It’s time to dip into the mailbag and answer the Indiana Pacers related questions you Tweeted to us. Let’s jump right in.
Mailbag time! We asked you guys to send us Indiana Pacers related questions on Twitter so we could answer them for you. We couldn’t get to all of them, but we got to most of them. Andrew Disinger did all the answer for us, you can follow him here.
Let’s get right to it:
Andrew: I love this question. The Indiana Pacers are one of the top four or five most talented teams in the East, have a budding superstar, are fun to watch, but they aren’t a big-market team. The Pacers won the regular season series 2-1 with Philadelphia and were a Bogdanovic away from winning the season series with Boston.
As much as I want to say that the Pacers will set fire to the NBA as they ascend to the top of the East, I need to be honest and realistic with this answer. I think the Pacers, while solid, will not have much of a chance to make any noise against the West. The Pacers will upset a few big teams, be a tough game against everyone, and will probably finish with close to 50 wins, but unless they beat Philadelphia, Boston, or Toronto in the Playoffs, the NBA will only view the Pacers as a tough team, not a threat.
Given the moves we made this year, how high do you expect KP to aim next year in free agency?
— Blane Three Stacks (Now Four Stacks) (@blane44) August 14, 2018
Andrew: The Pacers have had a quiet offseason, bolstering their roster, adding some depth, and preparing for the future of the franchise. Kevin Prichard has made smart moves that have made sense but not necessarily made a splash.
I would love to imagine this roster, one year older, with a big name guy alongside Oladipo, blazing a path to the NBA Finals. But, realistically, that probably won’t happen. I think Prichard will do more or less what he has done this offseason, get a few solid players who add great depth and are willing to add to the culture in Indianapolis, not take it over. So, to answer your real question, I don’t expect Kawhi Leonard Pacer jerseys to be for sale a year from now. But I do think they add some solid contributors.
Andrew: Indianapolis is not a big-market area. Not like Boston or Philadelphia. And, realistically, outside of Indiana the NBA views Oladipo as a solid player, not a game-changing one like they view Kyrie Irving or Joel Imbiid. Even when the Pacers were making their Eastern Conference Finals runs, the Miami Heat and Lebron James stole the headlines.
It can be frustrating, but isn’t flying under the radar what the Pacers do best? They quietly were the first team to sweep the Warriors in a season series under Steve Kerr and were a few bad games from home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Pacers thrive without the spotlight, it’s who they are, it’s when they are truly dangerous. So, while I would love the media attention, I love the underdog mentality more.