Indiana Pacers: 3 Observations From Preseason Opener

When undergoing a stylistic change, franchises must be patient.  And, if you know the social definition of “patience,” it usually requires more than 48 minutes of a preseason opener.

While the Indiana Pacers need every positive sign they can get during the early stages, it should be known by now:  Reactions can’t be overblown in the preseason. Expectations should be limited, tempered, and pragmatic.

But, this is 2015. If we don’t understand this by now, then perhaps it’s useless for me to preach. I was slightly guilty of the NBA sin as well, as there were numerous times during the third quarter where I had to catch myself.  “There’s 3,936 meaningful minutes during an NBA season, and I’m sitting here analyzing what Frank Vogel does in early October.”

Cut it out.  These games are strictly about three things:  Getting the younger talent acclimated with the NBA pace — which is considerably better than the college rapidity and disorganization — is the main priority.  After that, it’s about developing team camaraderie during these handful of preseason games.  The third (and most underrated) objective is to properly condition the players for the regular season.

As the Pacers kicked off their preseason schedule, which includes seven games in 20 days, the New Orleans Pelicans picked up the 110-105 victory without starter Tyreke Evans.

There were a lot of concepts to keep an eye on, but three takeaways stood taller than the rest.

1. There’s too many players for Vogel to balance

Frank Vogel is only entering his sixth season as a professional head coach, but this is uncharted territory for him. He’s never been blessed with this many perimeter pieces, even during the early days … before their identity turned into a slow, traditional team. During his first chance of leading the franchise (38 games in the 2010-11 season), Vogel had an Indiana team that was the sixth-fastest in the league. Their guards scored  a lot of points, gave up  a lot of points, and got up the floor in a hurry.

That’s the closest he’s been to this current project. In the preseason opener, Vogel started Paul George, Monta Ellis, George Hill, and C.J. Miles on the perimeter (as expected). It left him with Rodney Stuckey, Solomon Hill, rookie Joseph Young, and Glenn Robinson III off the bench. I’m excluding Toney Douglas and C.J. Fair simply because there won’t be enough room for them in the regular season lineup anyway.

Chase Budinger was the main piece missing on Saturday, as the swingman was experiencing a minor hamstring injury from training camp. It was mostly just for precautionary reasons, however.

Still, if you add Budinger to the mix, that’s NINE players considered to be “wing assets” that will likely deserve some run this season. It’s just not realistic or possible for Indiana to do so, as the NBA’s maximum roster limit is 13 players. When you add in the gob of frontcourt players to those nine wings, it’s not a simple task for any coach to handle.

Vogel has one of the hardest jobs in the league with this group. After just 48 minutes of preseason action, it’s apparent that there’s too many guards that need the ball in their hands. And, there’s not enough orange balls.

The perfect example here is the situation with Ellis and Stuckey.

Last season, Ellis was the leading offensive component of a West playoff team. Think about that. He averaged 62.8 touches per game with the Mavericks, with well over 5,000 total touches for the season. Excluding Rajon Rondo, he was the one with the ball in his hands the most.

On the other hand, Stuckey touched the ball 48 times per game last year with the Pacers. They were decimated with injuries, and it required him to take control of the steering wheel for the offense. He was the 3rd-highest on the roster in terms of total touches for the season, behind two guys that aren’t in Indiana anymore (West and Scola).

Rewind the tape to 2013-14, when Paul George and George Hill were healthy enough to play 75+ games a piece. George was the offensive stimulant, taking up 71.5 touches per game — pushing 6,000 for the season. Next to him, Hill recorded 70.7 per night at the point guard slot.

While “touches” is probably not a great indicator of how much the offense truly runs through a player, it does set up a stressful scenario. Ellis, Stuckey, Hill, and George are ALL better when they have the ball in their hands.

Stuckey thrived last year as the primary creator, with most of Indiana’s talent injured. With the ball in his hands more, he shot the most efficient field goal percentage of his career (44%), combined with a 3-point percentage he’ll likely never touch again (39%). Stuckey is not a player who benefits from standing around and waiting for the action to come his way. He’s a proactive guard, and one that brings a team immediate results when he can slash into the lane. He had the second-most “drives” for Indiana last year, and often drew a lot of help once he got through the first line of defense.

Ellis is even more important with this new team. Regardless of how many 3-pointers he’s taken in his career — 3.6 attempts per game last year and a lot more during his Golden State era — he’s not someone who succeeds as a spot-up shooter. Nevertheless, it’s almost a fear that Ellis will be relegated to that type of role with this team, since Paul George and George Hill will be dominating the ball in the starting lineup.

In his 21 minutes on Saturday, Ellis took only four shots, and rarely got the chance to attack off pick-and-rolls the way he did in Dallas. On Media Day on Sept. 28, I even asked him about his high screen-roll usage with the Mavericks, and if he had discussed any ideas with Frank Vogel about how to translate that to Indiana. He claimed that it wasn’t even discussed before that day.

Ellis isn’t a trusted enough outside shooter to play as a spot-up player with Hill and George running most of the sets. When you factor in that this is a brand new experiment for a coach that’s never had this type of challenge, it could be the early signals of trouble.

It’s way too early to draw conclusions on how Ellis will operate in the lineup, but you have to keep in mind that the shot clock is only 24 seconds. Indiana has a profusion of guys that are effective with the ball, and the superstar (Paul George) will warrant most of those precious seconds when games get close.

In their next preseason matchup, Ellis should work to get in the offensive groove more. He’s never been one to back away from picking his spots and scoring off the dribble. In the NBA, the only time you can take your foot off the pedal offensively is if you’re equipped with the defensive tools to get stops on the other end. Ellis doesn’t fit that description, especially at age 30.

Heading into the preseason, it was clear that Vogel had too many minutes to balance with this jungle of players. However, now we’re realizing that it’s more than just the playing time.

It’s the structure, player roles, and offensive fluidity he has to keep in check as well.

2. The offensive glass could be the Pacers’ kryptonite

Early into the game vs. New Orleans, it didn’t take a mastermind to point out the main problem. With Paul George feeling uncomfortable defending the post more than the Pelicans’ wings, you could sense that Indiana was outmatched on the boards.

Sure, the final numbers won’t express the concern. After all, the Pacers out-rebounded New Orleans 62-55 on the night, but much of that dealt with the second and third string units. It’s important to remember, though, that starters will get a lot more opportunities in the regular season than these silly preseason games. The only probable starter that received more than 22 minutes was George, and he only played half the game.

During the starters’ time on the floor, though, they were giving up way too many second-chance opportunities to New Orleans. In the first quarter alone, they allowed eight offensive boards and were out-rebounded 19-11 — with George playing all 12 minutes and Ian Mahinmi playing seven.

George seemed to be one of the main causes of the defensive breakdown, looking disinterested in boxing out in the post. At the power forward, it’s definitely understandable that he’s going to lose some battles of height and muscle in the paint. But, that doesn’t have anything to do with effort.

For the most part, George defended quite impressively while starting at power forward. He made the initial looks for Anthony Davis tougher than some traditional power forwards do on a nightly basis. However, once the Pelicans got their shots up, George appeared to forget that his defensive role changed a bit. He stood around the paint watching, instead of attacking the glass and putting a body on the nearest rebound-challenger. Multiple times during the first half, it was Davis, Ryan Anderson, or Alexis Ajinca swooping in from the weak-side to steal an offensive board.

The thought is that Indiana won’t be as bad on the boards once the season arrives, because Jordan Hill and Lavoy Allen will get more time on the floor. Hill only played 12 minutes (none in the first quarter) and Allen saw 15 minutes. The two of them are stronger rebounding threats than they get credit for.

Hill’s contested rebounding percentage last season (with the Lakers) was 42.4%, meaning 42.4% of his collected rebounds were in traffic. Allen’s was even higher for the Pacers last year, at 44.6%.  What do both of them have in common?  They were all in the 40’s, opposed to three former Pacers from last year. All three of Hibbert, West, and Scola were under 40% in contested rebounding percentage.

The ultimate struggle for Vogel is to figure out how to keep the fastest and most athletic lineup on the court, while not getting annihilated on the glass. The whole team played acceptable defense on Saturday, with their initial defensive possessions. They forced contested shots, just didn’t finish the plays by grabbing the boards.

3. Benefits of the new style should be enough to keep Paul George quiet

George’s open criticism of Bird’s new vision (which includes George playing the power forward) is becoming foolish, for one simple reason.

He’s not giving it a chance to work out the complications. If he really believes you’re supposed to see nothing but bright lights and flawless results after 24 minutes of play, perhaps he needs to read a couple of Phil Jackson’s outstanding books. Jackson is one of the leading proponents of the NBA journey being a marathon, not a sprint.

Not everything has to be conducive and gorgeous right away. As a matter of fact, successful organizations rarely find many things to get excited about during a stylistic change. Do you think the Warriors were having fun winning less than 50 games after the Curry era began?  Do you think the current Lakers are actually going home everyday believing they’re threats in the West?

Change takes time, patience, willingness, supportive superstars, and a common blueprint for everyone involved.

Paul George is giving the Pacers none of the above with his reluctance after the first preseason game.

"“I don’t know if I’m cut out for a 4 spot,” George said. “I don’t know if this is my position. We’ll sit and watch tape and I’m sure I’ll talk with (Vogel). I’ll talk with Larry (Bird) as well to get both their inputs on how the first game went, but … I’m still not comfortable with it regardless of the situation. It’s still something I have to adjust to or maybe not. Or maybe it’s something we can go away from.”"

While repeatedly voicing his frustration with the move, he’s also trying to be respectful of the decision-making and cognizant of the fact that it’s going to take some adjustments:

"“I don’t want to put a shadow over it, because it’s only game one,” George said. “It’s new to everybody … just got to see where we go from here.”"

The point that George is missing through all of this, though, is that Indiana’s offense could go leaps and bounds further with this change. He’s expressed that his defensive responsibilities are the only major issues he has with playing the power forward, but he should consider one thing:  The benefits this team will have during their offensive sets could overshadow these problems.

Indiana was able to get a plethora of outside looks with their new style taking its first baby steps on Saturday. The Pacers took 35 long-range shots (although only making 10 of them), and George found himself free for eight himself. Half of his 18 points came off 3-pointers alone, which is a part of his game he was trying to improve during the Pacers’ 56-win season a couple years ago.

As an offense (with young rookies and all), Vogel’s group found themselves taking 92 total shots for the game. It was just a glimpse of how different this team could be, since they averaged only 83.2 attempts per game last year. Heck, the last time George was on the floor for a whole season, the Pacers only managed to attempt 80.2 shots per night.

This offense is smoother, less calculable, and more diverse than any offense George has played in throughout his NBA career. You would think it excites him, and gives him hope that any defensive struggles could be worked out during the season.

Indiana has worked hard this offseason to fix its primary burden over the last four years. If George can’t exhibit more patience than lashing out after one preseason game against the most destructive big man in the world, then Vogel has his work cut out for him.