What if the Indiana Pacers were all from Indiana?

Team USA’s recent success in the FIBA World Cup got me thinking about the concept of representing your country in international play, only on a much smaller scale. What if there was a chance for NBA players to represent their home state? Think of it like a pro version of the AAU circuit or a much more competitive version of the local Summer Pro-Am leagues.

If something like this ever happened, Indiana would be a legit team. Per capita, Indiana produces the most McDonald’s All-Americans in the country. A lot of those players go on to have successful collegiate careers and play in the NBA. Especially recently, Indiana has been producing top-notch talent that proves the Hoosier state is still the unofficial capital of basketball.

I wanted to dig deeper into this theory, so I put together a team of all Indiana-born players. I assigned them roles, playing time and for the sake of this article I left out salary requirements.

These are your Indiana Pacers.

Point Guards

This team has incredible depth at the Point Guard position. A total of 5 PGs tried out for the team and unfortunately, we could only hang on to three: Jeff Teague, Mike Conley and George Hill. Jeff Teague’s younger brother, Marquis, and E’Twaun Moore were carefully considered, but are not going to be a part of the roster moving forward.

Depth Chart

1) Mike Conley – 17.2 PPG, 6.0 APG, 2.9 RPG, 20.02 PER, 2.1 TOPG

2) Jeff Teague – 16.5 PPG, 6.7 APG, 2.6 RPG, 17.16 PER, 2.9 TOPG

3) George Hill – 10.3 PPG, 3.5 APG, 3.7 RPG, 13.42 PER, 1.2 TOPG

It’s a toss-up for the starting Point Guard role, between Mike Conley and Jeff Teague. Their stats are exceptionally close, but I chose to award the starter job to Mike Conley. Conley has proven to be less likely to turn the ball over and has plenty of playoff experience, which is something that Jeff Teague currently lacks.

It may be difficult to find a way to give George Hill minutes at the Point Guard position with Teague and Conley ahead of him on the depth chart, but Hill would be able to sneak in certain guard-heavy rotations, or possibly play some Shooting Guard throughout the year.

Shooting Guards

The obvious choice for our starting SG is Eric Gordon, but he has yet to remain healthy for a full NBA season in his 6-year career and that worries me. His backups are Courtney Lee and the freshly drafted Gary Harris. Harris had a pretty productive showing in Las Vegas this Summer and I believe he’ll be able to play as Gordon’s primary backup.

Depth Chart

1) Eric Gordon – 15.4 PPG, 3.3 APG, 2.6 RPG, 14.92 PER

2) Gary Harris – 18.6 PPG, 2.0 APG, 4.2 RPG, 13.00 PER (Summer League)

3) Courtney Lee – 9.6 PPG, 1.5 APG, 2.4 RPG, 13.80 PER

If Eric Gordon goes down with another injury and Gary Harris isn’t quite ready for the starting role, the veteran Courtney Lee will surely be able to step in and be effective. All three guys should see ample playing time.

Small Forwards

Gordon Hayward really came out of his shell last season and proved that he can be an consistently impactful player in this league. He earned the starting job on this roster without a doubt, but there is virtually no competition for playing time at this position.

Depth Chart

1) Gordon Hayward – 16.2 PPG, 5.2 APG, 5.1 RPG, 16.22 PER

2) Robbie Hummel – 3.4 PPG, 0.4 APG, 2.5 RPG, 9.67 PER

3) Rodney Carney* – 5.9 PPG, 0.2 APG, 2.0 RPG (Career in NBA)

Robbie Hummel hasn’t had much of chance to prove himself as an NBA player, but he’s proven to be a hard-worker and a great teammate so we’re excited to have him stick around. Though he’ll get limited minutes, if any, it’s always great to keep players like Hummel on your roster to push the rest of the roster to their limits.

Rodney Carney, who currently plays in the Lebanese Basketball League, isn’t on the active roster, but can be activated in the event that one of the SGs or SFs goes down with an injury. He can bring experience, versatility and athleticism to the bench.

Since this team isn’t as strong as we’d like to be at the SF position, the roster rotations will likely use Hayward, Gordon, Harris and Lee interchangeably at 2 and 3 positions.

Power Forwards

There was a major battle at the Power Forward position that gave this team impressive depth in the front court. Zach Randolph will get the start, but has a hungry and talented Mason Plumlee at his heels.

Depth Chart

1) Zach Randolph – 17.4 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 0.3 BPG, 18.37 PER

2) Mason Plumlee – 7.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 0.8 BPG, 19.09 PER

3) Cody Zeller* – 6.0 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 0.5 BPG, 13.12 PER

Randolph has a resume that speaks for itself and Plumlee had an outstanding Rookie season to use as a base for growth and improvement. It was the third and final PF spot that was hardest to fill, but Cody Zeller was my selection.

Cody Zeller will be kept on the inactive roster, which is a pretty tough pill to swallow, but it had to be done based on positional demand. We also had to cut Mitch McGary and Josh McRoberts. A case could be made for either of the two to be on the roster, but I think Plumlee and Zeller show the most upside while still bringing immediate value to the team.

Centers

Our starting big man is Miles Plumlee, brother of backup PF Mason. Miles brings a lot of athleticism, basketball IQ and potential for development to the front court. His backup, Tyler Zeller, brings even more young talent to the team. Zeller’s perimeter skillset is really impressive for a Center, but he isn’t quite the man-in-the-middle that Miles Plumlee is.

Depth Chart

1) Miles Plumlee  – 8.1 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.1 BPG, 14.60 PER

2) Tyler Zeller – 5.7 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 0.5 BPG, 15.43 PER

3) Greg Oden* – 2.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 0.6 BPG, 12.40 PER

I would love to be able to say that Greg Oden can be a valuable component to this all-Indiana team, but I think that ship has officially sailed. I was rooting for Greg through the wrist injury at Ohio State and every single surgery he went through as a pro. Unfortunately, I believe his recent arrest is going to officially end his NBA career.

Luckily, this isn’t really an NBA front office so I get to keep Greg Oden around on our inactive roster.

Why not throw in some coaches and front office personnel? All Hoosiers, of course.

GM: Kevin Pritchard

President: Larry Bird

Assistant Coaches: Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, Scott Skiles

Head Coach: Gregg Popovich

Can They Win?

If this team was assembled, they could definitely win a lot of games. The individual player stats shown above were taken from their regular season performances last season (2013-14) unless otherwise noted. I know there is no accurate way to truly see how this team would perform, but the method I used is about as close as it gets.

I created a formula-heavy spreadsheet containing 7 very important “per game” statistics for each player; points, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, turnovers and minutes played. I was able to measure each player’s production right down to the minute by dividing each stat average by the average minutes played.

Using that data, I assigned each player an amount of minutes per game and projected per game stats for the roster.

** Stats taken from NBA Summer League games and decreased by 50% to estimate regular season competition.

Taking a look at the team stat averages we can see that this Pacers team is actually very different, on paper, from the actual Indiana Pacers. This team seems to be an offensive powerhouse, rather than a gritty defensive team.

In comparison to other actual NBA teams’ 2013-14 statistics let’s look at how the All-Indiana Pacers stack up.

At 103.4 PPG, this Pacers team would rank 10th in the NBA in the category and 1st in the Eastern Conference. The 23.8 APG places this team at number 6 in the NBA in the category, trailing only Atlanta in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, this team struggles on the glass and ranks just 22nd in the NBA in total rebounds per game. Of course, these are hypothetical stats, but it’s definitely an interesting topic to ponder during the off-season when there isn’t much on-court action.

Let us know how you feel about the All-Indiana Pacers squad! This is your chance to be a GM.