Worst Pacers team ever?

by davis3217 on Jan 4, 2010 12:10 AM EST

33 games into this season and the Indiana Pacers are a pathetic 10-23. This team is sad. They are uninspired, unmotivated and the roster is stacked with busted draft picks, crappy offseason aquisitions, over paid "character" guys and Danny Granger (who is hurt and doesn't play defense, but at least you could watch him play without wanting to vomit). I have been a diehard Pacers fan for a long, long time. However, is this the worst Pacers team ever? There was the 1982-83 team that won 20 games. Or, the 1984-85 team with 22 wins. These both were really, really bad teams.

But, were they the worst Pacers team ever? Sound off!!!

Poll

Worst Pacers Team Ever?

1982-83 (20 wins)

32 votes

1984-85 (22 wins)

7 votes

2009-10 (??? wins)

39 votes

78 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Stubborn

I’ve never been a fan of naming the “best” and “worst” of any category. It leaves for too much argument and fighting. But having this current team in the discussion is warrant enough to know change is a must. What makes me laugh is out of the 10 games we won, 5 of them were in a row. Now what was different during that span? All of our 30 year old white guys were hurt. Why is this important? We run an offensive system that is founded on the idea of up-tempo, fast break basketball. Do you honestly expect Jeff Foster, Mike Dunleavy, and Troy Murphy to outrun 24 year old guys that are borderline track stars? Even Roy Hibbert can’t keep up for long with his borderline 300 pound frame. His career is hurt by this now and will be cut shorter then it should…. no one that big should be running like that… his knees won’t take it. Too bad O’Brien is a stubborn ass and won’t use this team’s strengths.

(Good job backin up your stats Davis)

by B-Huse on Jan 4, 2010 2:37 AM EST reply actions

Never saw those early 80’s teams so it’s hard for me to judge. I’d like for you to put a follow up poll at the end of the season. If you can find stats for the 80’s teams like the margin of points per loss compared to this year as well as anything else worthwhile and interesting.

Just seems this year’s team is getting blown out of the water in their losses.

by Sparhawk on Jan 4, 2010 4:27 PM EST reply actions

Not just stats

but if you could also try to encapsulate the hopelessness of those teams, that would be appreciated. I know this year is bad, and worse than the previous two years when we didn’t make the playoffs, because I feel a hopelessness that I know won’t go away until after the 2010-2011 season.

by TheHawk5 on Jan 4, 2010 5:23 PM EST up reply actions

It's a bit tough. I can dig all day, but here's what I've got for the 82-83 season:

The Pacers didn’t have their leading scorer from 81-82 (Johnny Davis) from season’s opening to when they traded him in December. Unfotunately, SI Vault isn’t very helpful on why this was. The Pacers were also more or less accused of tanking out the year in order to get a shot at Ralph Sampson (the two worst teams in the conferences would coin flip for the first pick), so Indiana’s 20-62 record may have been fabricated down the stretch (certainly helped along by moving Clemon Johnson to kick off a finale that had Indiana finish 4-27 to beat out Cleveland for the worst record in the East). At this point, the team is 11-19, we’ve still got Johnson, and we’re just in a 2-7 stretch right now.

I don’t know bad the situation in Indiana was in the 82-83 season, but 4,800 folks showed up per game, the upper levels of Market Square Arena were curtained off, George McGinnis (or his corpse, we can’t be sure) was cut prior to the season, there was apparently something involving Johnny Davis, and the franchise is on the way out of town. The team got off to a serviceable start (9-12) and health appeared to hold up extremely well throughout the season as 8 players played 78 or more games (9 if you count Johnson/Russ Schoene combo).

It’s hard to say what the on the court product looked like, aside from Clark Kellogg’s 20-10 rookie year, it couldn’t have been too good. I don’t know what it felt like, but maybe something similar to Minnesota’s youth movement (Clark and Herb seem like quality pieces at this point, we’ve got to fill more around them…Ralph Sampson??), but worried about the team moving. That’s all speculation on my part though.

by Nathan S. on Jan 4, 2010 7:10 PM EST up reply actions

Great input

I watched both the 82-83 and the 84-85 teams play at MSA. I was a kid, but still old enough to recognize awful basketball. Jerry Sichting was on both of these teams. I remember Vern Fleming was a rookie on the 84-85 team.

by davis3217 on Jan 5, 2010 12:07 AM EST reply actions