Despite making an Eastern Conference Finals appearance just a few months ago, the Indiana Pacers continue to get overlooked within the NBA community.
Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Pacers are aiming to follow up on their run last season with another impressive campaign. The team re-signed Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin, and they extended Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell to keep them around for the foreseeable future. All four players were key to Indiana's surprising run last season.
However, despite the team running it back with the same roster and making minor, solid additions (most notably, James Wiseman), many either believe the Pacers' run last season was just a fluke or that they are simply not good enough to replicate last season's success. Many share this sentiment, and that continues to be the case a week before the start of the new season.
John Hollinger predicts Pacers will be a Play-In team next season
In a recent article for The Athletic, Hollinger predicted the end-of-season standings for the Eastern Conference. Ranking from the No. 8 seed to the No. 1 seed, Pacers fans did not have to wait long for their team to be mentioned.
Hollinger predicts that the Pacers will finish as the No. 7 seed, one seed lower than their standing last season. Additionally, he predicts they will finish the season with a 44-38 record, a three-game dropoff from their 47-35 record last season.
Additionally, Hollinger mentioned the numerous teams in recent history, such as the 2023 Los Angeles Lakers and 2022 Dallas Mavericks, as teams who made the conference finals but had a disappointing campaign the next season. In mentioning these teams, Hollinger is comparing them to this Pacers team, who he believes will have a "hangover year."
In fairness to Hollinger, it does look like a difficult path for the Pacers to make it back to the conference finals, let alone make an even deeper run. The rest of the Eastern Conference got better, especially the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Orlando Magic, who are all realistic playoff opponents for the Pacers next year.
Additionally, the reigning champion Boston Celtics, who eliminated the Pacers in the conference finals last season, brought back nearly every player on their roster as well and are in a great position to compete for a championship once again.
To say the Pacers may take a step back is not an unfair opinion, especially given the competition in the conference. However, the Pacers should be even better next season due to the natural progression of their players, the return of Bennedict Mathurin, who missed the entire playoff run last season, and having a full campaign with Pascal Siakam on the roster.
Regardless of what happens next season, the Pacers are in a good spot to become legitimate title contenders within the next few years. While many believe last season's conference finals appearance was just a fluke, others would say it was maybe just a bit ahead of schedule instead.