The Indiana Pacers currently sit at 12th in the East despite being only 3-8 and 1-7 in their last eight games. This was a team that was expected to challenge for a top-four seed, and while that may still be possible, it is only because the rest of the Eastern Conference has dropped the ball as well.
There are just five teams in the East who are above .500. A conference that was expected to universally take a step forward in balancing out the power dynamic between the two geographical halves of the NBA. Instead, the West is 26-8 against Eastern Conference teams so far to start the season.
This benefits the Pacers, though, as they are just two games back from a top-eight seed and six games back from the first seed.
Now, if any of you have watched the Pacers so far this season, you know that trying to get to that top seed spot seems impossible. Indiana has played sloppy basketball that lacks both passion and success, en route to their terrible record.
But as long as that door remains open, and Indiana still just needs a couple of games to catch up with their conference, hope remains for a team that could already be digging into a pretty deep hole.
Is optimism possible with a start this bad?
It's hard to find silver linings in a season that was promised to be so much more. During last year's gap year, everyone was expecting to take a step back. With Tyrese Haliburton lost to an Achilles injury suffered in the Finals and Myles Turner gone to not-quite-greener pastures, the team was expected to be fine at best.
Instead, they were one of the worst teams in the league, but even that was stomachable because of what it meant for the team going forward. A top rookie would have been an opportunity to reload the roster with young talent and to guarantee success for the next half-decade or more.
That plan obviously didn't work out, but the hope of it kept the season alive for many who would have tapped out otherwise.
This season doesn't have the same allure, unfortunately. Instead of being able to drool at the ideas of another star rookie, it just feels like this era is coming to a sad, slow end. Maybe that's too pessimistic for a team that is just 10 games into the season, but this is a roster that cannot do anything without Haliburton. If he keeps missing time, it feels like he won't have a team to come back to.
So, as much as the Pacers need to get better and need to get healthier, they also need the rest of the East to continue floundering so that they will have a chance when their superstar point guard comes back.
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