Indiana Pacers: Comfortable Or Cautious Start To The 2013-14 Season?
By Shane Young
After improving by great amounts this offseason by bringing back Danny Granger and adding Luis Scola and Chris Copeland to the mix, the Indiana Pacers’ should see tremendous results right off the bat in the 2013-14 season. As the full NBA schedule was released on Aug. 6, Indiana’s first four games will be against teams that performed in the lower tier of the league last season.
The Pacers will, unexpectedly, host the first game of the NBA season with a matchup against the Orlando Magic. This will undoubtedly be an exciting game for the fans, regardless if its versus an opponent that is one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. Danny Granger’s return, after only playing in five games last season, will keep the crowd anxious to see how the team will look with him alongside Paul George‘s All-Star talent.
Some of the greatest fans in the NBA will witness their Pacers start off the season well. Photo Credit: JMR_Photography/Flickr.com
Orlando will have Glen Davis back from injury and look to steal a win on the road, which is very unlikely. The amount of minutes and type of performance from rookie Victor Oladipo will be the main key to watch for the Magic in the first few games.
The following night, Indiana will visit New Orleans to take on the Pelicans on Oct. 30. Two new faces for the Pelicans are also starters in the rotation as point guard Jrue Holiday and shooting guard/small forward Tyreke Evans will have the best chance at defeating the Pacers in the first week of the season. I’m anticipating the same solid play out of Indiana’s George Hill that we witnessed in the playoffs, so New Orleans could quickly find out that this team has no huge weaknesses. With Anthony Davis at the power forward position and Jason Smith starting at center, Head Coach Monty Williams may find his Pelicans team in desperate need of an established interior presence.
The Pelicans will be one of the biggest sleeper teams in the league this season with point guard Jrue Holiday now in the Big Easy. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com
After two nights off, the Pacers will return home for a Saturday game on Nov. 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. This will be one of the most underrated games of the NBA’s “Premiere Week,” simply because Cleveland hasn’t been a force to be reckoned with since the 2009-10 season. However, with newly acquired center Andrew Bynum believing that he will be ready to play by the start of the season, we are anticipating a duo of Kyrie Irving and Bynum coming into Bankers Life Fieldhouse in, what could be, a measuring stick game for the Cavaliers.
While Indiana’s health improvement this season and defensive mentality will likely be too much for Cleveland’s raw talent behind Irving, this early game in 2013-14 will allow Cavaliers’ coach Mike Brown to see if Bynum is quite ready to be his true self again in the post against the likes of Roy Hibbert.
Rounding out the first four games for the Pacers will be a meeting in the Palace of Auburn Hills against the new-look Detroit Pistons. Yes, I find it quite odd that Indiana will be going against all these revamped starting lineups (New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland) in the first eight days of the season. Detroit made the right moves this offseason by trading Brandon Knight to the Milwaukee Bucks and receiving the prolific young scorer that Brandon Jennings has become.
Returning to Detroit, Chauncey Billups creates an interesting mix in the Central Division. Photo via Flickr user Jon.
Averaging 17.5 points per game last season, Jennings will get the start at the point guard position while veteran Chauncey Billups will begin his Detroit comeback at the shooting guard position and being the primary floor general the Pistons have lacked since his departure.
Detroit, now under the coaching of Maurice Cheeks, will give the Pacers a difficult time in Motown. The frontcourt trio of Andre Drummond, Josh Smith and Greg Monroe is one of the only athletic and skilled frontcourts in the league that can match the play of Hibbert, Granger and David West.
The Pistons aren’t as experienced as their Central Division rival Indiana, but it could now be argued that they have the scoring and athleticism to beat many top teams on any given night.
With everything in mind, the Eastern Conference is going to run through Miami and Indiana for at least one more season. Although, Indiana must take every game of opening week seriously as they will first be exposed to a number of teams debuting their new star talents.