Ian Shankster's Indiana Pacers fan blog

At this point in the summer I am going to break down who I think is going to land in the playoffs after the nine.ten. This is based on what has happened so far around the league.

Western Conference Playoffs:

1. Los Angeles Lakers

2. San Antonio Spurs

3. Portland Trailblazers

4. Dallas Mavericks

5. Denver Nuggets

6. Utah Jazz

7. Phoenix Suns

8. New Orleans Hornets 

Easter Conference Playoffs:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Boston Celtics

3. Miami Heat

4. Orlando Magic

5. Chicago Bulls

6. Atlanta Hawks

7. Toronto Raptors

8. Indiana Pacers 

The turnover from last year is small with the Suns replacing the Rockets in the Western Conference and the Raptors and Pacers replacing the Sixers and Pistons in the Eastern Conference. There is however, some movement in the standings, except at the top. 

Continue reading "NBA Playoff Predictions"

As writer and editor of this blog I am going to be referring to the upcoming season as "the nine.ten" for obvious reasons. The Pacers appear to be ready to make another pretty good step towards respectability and perhaps the even the playoffs. With the waiving of Jamal Tinsley it seems they are finally putting the past behind them and with a few notable additions it seems that a leaf which was partially overturned last year is fully flipped for the nine.ten.

The Pacers have guys getting healthy, guys getting older and better and some completely new guys. I like what hustle players, Tyler Hansbrough and Dahntay Jones bring to the team. It seems that our defensive intensity will definitely be taken up a notch. When teams bring in someone like Jones who takes his defense very seriously it almost always rubs off in a positive way on teammates. This is absolutely necessary for the nine.ten if you look at last year and see how many times we scored well over 100 points but still lost games. Any improvement in defense is a good thing for a team like the Pacers. I am also excited to see how Danny Granger responds to being an all-star last year. Is he going to be a one-year wonder resting on his accomplishments of the past or is he going to work harder and try to get back and be a perennial all-star? 

Continue reading "The Indiana Pacers and the nine.ten"

I was blogging like crazy until I got a full time job which exhuasted me and took up all my time. But, I am back to take a look at the Pacers again.

What did I miss?  The Pacers have performed exactly as I predicted they would. They are at the bottom of the Central Division but usually play to the level of the competition which is great sometimes but very bad at other times. They are way better at home than on the road and have Danny Granger who was an all-star this year! How close or far are we from being an elite team? It seems impossible to tell.  

Continue reading "Lockout"

Check out my last post which was used in ESPN.com's The Sports Guy's (or Bill Simmons) latest article! You can view his article by clicking this link.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081219

It's under number 5 with the Tennessee Titans. 

Continue reading "Shankster Rankings follow up."

 To show what the NFL is truly all about I have put this together to prove that besides Detroit, parity rules the NFL every week.

THESE ARE MY NFL RANKINGS.

1 Kansas City (beat Oakland)

2 Oakland (beat Denver)

3 Denver (beat Cleveland)

4 Cleveland (beat Cincinnati)

5 Cincinnati (beat Jacksonville)

6 Jacksonville (beat Green Bay)

7 Green Bay (beat Seattle)

8 Seattle (beat San Francisco)

9 San Francisco (beat Buffalo)

10 Buffalo (beat San Diego)

11 San Diego (beat New England)

12 New England (beat NY Jets)

13 NY Jets (beat Arizona)

14 Arizona (beat Miami)

15 Miami (beat St. Louis)

16 St. Louis (beat Dallas)

17 Dallas (beat Washington)

18 Washington (beat New Orleans)

Continue reading "The Second NFL Shankster Rankings [1-32]"

With enough of the season having passed to make an evaluation on the state of the Pacers, I feel I must.

After a busy offseason, the year which seemed somewhat promising at the start has quickly turned into a lottery quest. (A 20-20 to Andrew Bogut, REALLY???) Will the Pacers be the next team that beats the odds to grab the number 1 pick away from the Oklahoma City Loss Columns? And, if that happens who will the Pacers take? Blake Griffin from Oklahoma? I would rather have him in a heartbeat than Roy "I'm not athletic" Hibbert or any of the Pacers "we're big but not athletic" frontline. But enough about next summer. How are the Pacers right now, and why are they 3rd from the bottom of the Eastern Conference? What's that? Certainly! I would love to give my opinion...

Continue reading "Pacers trades paying off...NOT"

Ok so half the losses the top two teams in the NBA have suffered have come against the Pacers. What does this tell us? Are the Pacers on their way to the top? Are they an elite team and just trying to fly under the radar? WRONG. The Pacers are simply a team that loves to tease. The Pacers have many of the components needed to compete on an elite level every night but they don't get pumped up for every game. How easy is it to get pumped up for a home game against the Western Conference champions? Probably about as easy as it was to get pumped up for a home game against the Eastern Conference champions. Do you catch what I'm saying? The Pacers are close, they just need to learn to want it every night. Do you think Danny Granger was motivated to play well against the reigning league MVP? OF COURSE! And if you're looking for hope, he actually did outscore Kobe and, more importantly, Granger's team got the win! After last night Granger is currently 5th in the NBA in scoring which is impressive but doesn't solve the Pacers problem of why they can't win consistently.

Continue reading "WARNING PACERS FANS!"

So the Pacers aren't winning...who cares? They are playing hard and competing which is a giant step in the right direction. We haven't seen a Pacers team playing hard and somewhat cohesive in quite a few years in my opinion. The Pacers are young and just getting to know eachother which obviously shows up in the standings as we are losing close games but there is hope. HOPE. Not a lot of that going around Indy before this year. The last few years the only thing we had to hope for was that no one on the team would shoot anyone else on the team or around town. During the last several years the Pacers were old enough to understand that they weren't an elite team and had been together long enough to not like each other and destroy any chemistry they may have shared. This year however, while their record isn't something to blog home about but their level of play IS! As a Pacers fan this is the one thing I can hold onto and find excitement in.

Continue reading "Is this the best year to watch the Pacers since 2004?"

The first ever NFL Shankster Rankings. Comments welcome, where did I mess up?


1. NY Giants - Clearly prepared to defend their title the Giants are playing to win.

2. Carolina - Did anyone predict they would be here now?

3. Tennessee - I refuse to believe they are for real.

4. Arizona - The playoffs are coming! The playoffs are coming!

5. NY Jets - Is this team really a serious contender?

6. Pittsburgh - Can't beat the Mannings but still a strong team built on rushing and defense.

7. Indianapolis - If they make the playoffs no one will want to play them.

8. Tampa Bay - Still can't take them seriously.

9. Atlanta - Hope in Atlanta.

10. New England - Always a threat to make noise and crush dreams.

Continue reading "The NFL Shankster Rankings [1-32]"

Since the start of the 2004 season the Pacers have a combined record of 160-177. Seventeen games under .500 over the last 327 games. How does that make you feel about your favorite team? Ok so we haven't collapsed like the Timberwolves or the Knicks. We aren't at the bottom of the standings every year and in fact are usually in the playoffs or at least in the playoff race until the last few weeks of the season. Is this something that should be applauded or despised? Is Larry Bird doing such an excellent job that the Pacers aren't going to hit rock bottom? I have a hard time buying that. It's back to the biblical concept that it's better to be hot or cold than lukewarm. I think I could deal with the Pacers being terrible if I knew it meant that we were going to be getting high draft picks and therefore players good enough to take us back to the top! Instead I suffer through four years of winning then losing then winning then losing. Never having any hope of going far in the playoffs or getting a high draft pick. Instead we get players like Danny Granger who are good but not great and they lead us to another year of decent or good but never great.

Continue reading "Why are the Pacers Mediocre?"