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Pacers balancing their present and their future precariously

By Ben Gibson

INDIANAPOLIS - JANUARY 30: Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers shoots the ball during an all access practice at St. Vincent Center and Indiana Pacers Training Facility on January 30, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and condition of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS - JANUARY 30: Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers shoots the ball during an all access practice at St. Vincent Center and Indiana Pacers Training Facility on January 30, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and condition of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Indiana Pacers ranked 11th in ESPN’s future rankings as they have a talented roster but an uncertain future ahead of them.

The wasn’t time for a process for the Indiana Pacers, merely a reset a year ago when Kevin Pritchard traded away the franchise’s most talented player.

As it turns out, that’s all they needed to change their projected future from that of a lottery team to a playoff contender. But how bright is that future?

Thanks to having Victor Oladipo and cap space in their near future, ESPN slotted them in at 11th in their Future Power Rankings. While an 11th place ranking in the near future doesn’t sound overly exciting, it’s a good sign for Indiana that they’re expected to compete for the foreseeable future.

However, there is a modest-sized catch with that.

What troubles Bobby Marks — he wrote the excerpt in the post on the Pacers — isn’t the management or players themselves, but the fact only outside of Oladipo and Doug McDermott, almost none of Indiana’s veteran players are under contract going into next season.

Sure, Turner will only be a restricted free agent and the team holds player options on Sabonis and T.J. Leaf, but veterans like Thaddeus Young, Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison, and Tyreke Evans aren’t under contract for 2019-20.

It isn’t impossible to picture two-thirds of the starting lineup gone a year from now. That would obviously create plenty of roster flexibility, but that doesn’t mean Pritchard and the Pacers can spend that money effectively, either.

Indiana will likely keep Turner, Sabonis, Aaron Holiday, and Alize Johnson around, but despite the two big men’s five years of combined NBA experience, that’s still a lot of youth in a core of all of those veterans seek greener or at least different, pastures.

Pritchard’s trying to balance a series of realities ever since it was clear Paul George was leaving. The team’s leaps forward weren’t likely, in these sense that there were plenty of reasons to fear the Pacers being less than what they were last season.

That’s why there wasn’t a full commitment to the current group of veteran players.

That’s part of the reason Pritchard didn’t give a longer-term deal to Thaddeus Young.

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That’s why he signed Bojan and Darren to flexible deals that could have been dealt at the trade deadline had Indiana been looking for younger players with more upside.

While he saw that Collison and Bogdanovic were starting level players, Pritchard wasn’t ready to put that few years of the franchise in their hands.

Evans is on a similar deal this season as the Pacers balance out seeing what their younger players develop into before committing Indiana into any long-term plans. He’s hedging Indiana’s bets.

The signings since last season have all been savvy, but they come with a risk of losing those veterans whether the Pacers want to or not.

Even if you see those veterans as expendable, it feels Pritchard is using those short-term deals as insurance if this team isn’t the 48-win team it was last season. There are many signs pointing to Indiana improving, but there’s a nagging feeling that it could all come crashing down if Oladipo doesn’t continue on as an All-Star caliber player.

Is that what Pritchard and the Pacers front office fears? That even if Oladipo remains a fringe MVP candidate, the rest of the roster can’t keep up?

It isn’t time for the Pacers to go all-in, but it’s clear they aren’t ready to nail down some of the pieces outside of their younger core of Oladipo, Sabonis, and Turner.

Next. Was Tyreke Evans snubbed from SI's Top 100 list?. dark

It’s a balancing act for Kevin Pritchard and the Pacers. Can he keep it all from crashing over the next few seasons?

Even Red Panda is looking on nervously.

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