Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player's first-round performance
By Mueez Azfar
In the wake of the Indiana Pacers' 4-2 series win over the Milwaukee Bucks, there have been discussions over a lot of things. From the injury status of the Bucks to Rick Carlisle's rotations, to Patrick Beverley's embarrassing antics after games, this series has been in the spotlight plenty of times, for better or worse.
After Indiana put away the returning Damian Lillard and the Bucks, the focus naturally shifted to the following series against the New York Knicks, which will start on Monday. With the Pacers having played one playoff series and experimented with what works and what doesn't, they will seemingly be better off in Round 2 against New York, where they can put their productiveness from the Games 2, 3, 4, and 6 wins to good use and hopefully grab another series win and make a run that nobody expected them to make at season's start.
With six games of playoff experience under this new Pacers team's belts, now is a perfect time to judge the Pacers' first-round performance and see how each player did, along with coach Rick Carlisle. These players will be judged based on expectations before the round, where those expectations went, their role on the team, and what their current play means for the rest of the playoffs.
With the playoffs, it is a bit harder to narrow down the players to rank, but I will only be focusing on the top 10 minute-getters on the team, and mostly on the top eight rotation players, along with coach Rick Carlisle.
Without further ado, let's get to the grades!