Ranking the NBA’s small market teams

#8: Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers hold a nearly perfectly mediocre winning percentage of .499, which is not as bad as some remaining teams, but their lack of postseason success hurts them. It’s not their fault, as Micheal Jordan happened to be dominating during their best player’s peak. Then, after Jordan retired for real, Kobe Bryant and Shaq made sure that Reggie Miller would never win a ring, no matter how close he came.

People tend to forget how good Jermaine O’Neal and Danny Granger were, but they weren’t good enough to get this franchise listed any higher. Had Paul George stuck it out I’m sure they would move up a few spots, but I’m not here to play the “what if” game. No, the Pacers are a perfectly average NBA team who never brought home any hardware.

It makes sense, I suppose. The university team reigns supreme in the aptly named Hoosier State. The Pacers put together some really good teams that coincided with the peaks of Bryant, James, and Jordan. Reggie Miller is great and all, but how is he supposed to compete with that? You just can’t, and I try not to hold that against them, but the world keeps spinning.

To their credit, the Pacers have employed notable coaches like Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, Nate McMillan, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Frank Vogel. They were three-time ABA Champions, which is what got them into the league. Once they were there, they played better than some big-city teams, but they haven’t been able to quite break through.