Indiana Pacers

Their position this season.
The last playoff spot in the East. A huge drop from last season.

Why are they at this position?
The Eastern Champion Pacers decided to break up this last season. Mark Jackson signed with the Raptors, Rik Smits “retired” from basketball (Still playing in Europe), Dale Davis signed with the Blazers. The backbone of last year’s team is basically gone. This left Reggie Miller with no hope of winning a championship with the rebuilding Pacers. The present team is decent, but way too young and inexperienced to be a contender. Reggie Miller still had big nights, but his consistency went down. Jalen Rose developed to become a more solid scorer, but his performance would be maximized if he plays SG or SF instead of PG. On front court, they are not yet strong enough. Although Jermaine O’Neal has a dramatically improved season, he is no Rik Smits plus Dale Davis front court. Sometimes, Zan Tabak starts, but he is nowhere near defending the top centers in the league. Sam Perkins is also too old to muscle inside. Al Harrington and Austin Croshere are not bad rebounders, but they are still more offense-oriented players. All these leaves the Pacers very vulnerable against good offensive teams. For such a young team, when they are down by a lot after the first half, the players lack the mental toughness to come back unless Miller lit up by hitting three’s like crazy. This is what happened to them very often against good teams. They just do not have the morality to come back. On the other hand, Travis Best had the potential to be a good point guard. But since Isaiah Thomas believes that Rose can play better as the starting PG, Best’s performance falls especially after his injury. Tyus Edney is a good backup, but that is all about it. The rest of the team such as Jonathan Bender and Jeff Foster are just too young to contribute to the team.

Where are they heading to?
The young players will improve, but Miller will no longer be at his peak The bet is the Pacers will not be as good as the Eastern Championship team last season in the near future. The team is just too young to have any success soon.

What can they do?
They should start building around Jalen Rose, the SG or SF instead of the PG Rose. Travis Best is a good PG who can make good decisions and shoot quite well. They need to start building a stronger front court. It is ridiculous to talk about Jermaine O’Neal as point center. Be realistic! Center has to be tough on boards. With the speed of O’Neal, the advantage is that he may drives by the slower center at high post, and he is more flexible on defense, but not to dribble the ball up the court. Austin Croshere is an important piece to the future franchise. He can shoot and rebound, but his consistency needs to improve. Al Harrington has been developing very well too. He just needs more experience to polish every aspects of his game. Jonathan Bender is a very athletic big man who can shoot. Think about it, he can dunk from the free throw line, but his skills seem to be too rough to yet survive in this league. Reggie Miller will ultimately has to step away for the emergence of other players. Hopefully, they will be able to sign a good free agent to strengthen the team because that is the only quick way to compensate the huge loss of talent last summer.