8p9s Roundtable: Are the Indiana Pacers Going To Make a Move?
By Ben Gibson
Who or what is the biggest reason for the Indiana Pacers’ struggles so far?
Furr: It takes a village. The backcourt of Teague/Ellis didn’t work well, especially on defense. The Pacers have a single shooting guard who can shoot, and he’s masquerading as a 2nd unit power forward half his time on the court, and a small forward the rest of the time. The defense hasn’t been good, with the exception of a small 4-5 game stretch. There are only 3 Pacers that have played every game this year.
The Pacers have a single shooting guard who can shoot, and he’s masquerading as a 2nd unit power forward half his time on the court, and a small forward the rest of the time. — Furr
Washburn: Larry Bird. He asked for the squad to play a certain way, and then fired Frank Vogel for not acquiescing to his demands. Then, he brought in players that don’t fit that desired style of play, and asked Nate McMillan to make it work anyway. One of the most crucial characteristics that all successful things have in common is that they know who they are. The Pacers have no idea what their identity is; consequently, they’ve drifted along the current of mediocrity all season.
Padmore: The team as a whole isn’t getting it done consistently enough. Defense has been an issue, too, but at times they’ve looked like a solid defensive team. Same goes for the offensive end. All about consistency.
Gibson: The team isn’t built in a way that should be expected to win consistently. The Pacers have relied on either a Teague-Ellis backcourt (too small) or a Teague-GR3 one (inexperienced) and that has led to many of the defensive issues. In the past, the Pacers had length and size to bully teams off the perimeter, but now they give up too many corner 3-pointers, even if the overall 3-point shooting percentage for opponents is low. With so many issues there, the defense behind them struggles to both overcome the backcourts issue as well as having some of their own exposed.
We knew these issues before the season, and there still there. It isn’t all Larry Bird’s fault, but the way the team was constructed, this was almost inevitable.