What We Learned About the Indiana Pacers: Week 3

The third week of the season was a good one for suffering Indiana Pacers fans, with the Pacers bringing home a 3-1 record, including two quality wins. They handled the Utah Jazz at home, following that with wins in Miami and Chicago and an absolutely terrible loss to Denver at home.

The week saw a lineup change (Solomon Hill starting for the slumping/migraine-afflicted C.J. Miles) and a new addition playing heavy minutes (A.J. Price, who debuted November 7 in Boston).

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Let’s take a look at what we learned this week

A.J. Price Is Less Than Interested in a Trip to China

A.J. Price is, to use his words, is “playing for [his] life” right now. In the four games during week 3, he averaged 11 field goal attempts per game, shooting 52.3% from the field and putting up 16 points per game.

Price’s box scores are causing a lot of fans to ask themselves if the Pacers should find some way to keep him for the whole season, which would require releasing another player from the roster. While Price’s scoring has been huge for the Pacers during his second stint with the team, his weaknesses are fairly glaring during game play; he shoots, early, often, and seemingly regardless of situation/lineup/shot clock/game clock. At 27.1, Price has the highest usage rate on the team since his signing. (Stuckey has a higher rate on the season but hasn’t played since Price was signed.)

That type of usage rate is fine for the Kobe Bryant/Kevin Durant types of the world, but A.J. Price, for his career, shoots worse than 39% from the field. If Price has morphed into this kind of shooter permanently, he will soon make a pretty penny to stay in the NBA, but the higher likelihood is that Price is simply on a hot streak right now, and Price the sub-39% shooter is a fringe NBA player with more miles and less upside than Donald Sloan.

The Indiana Pacers Are Not Tanking

Just in case there was any question. These guys just went 3-1 in a week featuring two road matchups against expected playoff teams, and Frank Vogel should be getting some of his starters back from injury soon.

When David West and George Hill return, the bench should become stronger than ever, having gained valuable experience in big minutes through the start of the year.

Solomon Hill Continues to Impress

Solomon Hill averaged 13.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last week while generally matching up with the opposing team’s biggest perimeter threat. His shooting was cover your eyes bad (31.5%), but this was heavily skewed by his 1-for-12 performance against the Heat while guarding Dwayne Wade on the other end.

And more important than the results is the approach. Hill continues to aggressively get to the basket, attack the glass, and flash legitimate NBA range from behind the arc. His decision making continues to improve, and he’s gone from “not sure he’s an NBA-level player” to “could start the rest of the year at either the 2 or the 3”. Not many people outside of the state are excited about him yet, but I think that changes by the end of the year.

Roy Hibbert Still Owns the Paint on Defense

Roy Hibbert has suffered criticism, ridicule, and all out hate from fans and sportwriters since his prolonged slump after his All-Star appearance last year. Hibbert’s offense has been much improved this year, especially considering all the injuries around him and extra attention defenses can pay him. He is putting up 13.8 points per game on 47% shooting and has made 83% of the 4.4 free-throw attempts he is averaging per night.

However, we’ve seen Hibbert have offensive stretches like this before and fade after; judgment is still out on that end.

Where he hasn’t faded or changed is protecting the rim on D; opponents are shooting only 38.4% at the rim on 9 attempts per game while he is on the court, and no number can measure the amount of aborted drives his presence causes. He’s also averaging 3.2 blocks and 8.1 rebounds per game, while staying mostly out of foul trouble. Hibbert has proven to all of his doubters that he was able to shake off last year’s slump and come back mentally tougher.

The Indiana Pacers Week Ahead

• Games: vs Charlotte (Wednesday) and Phoenix (Saturday)

• Prediction: Pacers go 1-1, beating Charlotte in Lance’s return but falling to Phoeni

• Last Week’s Prediction Results: 0-4 (eek!)

• Season-long Prediction Results: 2-6

• What to watch for: A.J. Price shooting more often than not for a few more games … C.J. Miles’ hopeful return … Chris Copeland, single handedly bring back the finger roll … Solomon Hill attacking the rim like it owes him money … Rodney Stuckey getting closer and closer to playing… Lavoy Allen stealing minutes with every rebound and tip in … Roy Hibbert freely firing (and making) midrange jumpers… Luis Scola’s nightly “sneaky push in the back trying to get an offensive rebound” foul … the Suns running a 3-point guard lineup (Isaiah Thomas/Eric Bledsoe/Goran Dragic) against a Pacers team possibly without 3 active guards … Lance Stephenson coming to town smelling revenge … Paul George making more 3s in warmups, and everyone thinking he’s ready to play because he can make set shots … Damo Rudez doing good things on offense that don’t show in the box score … Sloan/Copeland pick and rolls leading to quick 3s