Best case scenario for the Indiana Pacers this season

The 2021-22 NBA schedule is here and the Indiana Pacers have their opponents lined up.

Now that the NBA schedule is finalized, it is time to look at the Indiana Pacers and their upcoming season. After missing the postseason a year ago, Indiana will have its sights set on bouncing back and getting into the playoffs in 2021-22.

The roster is ready to win right now with plenty of depth to compete with the better squads in the NBA. The only problem with Indiana over the past few years has been injuries and how drastically they can change the outlook on the season. Key players have endured prolonged injuries that left the Pacers out of serious contention ever since Paul George was traded – and he had a serious injury of his own.

2021-22 will feature a lot of talented and/or deep teams in the Eastern Conference with no bigger challenger than the Brooklyn Nets. Their trio of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden places them as the current team to beat in the conference with Milwaukee right behind them.

The Knicks, Heat, Celtics, 76ers, and Hawks are also very good teams in their own right and should be tough matchups each night. As of right now, there are probably 10 teams in the East that are playoff-caliber teams so this season will be a thrill.

What is the best-case scenario for the Indiana Pacers in 2021-22?

The Indiana Pacers could fare well in the regular season

NBA seasons have gotten a bit more difficult to predict in recent years with players taking extra time off to rest. As an advocate of players staying healthy for the playoffs, I have no issues with some rest nights but that does throw a wrench in the way-too-early predictions process.

From the jump, January looks to be a rough stretch for the Pacers as they square off with several of the NBA’s top rosters. The Suns, Lakers, and Nets are just a few of the January matchups that will test the Indiana Pacers during the month.

Still, for every challenging month, there will be a more relaxed few weeks where they can make up any lost ground. With a strong starting lineup and a few key depth pieces, the Pacers will certainly hold their own as long as they stay healthy.

Given that this is a best-case scenario outlook, let’s assume the Pacers stay mostly healthy and get output from all of their rotational players. T.J. Warren, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner all staying on the floor will give Indiana everything they were missing a year ago, a season that saw them barely miss the playoffs.

Warren is a candidate to be the team’s leading scorer so getting him back will make Indiana a much more consistent unit on offense who now has a solid three-level scorer to shake things up.

With a new-look lineup that hasn’t really played together since Caris LeVert joined, the Pacers will turn things around and get back to where they belong in the Eastern Conference. I doubt they will be enough to challenge the top teams in the East but they certainly have what it takes to be a playoff team in the East.

Best-case scenario: Indiana Pacers finish the regular season with a 49-33 record, 5th in the East.

Can the Indiana Pacers win a playoff series?

Being the No. 5 seed would make the Pacers an underdog in the first round of the playoffs but would definitely give them a brighter outlook than the Play-In spot they earned last season. With a long drought under their belts in the playoffs, can they finally win a series?

This sets Indiana up with a potential matchup with Atlanta of Miami in the opening round, two teams that are beatable if Indiana is healthy. Trae Young and the Hawks would cause a lot of problems for the Pacers, which we have seen the past two years, but Warren and Brogdon could be very favorable offensive matchups for Indiana.

Miami has been a tough matchup for the Pacers as well and swept them back in the 2020 playoffs with Sabonis out of the lineup.

This time around, Rick Carlisle helps Indiana fight it out and win a tough series in seven games. The journey will stop there, however, as Indiana would then have to meet with either the Bucks or Nets. Both of those squads, if healthy, would have an easy path to victory over the Pacers once again.

The Pacers will be much improved next season and they have enough talent to make some noise in the playoffs. Unfortunately, they lack the star power to be a serious contender in the near future.