The Indiana Pacers have more questions than answers in the upcoming season. Can they reach their potential or will they be lottery-bound?
Of all the teams in the NBA in 2019-20, no team has a bigger gap between its ceiling and its floor than the Indiana Pacers.
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Coming off consecutive 48-34 seasons whose only similarity was the regular-season record and first-round playoff exit, a team that massively overachieved in 2017-18 became a 2018-19 team that limped down the stretch and collapsed completely at the finish line, going 4-13 — including a sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics — after March 14.
At the center of that collapse was a ruptured quadriceps tendon that knocked Victor Oladipo out for the season from late January onward and while Oladipo is expected to return midway through the 2019-20 campaign, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard did his best to reload the Pacers in such a way that they’ll be good no matter what happens to their superstar.
But this is still a team with a ton of question marks, a team that could as easily win 30 games as 60 when the regular season plays out.