What is going on with the Pacers' small-ball experiment?
The Indiana Pacers aimed to become a entirely different team, one defined by pace and scoring rather than the defensive principles of the past, and so far the results are pretty alarming.
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6 min read
Last Wednesday, Indiana Pacers forward C.J. Miles could feel a buzz around his team. Every organization is optimistic before the season opener, but these Pacers had a particular energy. Unlike last year, Paul George and George Hill were healthy and ready to go. Newcomer Monta Ellis was there to help them transform their offense in the absence of David West and Roy Hibbert. Miles couldn’t wait to compete after spending his summer getting ready for head coach Frank Vogel’s new pace-and-space system.
“Every day, [Vogel] comes in excited,” Miles said. “We play a game for a living, he gets to coach a game for a living. I think we got a bunch of guys that cherish that. I mean, I don’t think there’s anything I would rather be doing. So why would I come in in the morning upset about it?”
A few days later, Miles sang a very different tune. Three straight dispiriting losses can do that.
“You can see the frustration on the floor,” he told the Indianapolis Star’s Candace Buckner on Sunday. “You can see guys. It doesn't look like it’s fun at all.
“We play a game for a living,” he continued. “And we're out here looking like the Grinch stole all the Christmas presents."
The dismal mood surrounding the team is understandable. Through three games, Paul George is shooting 35 percent from the field. Monta Ellis is shooting 29.7 percent, and has yet to find pick-and-roll chemistry with any of Indiana’s big men. The Pacers are turning the ball over on 19 percent of their possessions, which is the third-worst mark in the league. The sample size is small, but they’ve also been the NBA’s worst rebounding team so far.
Ever since last April’s exit interviews, the Pacers have been talking about redefining the team by playing a more aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball. November just started, and they’re already having an identity crisis. What exactly is going on here?
Loss 1, Oct. 28 at Toronto, 106-99: Indiana pushed the ball whenever it could, and it held a 45-37 lead at halftime. Then it surrendered 69 points in the second half. George, who shot 4-for-17 but had 12 rebounds and eight assists, said he really wanted to get the Pacers off to a good start. He also earned a $10,000 fine for criticizing the officials. The Raptors scored 46 points in the paint.
Loss 2, Oct. 29 vs. Memphis, 112-103: Jordan Hill started instead of Miles in order to match up with the Grizzlies. The Pacers had spent training camp getting ready for small ball, but Vogel decided to play more traditionally rather than making Miles or George contend with Zach Randolph. Indiana held a 75-73 lead after three quarters, but was outscored 39-28 in the final frame. Memphis scored 48 points in the paint.
Center Ian Mahinmi said that the team was too offensive-minded, adding, “We’ve got to get back to stopping people down the stretch,” per the Indianapolis Star. The Pacers looked completely different from recent years, but they weren’t fully committing to the new plan, either.
“That’s the biggest problem we’re having, just the inconsistency of who we’re playing with,” George said. “Trying so many different groups, we got to establish an identity, and we have yet to do so.”
Loss 3, Oct. 31 vs. Utah, 97-76: Miles started again, and defended big man Derrick Favors as well as he could. Jordan Hill didn’t play at all. The Pacers led 49-42 at halftime, and were outscored 55-27 after that. The Jazz scored 50 points in the paint.
“It’s unacceptable to be losing these games,” George said, but the troubling thing wasn’t the loss itself. It was the way it happened, with Indiana appearing completely outmatched and out of answers.
The Pacers fell apart in the second half in every way. George Hill addressed his teammates in the locker room, telling them that getting stops was the only way to improve, regardless of what was going on with the offense.
“We’ve been one of the best defensive teams ever since I’ve been here,” Hill said. “This year, we’re giving up too many points and too many easy buckets. And not playing the Indiana Pacers basketball that I’ve been accustomed to. I know we want to push the tempo and be a better offensive team, but I think with the guys we have in this locker room, offense is going to take care of itself. We have to give ourselves up on the defensive end and play together."
If this was a young team, none of these struggles wuld be particularly alarming. This roster is full of veterans, though, and George made it clear that he wasn’t interested in a lengthy rebuilding process. He wants Indiana to be in championship contention every year, but that’s looking extremely unrealistic. With the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat on the schedule this week, Indiana doesn’t even have an easy first win in sight.
There is hope, though, in the form of promising rookie Myles Turner. His first basket as a pro was a nasty putback dunk, and his stepback jumpers against the Jazz must have made Pacers president Larry Bird salivating. Like any 19-year-old center, Turner has to put on some weight to hold his own on the inside. Already, though, he has shown he can block shots and stretch the floor.
“There’s not a lot of guys who do what he does offensively and defensively,” Miles said. “You see guys with the skillset of LaMarcus Aldridge — not that he’s not a good defensive player, but he’s not a crazy rim protector. But then you have Myles, who has the jump shot like LaMarcus does — he’s not there yet, obviously, but he has the potential to be able to do both of those things on both ends. There’s not a lot of guys who get that. There’s not a lot of 3-point shooting bigs who block shots.”
That list is indeed small, and Serge Ibaka is the prototype. Superstar Anthony Davis and future superstar Karl-Anthony Towns might be consistent from long range sooner than later, too. If Turner fulfills his potential, Indiana will have absolutely stolen him with the No. 11 pick.
Turner could be the key to Indiana’s new system working out in the long run. As this season goes on, George’s shooting numbers and the team’s overall cohesion can't help but improve. This disappointing start doesn’t mean that the Pacers made a mistake in changing directions, but they are searching for answers and could be stuck in the middle for a while. The payoff might require more patience than anticipated.
