Ladies and gentlemen, another season of Indiana Pacers basketball is in the books, and what a season it has been! I’m not going to lie, I was very excited for the 2022-23 season to start, and I stated multiple times on Twitter that this is my first time being excited about Indiana Pacers basketball in a long while, and I admittedly had a lot of fun watching the Pacers this year.
From old guards like Myles Turner finally breaking out to the first full season of Tyrese Haliburton running the show to spectacular rookies like Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard lighting Gainbridge Fieldhouse on fire, this season was full of ups, downs, and some downright insane moments, both on and off the court. Speaking of downs, we experienced a pretty big down yesterday when the Pacers won a meaningless game against the Knicks to move down quite a bit in the draft lottery.
The Indiana Pacers just lost nearly 10% in Top 4 Lottery equity by winning this final game.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 9, 2023
While this was some pretty bad news, and reminded everyone of the old, stuck-in-their-ways Indiana Pacers that they are used to, they would be lying if they said the future was not bright in Indianapolis. For the first time in what seems like a decade, the Indiana Pacers are a fun, young team to watch in the east, and depending on how this off-season goes, their future could either set the NBA on fire, or they could continue being the familiar, middling, lukewarm at best Pacers that are seen as nothing more than a “tough out” for whatever top-seeded Eastern Conference team they match up with in the first round of the Playoffs.
Now, I’d be a lying man if I said I know what the future holds, but just like anyone that’s paid to do this stuff, I can think of a few venues the Indiana Pacers try to go through in their near future. I’ve looked a bit at the possibilities, and I’ve come up with three scenarios. These three scenarios are The Dream Scenario, The Realistic Scenario, and the Nightmare Scenario.
Please keep in mind that I am not guaranteeing that any of these scenarios will happen. For all I know, the Pacers could fold as an organization tomorrow and we’ll all be back to Square 1. It’s just fun to look at hypotheticals.
Anyways, with that introduction out of the way, let’s get to predicting!