Indiana Pacers: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season
1. Victor Oladipo is a game-changer
That’s right folks…he’s No. 1 in your programs and in your hearts.
It’s been a while since a non-rookie came this out of the blue to change a franchise’s fortunes as drastically as Victor Oladipo did with the Pacers this year. Stephon Curry’s ascension from possible future All-Star to league-altering supernova comes to mind, as does James Harden‘s “we didn’t know he was this good” debut with the Houston Rockets.
The difference here is that Indiana felt like a team that was headed to nowhere. The Pacers figured to be just competent enough to stay out of the high lottery, but bad enough that nothing good would come out of this or any upcoming season.
Oladipo completely changed the equation. Not only is he likely to be included on his first ever All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams, but he seems legitimately versatile and efficient enough to be the first option on a championship-caliber team. He also isn’t satisfied.
Gotta love how Victor Oladipo changed the trajectory of his career this season. On his third team in two years, Vic became an all-star & dueled LeBron James in Game 7. He has no plans of stopping. pic.twitter.com/S5Thl8Z4K8
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) April 29, 2018
Now it’s up the Pacers to keep the train moving. It’s a slippery slope from promising playoff party-crasher to perpetual 4/5 seed purgatory. Indiana needs to continue to be bold, even if it means shaking up a roster that had as many regular season wins as the defending champion Golden State Warriors in this calendar year.
Kevin Pritchard showed everyone that he’s the right man to be making the decisions. The first major one was out of necessity, and he nailed it.
Next: Full two-round 2018 NBA Mock Draft
Now comes the hard part. Here’s betting this season was only the beginning.