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No. 9: Indiana Pacers
Last Season: 38-44
9th place in East; missed playoffs
For 3 ½ years, the Indiana Pacers have done it Frank Vogel's way: rugged halfcourt defense, methodical pace and powerful post-driven offense. The formula has been good for a .587 winning percentage, three top-10 finishes in defensive rating and two trips to the Eastern Conference finals. Nevertheless, after last season's injury-fueled slide out of the postseason, it's now Larry Bird's turn.
This won't be the Indiana team you're used to. The Pacers are revving things up. Little guys will take center stage, and the plodding lineups of the past few years will be few and far between. Vogel's clubs have excelled by running counter to the league trends of pacing and spacing. But Bird, Vogel's boss, has decided to swim with the current. And who is to argue with Larry Legend, especially in Indiana?
While we watch the Pacers to see whether Vogel can keep his team's defensive rating lofty with the quicker pace, Indiana should see a considerable boost by getting star forward Paul George fully back from the broken leg that limited him to six games a season ago. As it turns out, George is coming back to a very different roster than the one he was part of when the Pacers lost to Miami in the East finals just two years ago. How will Bird's plan come together?
The season started in ignominious fashion two months before opening night, when George crumpled against a basket support in Las Vegas with a shattered leg while playing for Team USA. The injury interrupted George's annual upward climb up the league ranks, an ascension that made him one of the NBA's top two-way players. In 2013-14, he'd improved his shot-making ability and upped his scoring average to more than 20 points while becoming an MVP candidate. When he went down, so too did Indiana's hopes for another deep playoff run.
With George on the sidelines but not quite declared out for the season, Vogel's hope was his post-fueled offense and stingy defense could squeeze into the tepid Eastern playoff field. Then, if George could get back, perhaps the Pacers would hit their stride at just the right time and become dangerous. George did get back, albeit under a minutes restriction, but the Pacers did not finish in the top eight of the East.
It was a roller-coaster season of the highest order. Indiana started the season 15-30, then won 15 of 19 to get back in the hunt. The season seemed to be torpedoed with a six-game losing streak in mid-March. But then Indiana reeled off six straight wins and welcomed George back. That set up a must-win season finale at Memphis, but the Pacers lost and thus joined Miami -- their opponents in the 2014 conference finals -- on the sidelines as the playoffs commenced.
Vogel was tasked with working around George's injury, but that was only part of his challenge. He also had to replace departed shooting guard Lance Stephenson who, at the very least, was a member of an Indiana starting five that had been one of the league's top units for two years. Point guard George Hill was never better but was also limited by injury. When he played, the Pacers won at the rate of a 49-win team. David West was slowed by injury and his performance showed it. And Roy Hibbert never got out of the offensive funk he'd slipped into the season before.
Despite all that and another finish in the bottom third of the league on the offensive end, the Pacers ranked eighth on the defensive end, won 38 games, and if they had fallen on the right side of the playoff bubble, would have been a troublesome opponent for the Cavaliers in last year's first round. Nevertheless, as soon as the season was over, Bird announced he was changing course and followed through on the plans with fervor.