The Good, Bad & Ugly: Early Takeaways for Indiana Pacers
Ever since Lance Stephenson took his talents to Charlotte and Paul George suffered a nasty leg break back in August, you knew this season would be a bit of a roller coaster for the Indiana Pacers. That was even before fellow starters David West and George Hill, along with backup point guard C.J. Watson, all began the year sidelined with their own injuries.
Therefore, it’s tough to get a really good read on what we have, but let’s take a look anyway.
The Good: Golden Opportunities
Coming into the season, thanks to the aforementioned roster shakeups, a number of players had golden opportunities to get more experience and really shine – notably Roy Hibbert, George Hill, Chris Copeland, Solomon Hill and Donald Sloan. Obviously, the jury is still out on George Hill and will be for another couple weeks as he recovers from a knee injury. As for Hibbert, he seems to have embraced being a bigger part of the offense. He has shown an aggressiveness offensively, having gotten to the free throw line 21 times already and having collected no fewer than eight rebounds in any of the three games. His weakest game of the young season thus far was the second game against Memphis in which he found himself battling foul trouble early, taking him out of the flow of the game. As we’ve seen from Hibbert the last 12 months or so, getting him established early frequently leads to good production. In theory, he’ll have more room to operate as defenses are forced to divvy up their attention when West, George Hill, and Stuckey come back into the fold.
At the wing spot, Solomon Hill has drawn the start at small forward in each game, but looked as timid as he did last year through the first pair. In the Pacers’ third game in Atlanta, he went for 10 points, five boards, and six assists. Consistency is the key to that position without Paul George and Solo needs more of that. It will probably take him a while to get to that point, as nothing about his first professional season and change have been consistent (playing time, dressing for games, even his on-court consistency.) On the flipside, sharpshooter Chris Copeland has outplayed Hill, both in terms of minutes and production, and has provided a terrific offensive punch off the bench. In the three games, he has scored 11, 16, and 21 and has gotten more aggressive varying up his shots, instead of basically living in three-point land.
Also, while the shooting percentages may not quite be there yet, C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey, both brought in to be pseudo-replacements for the departed Lance Stephenson have played well and have meshed themselves well with the Pacers’ game plan, each averaging about 13 points in the full games they’ve been able to play (more on that later.) And considering Stephenson has averaged 4.5 points per games on about 22% shooting with his new team, the team that benched him an entire fourth quarter, losing Lance may have been a good call with his new big contract. (For the record, I think Stephenson will get it figured out in Charlotte. He’s coming off a groin injury and his rebounding and assists numbers have still been strong.)
One position to watch is the power forward rotation when David West comes back. Thus far, Luis Scola has drawn the start in his place, having put up an average of eight points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, and no blocks – while still displaying his less-than-stellar defense, in about 70 total minutes. Behind him, Lavoy Allen has been solid off the bench, with averages of 6.7/7/2.3/0.7/1.3, playing some solid defense. My prediction? Allen takes over the bulk of the backup minutes at the 4-spot by season’s end, as the 34-year-old Scola clearly has less of a future in blue and gold.
Finally, Donald Sloan has had a fantastic three games as the spot starter for George Hill, having averaged 14/6/6 through the first three games. Obviously, he has all the room in the world to operate and with George Hill and C.J. Watson both on the shelf, he has no one looking over his shoulder. And considering the tumultuous journey it’s been for Sloan to be able to start multiple games in a row, that’s probably the best thing for him. Thus far, he’s made the case that he can be a young, good, cheap option when Watson’s contract expires in 2015.
The Bad: Injuries
Oct 31, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Rodney Stuckey (2) stretches out on the sidelines during a game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Memphis defeats Indiana 97-89. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
The theme of the 2014-2015 Pacers so far. The beginning parts of the season was likely going to include a lot of “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” type of rotation and strategy from head coach Frank Vogel. West is scheduled to be back the soonest, followed by Watson, then George Hill, barring setbacks. Key words: barring setbacks. Three games in and it’s already tough to lock down much consistency or rotations when injuries keep happening. Just six minutes into playing time against Atlanta, Stuckey appeared to aggravate his foot injury and didn’t return. There doesn’t seem to be a ton of initial long-term concern, but still. The Pacers are still the most injured team in the NBA right now, right along with the Kevin Durant-less and Russell Westbrook-less Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Ugly: Offensive and Defensive Lulls
Remember the battles of quarter-to-quarter consistency from last season? Yeah, well, that issue is still alive and well this year and you don’t need to look any further than the comparisons of the box score of the win-loss record. In the opener against a
tanking
, rebuilding Philadelphia team, the Pacers’ lowest-scoring quarter was 22 and the highest was 30. Even still, there were enough lulls in the fourth quarter in that game to allow the 76ers to hang around and even as the Pacers built a low double-digit lead, it never felt safe. They can get away with that against Philly, whose starting five consists of promising but still raw rookie Nerlens Noel, Tony Wroten, Christapher Johnson, Henry Sims, and Hollis Thompson. (I’ll give you a minute to do a Google search of those last few guys who, if not for Philly’s methods, would probably be collecting paychecks in the D-League or Europe.)
Against a playoff-caliber Memphis whose solid roster consists of a Defensive Player of The Year (Marc Gasol) and two All-Star bubble guys (Zach Randolph and Mike Conley) or an Atlanta team consisting of All-Stars Paul Millsap and Al Horford, a fringe All-Star (Jeff Teague) and one of the game’s great shooter (Kyle Korver), ever minute of an offensive lull accumulates quicker. Taking on Memphis, the Pacers’ quarter scoring was 19, 34, 14, 22. Those lulls on both ends of the floor completely obliterated the 53-45 lead they took into halftime and wound up losing 97-89. Versus Atlanta, it was a breakdown of 18, 26, 19, 29. One horrible stretch puts them behind the 8-ball and right now, the blue and gold flat-out lack the offensive weapons to catch up in a hurry.
The first three games of the young season provide both a reliable and unreliable snapshot of the season. The Pacers have faced off against a clearly inferior team (Philly), a notch-below-elite team (Memphis) and a team that defines “middle of the pack” (Atlanta.) However, the Pacers are playing nowhere near a full deck, so that can’t be understated. But, the diversity of the first three matchups do tell a clear story that the Pacers should be able to feast on the league’s bottom-feeders and hang around with the better teams before needing some magic when playing from behind. That doesn’t mean Indiana will get trounced by the San Antonios or Clevelands of the league. Things happen. Philly beat Miami last year for crying out loud.
I still think the Pacers can be one of the teams duking it out for the final playoff spot in the East at the end of the year. They’re going to need a lot of things to go their way and they also need to fix a lot of hangover issues from last year. No need to completely draw conclusions from the first 3.5% of the season. First thing’s first…GET HEALTHY.