Indiana Pacers Injury: The NBA's Snakebitten Team

The Indiana Pacers injury report this season has been longer than most Russian novels. I’ve never seen anything like it. Nearly everyday there is another update about one key rotation player or another who is expected to miss time.

Paul George went down with a broken leg and that was a tragic, freak accident for a rising star in the NBA. So that was definitely the worst of it.

But the whole team has been cursed with sprains, migraines, and tears. And the strangest aspect has been how quickly it went from nobody but Paul George being hurt to everybody sidelined.

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David West sprained his ankle in the preseason, but the prognosis initially sounded better than a worst-case scenario. Then he missed 15 games. George Hill was dealing with something small in the preseason, but that turned out to be a torn quad that kept him out for the first 30 games of the year. It felt similar with C.J. Watson — who missed the first 15 games — as something small seemed to balloon.

And on and on it has gone, whether it was C.J. Miles suffering migraines, Rodney Stuckey having leg problems, Ian Mahinmi tearing a ligament in his foot, or Roy Hibbert spraining his ankle.

I don’t know how this stands in a historical context, but it’s hard to believe many teams have ever been hit harder. At one point, seven of the team’s best eight players were unavailable, and that eighth guy was seldom-used second-year player Solomon Hill.

Paul George, David West, George Hill, Roy Hibbert, C.J. Watson, C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey, and Ian Mahinmi have all missed at least four games — and all but Hibbert have missed seven or more. Remember that the team has only played 36 games so far, and that this list of names is essentially the whole rotation.

All told, they have been sidelined for a combined 99 games. That equals 4,752 minutes of play missed … or 79.2 hours … or 3.3 days. Yes, we can measure the on-court time missed by the Pacers this year in days.

Or, looking at things another way, those 99 games missed are out of a maximum 288 games that the nine players listed above could have appeared in. (36 Pacers games times 9 players). So the math on that means that the core of the team has missed an astounding 34.4% of the team’s outings.

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It has been absolutely nuts.

Hibbert summed it up well in an article by Steve Aschburner on NBA.com: “I would love to be able to play with everybody healthy for about 20 minutes.”

Captain Positivity, aka, head coach Frank Vogel is naturally taking the upbeat look at the injury woes. He told Aschburner that the wins that came early in the season — when a beleagued rotation beat the odds to start off with a 7-9 record — were “fun.” And he says he has been impressed by the team’s resolve despite all the losing that followed once the schedule got rough.

"“When you have the injuries we had early in the season, you don’t know how a team is gonna endure that type of losing,” Vogel said. “Losing in this league is no fun — it can separate your team, it can separate your group from the coaching staff and it can crack your chemistry and togetherness. And that hasn’t happened even a little bit. That’s been very, very impressive to me, the way our guys have handled the situation and the passion they’ve performed with every night. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”"

Vogel blows smoke at times, but his sentiment is dead on here. I thought the season might spiral the drain after a 7-9 start turned into 7-17 record. I don’t know the last time the Indiana Pacers had an 8-game losing streak, but it has been some time. So it would have been easy for it to all come unraveled.

But the schedule lightened up, guys finally got healthy(er, anyway), and the wins are starting to return. The team has now won six of its last nine games, and is just 1.5 games out of the eighth spot for the playoffs.

Things could certainly turn bad again soon, but if the health can return — a big question given the bad luck this year — there is no reason this team won’t make the playoffs. It has endured this long. There is an established culture of winning. And there is plenty of time to find enough wins to beat out the rest of the Eastern Conference dregs.

Per usual, David West best stated how the Pacers need to operate if they want to get past their snakebitten start to the year. (again, from Aschburner)

"Nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. That’s just how the NBA works,” he said. “Things can swing in your favor or against you, with an injury here or an injury there. There are teams that were banged up the last few years and we didn’t feel sorry for them. There’s no room for that.“We’re going to keep plugging away at it. It’s a long year, and we got some tough stretches out of the way already. … We’re just trying to get wins where we can.”"

Indiana Pacers Injury Woes in Full

Before we go — and because I don’t think this article gives an actual view into just how bad the Indiana Pacers injury situation has been so far — let’s look at full, individual breakdown of all the time missed. And we won’t even include Paul George, who suffered the worst injury in tea history last summer.

It has been the worst of times.

David West

David West sprained his ankle right before the season started. He missed the first 15 games of the season, and was clearly playing his large, 34-year-old frame back into shape for the next two weeks after that. It’s possible he still hasn’t even found his groove yet given the downtime.

Games Missed: 15 of 36

Paul George, David West, George Hill, Roy Hibbert, C.J. Watson, C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey, and Ian Mahinmi have been sidelined for a combined 99 games. That equals 4,752 minutes of play missed … or 79.2 hours … or 3.3 days. Yes, we can measure the on-court time missed by the Pacers this year in days.

George Hill

George Hill tore a quad before the season started and missed the first 28 games. He then returned for five outings, which included three wins and a two-point loss to Chicago. He is sidelined again — missing the past two games — and that is troubling. But odds are that he will be back for full-time duty soon. But with all the setbacks, it could be until the All-Star break when he will be completely back to full strength to help the team compete down the stretch.

Games Missed: 30 of 36

C.J. Watson

C.J. Watson missed the first 15 games of the year with lower-leg issues. While he and George Hill were out, coach Frank Vogel was forced to start Donald Sloan at point guard. Last year, Sloan played 339 minutes, a total he surpassed during Indiana’s 11th game this season. Rodney Stuckey became Sloan’s backup, and it was so bad that Solomon Hill got some time at the one-spot. Watson is back in the lineup now, but his return hasn’t been seamless; he has missed three of the team’s past 20 games.

Games Missed: 18 of 36

Ian Mahinmi

Ian Mahinmi hurt his shoulder over the summer while training with the French national team for the FIBA World Cup. But he did well to recover and start the season in the rotation. Until he tore his plantar fascia, and the team was left with one less front-court player. West had returned already, so the big man depth wasn’t as ravaged as the perimeter, but Mahinmi’s absence has thrust Lavoy Allen into a big-minute role that he has both thrived and sputtered in depending on the game.

Games Missed: 16 of 36

C.J. Miles

C.J. Miles missed four games early in the year with horrible migraines then came back for one. He played just 4 minutes before leaving with a calf injury, however, and then sat out the next three games. Since his return from that ailment, he has been mostly healthy. But this is the 2014-15 Indiana Pacers, so that means he still missed two more games in December with a bruised knee.

Games Missed: 9 of 36 (and knocked out of another 2 early on)

Rodney Stuckey

Rodney Stuckey was banged up in the preseason, but the medical staff deemed him fit to take the court on opening night. But he was on a minutes count due to a bum foot. He appeared in the first four games, playing quite well actually, but he wasn’t able to play more than 17 minutes in any game, and in one of those he was limited to just 6 minutes. Worse still, he hurt himself again in game four and was forced to miss the next seven games.

Games Missed: 7 of 36 (and on a minutes count for another 4)

Roy Hibbert

Roy Hibbert sprained his left ankle during a game against the Phoenix Suns and missed the next four games. For a sprained ankle, that outcome could have been worse, but he clearly wasn’t himself for the next few weeks. It’s Roy Hibbert, so it’s hard to say whether that stretch of poor play was just his normal inconsistency or more a cause of the nagging injury. He mentioned the ankle woes long after his return to the media, so it’s probably a little column A and a bit of column B.

Games Missed: 4 of 36 (knocked out of another 1 in first half)

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The Insane Breakdown of Pacers Injuries This Year — And Their Fight to Persevere

By Jared Wade | Jan 6, 2015

Indiana Pacers Injury Woes in Full