Indiana Pacers: The Scariest Team In The Eastern Conference

If there is one team that I see emerging from the pack in the Eastern Conference, it is the Indiana Pacers. They are a team (and franchise) that is so incredibly confusing. You never really know what is going on with them. Are they tanking the season? Are they trying to make the playoffs?

It seems a bit strange that I would call on Indiana to be the dark horse this year, especially since they are not even at .500 yet. Allow me to explain.

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The Pacers have won six of their last seven games, and have won against some pretty big competition. Those teams include the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Golden State Warriors. These are some pretty heavy hitters. So they are on a bit of streak, just in the right time.

The bottom seeds of the Eastern Conference are wide open, and sometimes, getting through the playoffs isn’t about the best team, at least on paper. Sometimes, the hottest team is the won that gets to advance.

Someone else who has come of age at just the right time is guard Rodney Stuckey. The beginning of the season, he played adequately, providing a small scoring punch while Paul George sat with his injury. But it seems as though the team has put their confidence in him, and it shows.

In the last seven games, he is averaging 17 points per game on 57 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent shooting from three-point range. It is unrealistic to think he will shoot at that rate for the remainder of the season, but it still is worth noting how well has shot the ball, particularly because he has never been that great of a shooter.

In the last five games alone, he is averaging nearly 22 points per game on 60 percent shooting.

Another thing to note about the Pacers, if you’ve forgotten, is that they have still maintained their core identity of good defense anchored by the physical play of Roy Hibbert and David West.

Hibbert is in the top 20 in DRPM (Defensive Real Plus-Minus) and when you consider that it is ahead of Marc Gasol and Deandre Jordan, it becomes a little bit clearer how much he affects other team’s offenses. He is in the top 10 in blocked shots per game.

Together, the two players have led Indiana to the 11th-best team in defensive efficiency and only allow 97.2 points per game which is the sixth least in the league.

The final piece to the puzzle goes to the superstar himself, Paul George. He is trying to make a comeback around mid-March, which would put him right before the postseason run. It would give Indiana the opportunity to gain some ground and momentum before taking off into the postseason.

Remember, George doesn’t immediately need to play a high volume of minutes when he comes back. He can settle into 15-20 minute per night games until he is ready for more. He has even spoken of how the injury has made him see the court in a new way, and how it has helped to slow the game down for him.

To me, that is an even scarier player to have on the court, because not only does he bring his really good shooting and athleticism onto the court, but he also happened to be getting smarter as he watched his team play. Essentially, the Pacers would be virtually the same team that has made the Eastern Conference Finals the last two years in a row before losing to the Miami Heat.

So with all that said, if Paul George comes back, is there a scarier team in the NBA?

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