Indiana Pacers
The 2019-20 Indiana Pacers season can be defined by the fact that they were the same scrappy Pacers as always.
What did we learn?
The Pacers are PESKY!!!
Every time that we bet on a Pacers game, we lost. Literally every time. If we bet on the Pacers, then they would lose, they’d get killed. If we bet against the Pacers, then the Pacers would absolutely win, and win in convincing fashion. If we bet the Under, the Pacers would score in droves like their lives depended on it. If we bet the Over, the Pacers would get into a late-90’s early-2000’s back-to-the-basket post-driven grind it out slow burn type of game. It was as if they checked with our bookie before the game to see what our bet was to know exactly how they should play that night just to stick it to us. It was menacing. It was madness. It was the Pesky Pacers.
With a cast of new characters in Indiana this season, we wondered if these new Pacers would be as scrappy as the old gang. Turns out that they were another harmonious group willing to do all of the nitty gritty.
We thought that the Pacers would struggle without Oladipo to start the season, but they had a new leader in Malcom Brogdon who filled the void and then some. (The Bucks royally fucked that one up, but that’s a blog for another day.) Brogdon is a masterful table-setter, and he set the tone for one of the most unselfish teams in the NBA. Per Cleaning The Glass, Brogdon, Sabonis and T.J. McConnell off the bench each ranked in the 97th percentile for their respective positions for assist percentage. The Pacers were second in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio and second in the NBA in field goal percentage. The Pacers were a UNIT — calculated and furtive, nothing to see here.
The Pacers were notorious for making sure they found the right mismatch every time down the court. It’s little nuances like that that we really love and appreciate. Hats off to Nate McMillan, he always made sure they used their size effectively.
Indiana’s big man duo of Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner are an atypical pair in today’s game. The Pacers used Sabonis as the center on offense and Turner as the center on defense. Sabonis led the league in screen assists, averaging a whopping 7.0 per game. Turner was fourth in the league in blocks, averaging 2.1 per game. There was one game against the Hornets where Turner finished with EIGHT blocks on the night and had four in the first quarter! Our guy Eric Collins said, “Myles Turner with more rejections than Harvard Law school!”
The Pacers bench was, in fact, actually more exciting than an actual wooden bench, so we have to eat some Midwestern crow. We got that wrong in our season preview. However, the Pacers second unit did start slow, outscored 34-103 (!!) in their first two games against the Pistons. We felt like geniuses. But then they got going and we felt silly, just like we knew we would. It was the Holiday Bros that often provided a spark and further allowed for defensive flexibility.
When Oladipo finally returned in late-January from his ruptured quad tendon, it threw a little bit of a wrench into the Pacers system. The 6-game losing streak with Dipo in the lineup was the worst stretch of the season for Indiana. They would eventually iron it out and finished 11-8 in 19 games with The Wedding Singer.
T.J. Warren in the bubble was like a NBA Jam player who caught fire and the fire just never turned off. The Pacers tried to play it off cool, “just a man gettin’ his buckets.”
Nate McMillan was ultimately fired, something we don’t totally understand or agree with. However, when you put it like this: McMillan and the Pacers were bounced from the 1st round of the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season… then it is a bit more understandable.
Here is one thing that we do know for sure: Do not bet on or against the Pesky Pacers.
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What are the answers to our Season Preview Final Questions?
Who will bomb all of the 3-balls now that Wes Matthews is gone?
That would be a little bit of everybody. The Pacers had five players average more than four three-point attempts per game and eight players average more than three. Doug McDermott (43.5%), Justin Holiday (40.5%) and T.J. Warren (40.3%) each shot better than 40 percent. And Aaron Holiday was close behind at 39.4 percent.
Can the Pacers hold on until their leader and heart gets back on the court?
They sure did. Brogdon set the tone as the new leader and stabilizer.
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Would our preseason Over/Under prediction have hit?
The Pacers have been resilient overachievers over the course of the last two seasons. Perhaps they want us to count them out just so they can sneak up on us again.
Playing in the JV East will help tremendously, but we’re still skeptical. UNDER 47.5 wins. (58% winning pct)
Pacers 2019-20 final record: (45-28) 62% winning pct
Nope, our preseason Over/Under prediction would not have hit. The Pacers only needed three more wins.
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What’s Next?
Figure out the Oladipo situation and try to salvage it. There have been rumors that Dipo wants out of Indy, but apparently he told Fat Joe on IG Live that isn’t the case. That’s good enough for us.
New head coach Nate Bjorkgren is here, ensuring that the team will be familiar with the coach’s first name at least. Bjorkgren hails from Nick Nurse’s coaching staff and is said to be highly regarded by pretty much everyone.
The Goga Bitadze Experiment has more work to be done.
JaKarr SpongeBob Sampson is a power dunker who we would not mind seeing get some more run if he is re-signed.
Are there any T.J.’s available in this draft?
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