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NLL Insider - Team by Team: Indiana Pacers

by pennywise , updated on Thursday, October 16 2014, 10:07 pm EST

2013-2014 Finish: 59-23

Season Highlight

The Pacers finally got off the schneid and made the playoffs for the 1st time since the 2003-2004 season.  Then, they went and beat the overachieving Heat to make it to the 2nd round. Oh, and did I mention that this was their best team record EVER????  It was a glorious season for GM Sheed.

*to get off the schneid = to break a scoreless, hitless, or winless streak.


Season Lowlight

After self proclaiming the Pacers to be the Cav killers right before the playoffs started, it was painful to watch them get swept in the 2nd round.  We all shed a tear for Sheed, but it was still a beautiful season.  One has to wonder if all that talking became bulletin board material for King James and Co.


Best Trade

The Indiana Pacers send Marc Gasol and Shabazz Muhammad to the Phoenix Suns. The Phoenix Suns send Marcin Gortat and Arron Afflalo to the Indiana Pacers. The Indiana Pacers receive 20 GM points. The Phoenix Suns trade -20 GM points.

Afflalo was a major contributor for Indiana, and Gortat outperformed his previous stats for a much better than expected season.  On the flip side, Gasol was injured for most of the first half of the season and though Bazz played well for Phx, Afflalo was much better.


Worst Trade

The Indiana Pacers send Thabo Sefolosha, Trevor Booker and Chris Singleton to the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic send Ersan Ilyasova to the Indiana Pacers. The Indiana Pacers trade -5 GM points.The Orlando Magic receive 5 GM points.

Indiana gave up a solid wing defender, a rebounding beast and a bum for Ilyasova who played well below par.  Also, Ersan has a very big contract for a role player, so it’s no surprise that Sheed was shopping him hard.


Other Notable Trades

The Indiana Pacers send Ersan Ilyasova to the LA Clippers. The LA Clippers send Kyle Korver to the Indiana Pacers. The LA Clippers send a 2nd-Rounder (Det) to the Indiana Pacers.

The big contract moved right before the draft.  Korver is a better shooter anyway, and Sheed has a thing for 3 point shooters.

The Indiana Pacers send D.J. Augustin to the LA Lakers.
The LA Lakers send a 2nd-Rounder (Chi) to the Indiana Pacers.

DJ was the odd PG out on a team that had many.

The Indiana Pacers send Jose Barea and Tony Mitchell to the Utah Jazz. The Utah Jazz send Nando De Colo and Luigi Datome to the Indiana Pacers.

Trading oft injured JJ Barea for youthful prospects….

The Minnesota Timberwolves send Mike Miller to the Indiana Pacers.
The Indiana Pacers send a 1st-Rounder (Ind) to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

More 3 point shooters….is Miller worth a 1st rounder?

The Indiana Pacers send Quincy Pondexter to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Minnesota Timberwolves send D.J. Augustin and Chris Singleton to the Indiana Pacers.
The Indiana Pacers receive 6 GM points. The Minnesota Timberwolves trade -6 GM points.

Bums for bums….nothing of real value here.

The Indiana Pacers send Tomas Satoransky and Grant Jerrett to the Utah Jazz.
The Indiana Pacers receive 8 GM points. The Utah Jazz trade -8 GM points.

Money for prospects.

I’m sure there were more, but most of the rest of the trades were of minor impact to the Pacers season.

Best FA Signing

Dorell Wright – An NLL glitch that transformed Indiana from a “maybe we make to the playoffs” to a “boys, we got home court in round 1”.


Worst FA Signing

Julian Stone- non factor that was cut a month later.

Star

Blake Griffin – He averaged a double double and was unstoppable last year in the NLL.  Having a big like Gortat really allowed Griffin to attack the rim.


Surprise

Dorell Wright – He was a solid player 2 years ago, but he really was a scoring juggernaut this past season.  The big question….will this year’s engine and the new slider set mark an end to the NLL glitches??


Goat

Brandon Knight – Relegated to bench duty for most of last year, Brandon still saw 24+ minutes a game.  Yet, his scoring dropped drastically from 21.2 per, to only 10.3.  In the playoffs, his scoring dropped worse, as he only scored 5.6 a game.


Draft Report Card

Indiana spent a 1st rounder on Mike Miller, who likely won’t even resign.  In the 2nd round, they took Dwight Powell, a big man from Stanford.  Dwight spent all four years in college, so Sheed gets someone with a high Bball IQ, but he does not have a high ceiling.  Will likely be a bench contributor if he can latch onto the Pacers.  Also, they selected Nick Johnson, an undersized SG with problems finishing at the rim and an inconsistent jumper.  He is a good team player and very athletic.  His projected potential would be comparable to Shannon Brown.

Draft grade: D

Looking to the Future

Sheed may be tinkering with the lineup, or he’s playing smoke and mirrors.  Either way, his top 5 players return, along with adding sharpshooting Korver to the mix.  Sheed continues to search for those stretch bigs and 3 point shooters.  However, Sheed does tend to place more value on his rookies and has a hard time giving up on them. If Sheed can move some of the players off his roster that aren’t contributing and replace them with players that CAN help, he may do more than just make the playoffs again next season.


Upcoming Free Agents

Marcin Gortat – Starting C for the Pacers has hinted he would like to return to play for Indiana.

Mike Miller – Frustrated with the addition of Korver, it seems that Mike will be looking to sign elsewhere.

Nando De Colo – Who knows, but he’s really a non factor on this team anyway.

Willie Reed – another non impact player Sheed may let walk to open a roster spot.

 

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