Indiana Pacers: Wrestling with being the underdog the rest of the season

Some analogies about investing, wrestling, and investing in wrestling can help guide your frustration through the perceived disrespect to the Indiana Pacers.

The Indiana Pacers have the 5th best record in the NBA, but they find themselves much lower in the media’s power rankings.

11th at CBS and Sports Illustrated, 10th on ESPN and NBA.com, and only as high as 6th over at The Athletic. And to see that 6th ranking, you’d have to pay for it! What’s the point of paying for respect?!

On top of that, we found out Indiana got bumped from the TNT broadcast on February 28th.

So are the Pacers simply disrespected? Do people hate that agro-basketball industry that much?

Let’s take a journey through investing, wrestling, investing in wrestling, and what it all means to the Indiana Pacers.

Kayfabe investments and the Indiana Pacers

Back about a year or so ago, I told people to invest in WWE stock for a number of reasons. Yes, the wrestling company. At the time, the stock was about $30 and there were various rumors about the next TV deal and other factors that made it seem like a smart bet. Live-entertainment is one of the few consistent draws in television, and the company had survived the launch of its own streaming network, a much more novel concept when it started in 2014.

Today, that stock is worth over $80, if you listened to me, you’d have made money. And depending on how much you invested, a considerable return on your investment. I’m padding myself on the back because this could be one of the few times I ever offered anyone good advice. Gotta cherish the personal W’s when you can.

But I don’t know if you should invest in the WWE now. They aren’t going anywhere, but they’ve arguably peaked for the time being. The product is solid, but there’s simply a limit to how high it can climb in its stock value. Maybe it’s a good investment to hold on to, but it might also be like investing in Bitcoin at its peak. You’re almost bound to end up disappointed.

So what does this have to do with the Pacers?

Remember the lack of excitement you were when the Pacers signed most these guys? Don’t lie. We saw plenty of comments about trading a first round pick for Thaddeus Young (though Caris Levert is very good) and the “Who?” comments when they signed Bojan Bogdanovic. The collective “Meh.” when they signed a short-term deal for Darren Collison. Cory Joseph? Didn’t he just throw a ball at Lance Stephenson’s head?

Nearly every player Indiana brought in has outperformed even optimistic expectations. Bojan’s one of the better scorers in the league. DC’s assist-to-turnover ratio remains solid and a season ago he was the league’s most accurate 3-point shooter. Thad is the glue that holds so much of what the Pacers do together. Cory Joseph’s defense is a big reason why the bench is reliable.

On top of that, many of the Pacers younger players are playing above expectations. Myles Turner is the new Clint Capela. Domantas Sabonis is still in the Sixth Man of the Year hunt. Aaron Holiday is the future of Indiana’s backcourt. Even T.J. Leaf is looking better as of late while Edmond Sumner played his second-round pick self into a two-year NBA 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?

And most kept going without Victor Oladipo around, for better or for worse.

But that’s also why it’s hard to see them staying near the top of the league as far as their record is concerned this season. They might have peaked. If you were investing in this team for this season, you’d think about shorting them now. The odds are against them.

Two summers ago, they were that $30 stock. Heck, they were only expected to win that many games. But now, even though they are playing exceptionally good basketball after a short skid when Oladipo went down, it’s hard to see them going higher than the $80 value they are now. It’s more than likely that they will drop off at some point between now and the playoffs. Keeping home-court advantage for the first round is a tough ask.

That’s why it’s hard to see writers ‘invest’ and put the Pacers higher in the power rankings. It was a tough field with Oladipo, but it’s a much more difficult one now.

As good as they’ve been without Oladipo, they’re trying to beat the best teams in the NBA in what the WWE might call a “handicap match,” where the odds are against a wrestler because he is outnumbered. Despite the predetermined nature of wrestling, if we see Daniel Bryan outnumbered in the ring, we tend to think things aren’t going to go his way unless he does something special.

And the Pacers now have to do something special without their franchise player. They may pull it off, as well as some upsets, in the playoffs, but that vocabulary indicates what we already know: The Pacers are underdogs now.

It’s OK being the underdog

So, the Pacers are outnumbered, metaphorically, in most games. Unless the other team is also missing their best and highest paid player, it’s not really fair. Life’s not fair though. Sports certainly aren’t, either.

So I understand why most of the power rankings have Indiana in the double-digits. Indiana is a very good team, but is this the ceiling for them? Being a “B+ player” as HHH described Bryan in the run-up to Wrestlemania 30? After all, Indiana’s went some time without a signature win against the NBA’s better teams.

Maybe the Pacers are a bunch of B+ players in the unscripted world of the NBA. They’re good, but maybe they can’t be great.

But that was the fun part of Daniel Bryan’s run. He was the underdog, he was smaller than most of the stars of the WWE like Randy Orton and Batista. So when he overcame the odds and won the WWE Heavyweight championship, even in the scripted world of wrestling, it was that much more satisfying.

Who cares where anyone puts Indiana in the power rankings? If the Pacers end up winning a playoff series without Oladipo, it’s just that much sweeter for the fans.

I wouldn’t suggest betting on the Pacers to do that, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride, whatever the outcome. Maybe they will surprise us, maybe they haven’t peaked just yet.

Maybe, just maybe, the Pacers are going to overcome the odds. If they do, it’s just much more fun to tell everyone you told them so.