Indiana Pacers: 5 reasons they won’t make the playoffs in 2017-18
5. Major roster overhaul will cause growing pains
No matter how talented a roster may be, it takes time for multiple new players to jell — particularly when many of those players are expected to take on prominent roles with their new team.
Indiana is projected to have three new starters to begin the 2017-18 campaign: point guard Darren Collison, shooting guard Victor Oladipo and small forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
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The bench will also have a new flavor, with additions such as Cory Joseph, Domantas Sabonis and T.J. Leaf expected to contribute. Combo guard Lance Stephenson would also have to be placed in this mix since he rejoined the Pacers at the very end of the 2016-17 season.
Due to this massive amount of change, players’ roles will not be well-defined for quite some time. The holdovers will likely have different responsibilities than they did previously, and the new players will be trying to find their niche in the early going.
This would be a difficult challenge even with a quality roster, but Indiana has experienced a decrease in overall talent since last season.
It will take a great deal of time to get this new-look team playing well and together, assuming that happens at all. Because of this, the Pacers will be watching the 2018 NBA Playoffs from the sidelines.