Predicting the Eastern Conference standings: Where will the Pacers finish?

5. Indiana Pacers

In 2017-2018, the Indiana Pacers were 48-34 and finished as the 5 seed in the East. In 2018-2019, they proved this was not a fluke by doing the exact same thing. Keeping with the trend set by these two seasons, it seems just about right to predict the Blue and Gold finish as the same seed once again in 2019-2020.

As we all know, there’s a lot up in the air for the Pacers as the new year begins this fall. Victor Oladipo will be painfully absent from the team for a few months to begin the season, which clearly hurts their chances of going on any crazy winning sprees early in the campaign.

Still, it’s not like the Pacers are strangers to playing without Oladipo. They’ll probably be without his services for a similar amount of games to his 46 that he missed year. As we learned, this team will not give up even without their star. Expect a high level of effort night in and night out from Nate McMillan and the boys.

A lot of key players are gone. The new guys will need time to gel and adjust. The Domantas Sabonis/Myles Turner experiment could backfire. But this team always finds a way to win.