played Chicago aside from Game 5.

Post #3 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:36 pm

1992/93 - 8
1993/94 - 5
1994/95 - 2
1995/96 - 3
1996/97 - DNQ
1997/98 - 3
1998/99 - 2
1999/00 - 1

I don't get your question. Over the time frame you listed, the Pacers made the playoffs as the "7 or 8 seed" once. They missed the playoffs in 96/97, but otherwise, they were most often a top 3 seed in the playoffs.

Are you possibly thinking of another franchise?

granger05 · Post #4 » by **granger05** » Tue May 3, 2011 3:43 pm

Come on, that's not fair. The three years before you listed they were the 7th seed every time. So when this guy moved there, the Pacers had been a 7th or 8th seed 4 straight years. It's not hard to check and see that they weren't exactly on the cycle of mediocrity that whole time, but still.

Post #5 » by **Zonkerbl** » Tue May 3, 2011 5:20 pm

Thanks for the clarification, Granger05, that's what I was going to say.
1988/89: DNQ
1989/90: 8
1990/91: 7
1991/92: 7
1992/93 - 8
1993/94 - 5
By my count, that's five straight years of being in the bottom half. And that's right about when I moved to Bloomington, and the local announcers made a big deal about just barely making the playoffs but not being good enough to really accomplish anything for "years and years."

But then they made a run while I was there:

1994/95 - 2
1995/96 - 3
1996/97 - DNQ
1997/98 - 3
1998/99 - 2
1999/00 - 1

So here's what's happened since:
2000/01: 8
2001/02: 8
2002/03: 3
2003/04: 1
2004/05: 6 (Malice in the Palace year)
2005/06: 6
and DNQ since then, until this year.

Ouch. Well, better than the last twenty years for the Wizards, that's for sure. Interesting how certain franchises just suck year after year (Wizards, Clippers), others are like Indiana, qualifying for the playoffs but never accomplishing much, and then you have the Bostons and the Lakers and the Spurs.

Not much room for upward mobility, huh? Although Cuban did take the Mavs from eternal laughingstock to legit also rans. I guess the zards have room for improvement, lots of people who would be basketball fans if the product was worth watching. Just got to change the awful name.

Post #6 » by **Miller4ever** » Tue May 3, 2011 5:23 pm

The gold jerseys will hold you guys back. At least you have a legit (I believe) superstar in John Wall. I look forward to seeing him against Derrick Rose since Rose is score-first and Wall is pass-first but they are both athletic monsters.

Wizop · Post #7 » by **Wizop** » Tue May 3, 2011 5:45 pm

having attended almost every home playoff game in that entire list as well as many ABA playoff games, I must say I enjoyed every one of those series and never went home feeling we'd not accomplished much when Jordan or Ewing sent us home. until the brawl, we'd managed to stay relevant for a very long time. granted the Miller led teams were never good enough to win it all. the one Pacer superstar who could take over a game and deliver a win getting his own shot was Rajah. Peyton's also only delivered one trophy but I'm quite happy with the Manning era just as I was happy with the Miller era.

now you might ask what happened in the mid 90's to put us up a notch? my answer is Byron Scott. he was the voice of a past champion in the locker room. he had the rings. and he hit the key shot at the end of the first big NBA playoff win. last fall I had hopes that Posey could provide a similar spark, but he did not. I hope we can find a veteran this summer who can lead by example.

Post #8 » by **Zonkerbl** » Tue May 3, 2011 7:15 pm

I thought it was the Davis twins, who brought the required muscle in the frontcourt to intimidate people. And that's the style people were playing back then, with Shaq around.

Kuq_e_Zi91 · Post #9 » by **Kuq_e_Zi91** » Wed May 4, 2011 11:03 am

We need to get Zonker back to Bloomington.

Boneman2 · Post #10 » by **Boneman2** » Thu May 5, 2011 5:03 am

Over the last 25 yrs the Pacers have been on a much higher level than most teams could ever hope to experience, especially the Bullets. How do you manage trading away the league's 2nd worst contract (Gilbert) for the absolute worst contract ( Lewis)?

This reminds me of that conversation in Billy Madison where those two kids tell Billy they know what it feels like to be a loser. He replied that he used to be the king of this school. 1 finals and 5-7 ECF's (???) is pretty satisfying. Not elite, but I'll take it.

Post #11 » by **Miller4ever** » Thu May 5, 2011 6:49 am

Before this season we were ranked as the #11 franchise in the NBA and #3 among teams without NBA banners. Not too shabby.

paulgeorge24 · Post #12 » by **paulgeorge24** » Thu May 5, 2011 5:06 pm

I'd take our 10-15 years of being competitive but not winning it all over the Pistons being good for 3 years and winning one championship and being absolute garbage the rest of the time.

Post #13 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri May 6, 2011 1:43 am

paulgeorge24 wrote:I'd take our 10-15 years of being competitive but not winning it all over the Pistons being good for 3 years and winning one championship and being absolute garbage the rest of the time.

Pistons were pretty darned good in the 80's and had a couple championships. They also had some solid years with Grant Hill in the mid-90's.

Post #14 » by **Miller4ever** » Fri May 6, 2011 2:07 am

If you go even farther back, Lanier and Bing were doing good things while the Ginnis was busy winning ABA titles.

paulgeorge24 · Post #15 » by **paulgeorge24** » Fri May 6, 2011 1:49 pm

Scoot McGroot wrote:
paulgeorge24 wrote:I'd take our 10-15 years of being competitive but not winning it all over the Pistons being good for 3 years and winning one championship and being absolute garbage the rest of the time.

Pistons were pretty darned good in the 80's and had a couple championships. They also had some solid years with Grant Hill in the mid-90's.

Yeah, I purposely excluded the 80's because I was mainly referring to the mid/late90's-2006/7 where we were consistently in the playoffs and in the mix at the top for many of those years. While the pistons on the otherhand, werent really getting in anyone's way until ironically OURS in '04 and then 05 and 06 before they started to drop off the map again.

Boneman2 · Post #16 » by **Boneman2** » Fri May 6, 2011 6:30 pm

In 2005, and beyond, there should be an asterik because Stern dismantled the best Pacer team ever.

Our transition from being a contender (Miller,Smits,Jax,Davis) to being a serious contender (JO,Artest,Miller,Jax) was a seemless one. There was only a season or two of mediocrity in between. Other than that, It's been elite status, with exception to about a decade in the late 70's to late 80's. You can't really hold our organization responsible for these last few horrid seasons, atleast I don't.

Post #17 » by **Zonkerbl** » Sun May 8, 2011 1:15 pm

Kuq_e_Zi91 wrote:We need to get Zonker back to Bloomington.

Lol! I used to say Bloomington was paradise. Ten minute drive to Brown County State Park, lots of interesting people, lots of student groups having interesting events (Kazakh Student Union International Day!), free music from the graduate students giving recitals virtually every day, all the basketball you can shake a stick at. Just impossible to get a job there as an economist unless you're on the faculty, and they straight up told us they don't hire their own alumns. Sucky. I like where I'm at in DC now. I kind of assumed that the Zards would start doing well once I moved here but I guess even my good mojo is not enough to overcome the suckiness that is the zards franchise.

Kuq_e_Zi91 · Post #18 » by **Kuq_e_Zi91** » Mon May 9, 2011 1:16 pm

Zonkerbl wrote:
Kuq_e_Zi91 wrote:We need to get Zonker back to Bloomington.

Lol! I used to say Bloomington was paradise. Ten minute drive to Brown County State Park, lots of interesting people, lots of student groups having interesting events (Kazakh Student Union International Day!), free music from the graduate students giving recitals virtually every day, all the basketball you can shake a stick at. Just impossible to get a job there as an economist unless you're on the faculty, and they straight up told us they don't hire their own alumns. Sucky. I like where I'm at in DC now. I kind of assumed that the Zards would start doing well once I moved here but I guess even my good mojo is not enough to overcome the suckiness that is the zards franchise.

Lately, it's felt like the bad mojo in DC has been insurmountable. Even when the zards had good teams, something would always go wrong, like Caron breaking his hand on the rim just before the playoffs or Gerald Wallace falling on Gil's knee. The zards have been cursed. Though their luck seemed to change a little with the lottery win. Living in DC, the zards are my second team so I wish you guys all the best. As fans, you deserve it after these tough few years.