Pacers NBA Picks
Is there any team in the NBA that has had a worse last 8 months than the Pacers. They had their terrible slides in the second half of the regular season, looked terrible in the playoffs and to top it all off lost their best player, Paul George.
What a devastating injury while he was at the World Basketball – World championships with Team USA. Instead of celebrating the breakup of the Heat this team will be lucky to sniff the playoffs.
Indiana Pacers
Eastern Conference
2013/14 Record: 56-26
NBA Future Odds to win title: 120/1
NBA Future Odds to win conference: 50/1
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Key Losses
Paul George – He is still on the team but won’t see action this season as he recovers from injury. George is one of those rare do everything players so his absence is going to be fet all over the court.
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Lance Stephenson – If Stephenson was still around the sting of George’s injury would not hurt nearly as much. Though mercurial to say the least they are going to miss him a lot more than they want to admit. In all phases.
Evan Turner – The demise of the Pacers last season coincided with the acquisition of this draft bust so it may be addition by subtraction.
That being said he would have been a natural to fill in for George.
Top Newcomers
Rodney Stuckey – Lots of buzz on this acquisition. Stuckey can be a nice little scoring option and the Pacers are going to need someone to put the ball in the hoop.
The question is whether they will let him do his thing.
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C.J. Miles – He has been solid for Cleveland the last couple of seasons and offers some outside shooting for the Pacers, who don’t have a lot of it. When he is on he can play a lot of important minutes but when he is not he doesn’t offer much else.
Top Players
Roy Hibbert – Hibbert took a lot of fire last year for sure as the team struggled.
This is his big opportunity to become more of a scorer and he is generally considered among the best rim protectors in the league already.
David West – Old reliable. He scores and he rebounds no matter what the situation. Depending on how the season shakes out though he might be dealt to give the next generation of the Pacers a chance to thrive. No sense wasting him.
Luis Scola – Last year his numbers took a big hit as he played fewer minutes than he was used to. As backup power forwards go he is about as solid as they come and you have to wonder if we will see more of him as they try and up the offense.
Strengths
Even without George the Pacers have one of the best frontcourts around. With the players listed above this team should never get outrebounded and they have even more beef they can bring in off the bench in the form of Lavoy Allen and Ian Mahinmi.
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Those two also provide strong defense and this teams needs it because their perimeter defense took a hit with defection and injuries.
Weaknesses
Backcourt and scoring. There is strength up front but without an outside threat it is going to be tough to maximize that. Guys like Stuckey and George Hill do not scare anybody it is going to be tough when they are not on their game.
Even if things break better than expected I am wondering who is going to be the got to player for this team. Who can get a quality shot when everyone knows it is going to be them. They don’t have one of those guys.
4* Free NBA Prediction: 4th in Central Division
Things could be ugly this season but the Pacers are not going to sink below terrible Milwaukee.
If they get off to a bad start they could go into tank mode and trade West and so on but if they are in the mix I wouldn’t totally count out the Pacers for the 8th spot in the East. in terms of gambling angles there are going to be lots of under with this team.
They are also going to be a reasonable road dog team with the way they are going to have to get after it on the defensive end.
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