For years now sheed has been one of the more outspoken GMs when it comes to the abilities of this team.

He has shown exuberant confidence that Indiana would take down the big dogs time and again. Sometimes they even did. But only during the regular season.

The Pacers won 50+ games in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015. But last year, that number dropped to 44 and they snuck into the playoffs as an 8th seed. But they did so without their best player for the better part of the season, so that is still an accompishment.

Season Highlight:

The Pacers carried the momentum from the previous seasons into 2015/16 by starting out a blistering 12-1. After that they ran out of gas for a long time.

Sheed's best memory, of course, is the 119-116 win over the Cavs in week 20, that ensured a 4-0 record and the playoff berth.

Season Lowlight:

The punch. Merry-go-lucky Blake Griffin punches a guy in the face, breaks his hand, gets suspended and takes a looong time to recover.

Left with offensively limited Steve Adams and Tristan Thompson up front, all the scoring shifted to the back-court. Or better, to Jamal Crawford.

Best Trade:

The Pacers bench was in constant makeover mode last season, but none of the guys brought in was a real difference maker. Here is one example. Daniel Diez for Marvin Williams. Sounds good right? Marv is a decent player. He was traded for P.J. Tucker. Fair enough. But Tucker was then traded for Matt Barnes and Tarick Black. Barnes will soon skip town. Tarick wants to come back for a cool $6 million. (Meanwhile the Spurs are looking for a taker on Marv's new $12 million contract as well.)

If we have to pick one of these meaningless trades, let's go with this:

The Indiana Pacers send Langston Galloway to the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat send Marcus Thornton to the Indiana Pacers. The Miami Heat send a 2nd-Rounder (Mia) to the Indiana Pacers.

Neither player really moved the needle much for either team, but Thornton, who bailed on them once during last years free-agency, is likely to stick around on a minimum deal, while Galloway is looking for new contract outside of Miami.

Worst Trade:

The Indiana Pacers send Marvin Williams to the San Antonio Spurs. The San Antonio Spurs send P.J. Tucker to the Indiana Pacers.

I've now looked at the Pacers transaction page for 10 minutes and can't come up with anything better. Williams may have been a good fit to replaced injured/suspended Griffin had he still been here.

Other Notable Trades:

The Detroit Pistons send Tony Snell to the Indiana Pacers. The Indiana Pacers send Timothy Hardaway to the Detroit Pistons. The Detroit Pistons send a 2nd-Rounder (NY) to the Indiana Pacers.

We'll see how this plays out. Hardaway was a 2k nightmare with his cucking ways. Sometimes for the opponents, sometimes for the Pacers themselves. It is hard to fathom Snell will be anywhere exciting. But he certainly is a steadier option on both sides of the court.

Best FA Signing:

The Pacers had only two off-season signings, likely striking out on all their minimum bids. Brandon Bass looked like a solid pickup, but he did not gel with the team. GM sheed labeled him the worst offseason signing. Sean Kilpatrick though was good mid-season pickup.

Worst FA Signing:

Imagine sheed's excitement when Dorell Wright, the original 2k-glitch player, came back from overseas to sign with his former team. And then the disappointment, when it was discovered that his ratings got lost in transit and he couldn't suit up.

Sheed himself said it best: "I just like him. I wont play him... I guess"

Star:

Jamal was playing like it was still the year 2008, not 2016. The 36 year-old simply averaged a 27.8 points per game and made ALL of his 469 free-throw attempts.

Goat:

Franchise player Griffin let his team down big-time last season. But there has been said enough about this incident already. Blake has put it behind him and so should we. Does anyone still remember he missed his rookie season as well? Right, so let's get ready for some highlights.

The Pacers only picked once in the draft. Late in the second round they picked up Iowa State product Georges Niang, who was one of the best players in collge basketball last season. The concerns about his physical prospects were somewhat alleviated during the draft combine, but he still fell all the way to number 52. Maybe the Pacers found a gem here. He is also on the Pacers IRL.

Looking to the Future:

The future is now for the Pacers. Griffin is back and entering his prime. Dragic is already there. Crawford is always in his prime. Thompson and Adams are what they are. If they can find a competent SF in free agency they will be back to winning 50+ games.

Upcoming Free Agents:

Obviously Crawford will be back. If they renounce Black, Barnes and Augustin preemptively they should have around 15 million in cap space available. That puts them in the running for several good wingmen.

Free Agents Targets:

Afflalo, Eric Gordon, Courtney Lee, Joe Johnson, Teletovic, Dudley are names you could put out there. Since Indiana usually runs with a three-guard lineup anyway, they shouldn't exclusively be looking at small forwards and they wont. Sheed sounded pessimistic about being able to land an impact-player in free-agency. But his team's decent record should give him a head-start against most other teams with cap-space. He just needs to pick his spots.