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...
The Pacers are terrible. They have no holdovers from the years when they would end the season above .500 and so have only players who are mired in a culture of losing. Who is going to turn that around? T.J. Ford? I doubt it. I think getting Mike Dunleavy back with help immensely but name one Pacers fan or employee who will tell you, "Just wait til we get Mike Dunleavy back, then we'll show 'em!" I'm sorry to say but that's NOT HAPPENING! So where do we stand? I'd say Bird has made great progress in getting rid of the riff raff and those players who spent more time in court than on the court. (Is anyone else wondering if Stephen Jackson, Jamal Tinsley and Shawne Williams have somehow been hanging out with Plaxico Burress?) But seriously, my point is that yes, Larry Bird is improving the quality of players on the team but he has yet to bring in any proven winners during this process. Nesterovic rode some coattails in San Antonio for a few years but solid contributors for winning teams? Not on this squad. I think the pacers are a few years away which is where they've been for a few years. As a fan, it's starting to get old. Ultimately we need time together and I'm beginning to wonder if a coach can really change a culture because look how respectable the Knicks are under D'antoni...I mean right? It has to be mentioned, he's one game under .500 while fielding 4 female softball players and 3 sixth graders. Watching the numbers Duhon is putting up makes me wonder if Steve Nash privately gave D'antoni both MVP awards because he obviously owes them to him! But anyway, in this "what have you done for me lately" NBA i'm not very impressed with O'Brien anymore. So, as always, Go Pacers, and lets break this 6 game losing streak!
Keywords: Indiana Pacers, NBA
