The Indiana Pacers know who they want to be. In theory. It remains to be seen who they will be. In fact. A franchise that went to two of the past three Eastern Conference Finals while playing a seemingly anachronistic “Smashmouth” style now speaks in unison about the way the league is going.
Now, they are about to start running to catch up. “The whole league — the whole world — is going to a movement of position-less basketball,” said head coach Frank Vogel. “This isn’t position-less, in terms of having five like-sized guys, but it is a movement towards being more of a position-less team.”
“Training camp usually changes your mind. This year is going to be no different. We do plan on playing some at the four, and we’re excited about what that’s going to look like.” – Frank Vogel
Entering his fifth full season as coach of the Pacers, Vogel will determine how quickly the Pacers can pivot and adapt to the smaller-faster-quicker mentality. He must devise the tactical plan for Indiana’s reinvention. “Having four 3-point-shooting playmakers on the perimeter and one big out there, as opposed to two bigs, is how much of the league has gone,” said Vogel on media day. “With the way this roster is put together, we’ve got a chance to do it as well as anybody.”
This is a big change for a coach that has only ever won games by looking much more like a steamroller than a race car. The Pacers need to prove they can make the transition. Even Vogel — the ultimate act-as-if-ye-have-faith-and-faith-shall-be-granted guy — often sounds as if he’s looking for someone to prove it to him. “Our whole team is going through a shift in offensive identity,” he said. “We will play in some small lineups. We talked the other day about starting that way.”
Vogel, as always, is being the good team soldier. Even so, the coach hedges.
“Everything in training camp is to be played out,” said Vogel. “Every year, every coach goes into training camp with an idea of how he wants to use his roster, and training camp usually changes your mind. This year is going to be no different. We do plan on playing him some at the four, and we’re excited about what that’s going to look like.
“Are we gonna ask him to go and get pounded on the defensive end every time down the floor? No, we’re not. But we’re gonna be tough to guard, I’ll tell you that … We’ll see how it plays out. It’s going to be something that we’ll be working on early — to be part of our identity — and how successful it is will dictate how much we use it.”
Paul George’s Uncertainty
Frank Vogel isn’t the only one whose endorsement of the change has been less than full-throated. Paul George has shown reticence towards his expected new role.
When the media asked the GM about Paul George’s minute expectations at the 4, Larry Bird channeled his inner Larry Bird, saying: “He don’t make the decisions around here.”
It all started earlier this summer when the team missed the playoffs, and team president Larry Bird first expressed plans to change things up at the year-end press conference. “I was talking to coach earlier,” said Bird days after the season ended. “We’d like to play a faster tempo. I don’t know where we rank offensive in the league, but I think we need to score more points. That means we need to run a little faster, maybe at times play a little smaller. I don’t know what style, but I’d like to change it a little bit.”
In July, George said, “I’m a ballplayer — put me anywhere on the court and I’m going to make the most out of it.” He was “fine with” playing the four here and there, but that it was really no big deal because he was “not going to be logging 30 minutes” there per night.
When the media asked the GM about Paul George’s minute expectations at the 4, and Larry Bird channeled his inner Larry Bird, responding: “He don’t make the decisions around here.” Bird added that, “I’m not going to get into a battle with Paul George about where he wants to play. He’s a basketball player. He’ll play anywhere you put him out there. Believe me.”
Most recently, with Vogel telling the press that George would likely be starting game one of the season at the four position, George told the Indianapolis Star he hasn’t been “exactly thrilled” with the idea since first hearing it and that “I don’t think I’m at that point in my career where I should be changing positions.”
To hear the media tell it in sound bite snippets, this all sounds like the makings of a big ol’ feud. But George has also said “I’m open for the change” and “I think I can fit right into it” while Bird has said that “We’ll see how he feels about it.”
Change by Fiat
Along with words, Bird stepped on the accelerator. Speaking on David West turning down a player option to stay in Indiana, Bird has said that, “everything we did this summer was because of his decision.” The most concrete — and surprising — move was the Roy Hibbert fire sale. Coming hard on the heels of West’s departure to San Antonio, it erased the last vestiges of the “Smashmouth” Pacers.
“The concern is just matching up with guys I wouldn’t usually matchup against. For how long can my body tolerate playing against guys that have size on me, especially coming off an injury that cost me a full year?” – Paul George
The past is gone, and while Bird did draft a center, every other meaningful move this summer — getting Monta Ellis, re-signing Rodney Stuckey, taking a flier on Chase Budinger — focused on the perimeter. Looking at the roster composition (only four players on the team are taller than Paul George), Bird has left Vogel with few proven big men and really no choice but to go small.
But it seems clear that the rhetoric and the personnel moves have left both the coach and the star of the Pacers trying to get on board with change that they appear to neither fully love nor hate.
On media day, Vogel offered what could be called his dissenting agreement to the swift shift this offseason. “I’m less motivated by Larry’s experience and more motivated by what I know has been awfully tough to guard the last couple of years,” the coach said. “The Miami Heat won championships doing this. The Golden State Warriors did it in a different way last year. The Atlanta Hawks won 60 games by using the spacing game and running the floor.
Then, following his summer-long pattern, Vogel softened his endorsement with a disclaimer. “It’s something I think will really work for us, but — again — how successful it is early on will dictate how much we will use it.”
For George, the hurdle to accepting change is mental and physical.
“I’m trying to wrap my mind not so much around playing the 4,” the star said on media day, “but around us having four ball-handlers on the court at all times. And, with that, I’m comfortable.”
Paul George also echoed his coach’s sentiment about keeping up with the Joneses and mentioned that, while starting at the four isn’t something he ever expected, “it’s the way the league is going” and “it will be good for us.” He said that the change “gives us a chance to change the East. It gives us a chance to play faster, play a funner brand or funner style of basketball. I think it’s going to pay off in the long run.”
“It gives us a chance to play faster, play a funner brand or funner style of basketball. I think it’s going to pay off in the long run.” – Paul George
His earlier resistance and the undeniable hesitance that remains is understandable. PG entered the league as a long shooting guard who played in the back court alongside a former All-Star wing in Danny Granger. He then evolved beyond his mentor, took hold of Granger’s spot, and became an elite small forward. Now, at 25-years-old, he is seemingly being asked to become an undersized power forward.
After losing a full season to injury, Paul George is determined to get back to who he was. But now he feels he’s being asked to be someone else.
“The concern is just matching up with guys I wouldn’t usually matchup against, ” said George. “For how long can my body tolerate playing against guys that have size on me, especially coming off an injury that cost me a full year.”
Whether Paul George is scared, skeptical, or stubborn about what his bosses have said this summer, the changes are now here. As Vogel has said, training camp and preseason setbacks could theoretically end Bird’s grand experiment before it ever gets off the ground.
But, The Legend isn’t wrong. The team needs a better, higher-scoring offense to succeed, and the state of the roster leaves little hope for success using a status quo strategy. Giving significant minutes to the likes of Lavoy Allen and Jordan Hill may not be unthinkable in a vacuum, but it is arguably detrimental to winning, when it becomes a zero-sum game leading to fewer minutes for better players like C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey. Bird has essentially dared the coach to play Bird’s way with good players or use a traditional style with lesser talent.
Like it or not, George and Vogel are left with few options. Their commander in chief has given the orders and assigned them specific resources. Vogel must use what he has been give to devise some new tactical plans to win, and George needs to bring all that to life on the floor.
The old Pacers have vanished. David West’s defection increased the urgency, and Larry Bird ripped off the band-aid. Right now, Indiana has no identity. So starting today, the coach and the star must take it upon themselves to create the next evolution of the franchise.
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