Same… Stuff, Different Day for the Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers no longer of an identity to fall back on as they are less than the sum of their parts.

Let’s face it: This Indiana Pacers team isn’t going to get better.

The same problems from before the season began are still here. If you happen to know what the abbreviation S.S.D.D. stands for, that seems to apply here.

While the defense has improved at times, there are still plenty of the same problems showing up again and again. The offense has moments where Jeff Teague looks like an All-Star point guard while Paul George and Myles Turner knock down shot after shot. But then there are moments where the offense doesn’t look like they’ve shared a court before.

We know what this team is now: inconsistent.

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Blame it on the team getting stagnant when it finds success, as Monta Ellis did according to Vigilant Sports Scott Agness, or something else, but it is a familiar situation for the Pacers.

"At low points throughout the game, veteran Monta Ellis, who now comes off the bench, huddled up the guys. He had a message for the group.“I just think at times when we get the lead, we get stagnant,” Ellis said. “We play one-on-one basketball and forget to move the ball. When we get a team that’s switching, it kind of makes us slow down and we’re trying to get that mismatch and that ball gets stuck. And then the defense is loaded and then we get down to the [end] of the shot clock and we have to make a quick play or take a bad shot.“We just got to play through it. It’s a little stretch right now we’re going through. We’ll play out of it.”"

The Pacers may be slightly above average and better than their 22-22 record shows, but when it has to rely on the offense scoring all the time and the defense maybe showing up, that’s not a recipe for consistency. They are two different teams in wins and losses, especially on the road.

It isn’t that coach Nate McMillan hasn’t tried to fix this, either. We’ve seen Monta Ellis, Glenn Robinson III, and now C.J. Miles start as the shooting guard. While the jury is still out on whether that is a viable option, it seems likely though that will shift more of the problems to the Pacers bench. Getting the bench’s frontcourt to be effective (with the exception of Al Jefferson), is a work in progress as well.

In the offseason, Larry Bird traded or weren’t able to resign arguably the team’s best defenders outside of Paul George. Myles Turner is getting there as a rim defender, but Ian Mahinmi was great last season as far as what does. George Hill was traded for Teague (but that might have been in everyone’s best interests), and Solomon Hill’s fate with Indiana was sealed when Indiana didn’t take a team option on the fourth season of his rookie deal.

More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds

• 2 Studs, 1 dud from gut-wrenching Indiana Pacers loss to Charlotte Hornets
• Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
• 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
• 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
• Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?

All three of those players made the team better when they were on the court. They all had weaknesses, sure, but playing strong defense were Mahinmi and Solomon’s best attributes. Maybe there was some hope in Dan Burke running the defense this season, but taking three of his better options away and replacing them with worse defenders isn’t panning out. Even guys who were better defenders before —  Lavoy Allen comes to mind — can’t cope now.

The Indiana Pacers are in a situation where there aren’t simple solutions.

I’m not one to advocate for people losing jobs, being fired, traded or anything like that, but it is hard to see how this team can be more than what it is now. The five-game win streak was great, but more and more, it appears it is an outlier for a painfully .500 team.

Obviously, the Pacers need help at shooting guard as well as at the backup power forward spot, but how Indiana can acquire such help without selling the future in the process isn’t a realistic scenario. Though players like Ellis, Aaron Brooks, and Rodney Stuckey have their moments, none of them are going to tip the scales on a trade.

And the way things are looking at this very moment, the Pacers shouldn’t be trading away their future.

Paul George wants to win, and now. This puts Indiana in a bit of a catch-22. If they don’t trade draft picks, they likely won’t get better than a middle of the Eastern Conference. But if they do trade those picks, that doesn’t mean PG stays. It merely means the Pacers will need to win now more than ever.

Next: In the NBA’s 3-Point Era, the Pacers Need More C.J. Miles

What happens in the next month with this team could define the next few seasons. Trades might help this team, but if they don’t work out, the Pacers might have sold their future away while Paul George eyes free agency.