"Beasts of the East" 2011-12 Edition
by Dene on Dec 19, 2011 12:04 AM EST
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via www.eightpointsnineseconds.com
Attention Indiana there are NBA games this season and here is why you should be watching your Indiana Pacers this year.
I saw a lot of positive in what the Pacers accomplished at the end of last season and looked forward to this season more than any season since the infamous "Brawl That Ended it All". The off season and subsequent lockout had me chomping at the bit for it to end and put me out of my misery of some of the off the wall armchair GM'ing that was done on the various blogs including this one. (about 10% of which made any sense whatsoever) With the additions of West, Hill, Pendergraph, and Amundson, the 1st thing that hits you is depth. Depth will be the biggest factor to any team to get to the playoffs, let alone making any noise once they get there. This is the year more than any of the next five or more that the Pacers have a shot of making their loudest noise heard in the east in years. Dumb? Far-fetched?
Hear me out:
I am certainly not basing this on the Pacers suddenly having the best team in the NBA or by one preseason game by any means. But one thing is certain, they will be deep.
Worst case scenario:
Hill outplays Collison and becomes the starter and DC pouts about coming off the bench.
Hibbert still can't play 30 minutes a game and they wear out Foster before the season ends.
Granger continues to pout about his "Star" status and numbers fall again.
West blows out his knee and Hansbrough has to start, taking away the motor of the bench.
George doe's a 360 and becomes the next sad case of not living up to potential.
They win 20 games and miss the playoffs.
Stephenson acts like 12 year old and sends the team in turmoil.
Panic sets in and Granger is traded at the deadline.
Best case scenario:
Collison plays like the true point guard that he is, averaging 14 points, 8 assists.
George becomes the stud that many of us believe he can be. 18 points 7 rebounds, 4 assists 2 blocks. (Most Improved player award)
Granger steps up and becomes the leader this team needs so bad, leads by example to the tune of 22-5-5
West's legs hold up, averages 16-7
Hibbert just becomes reliable for 16-7, 30 minutes a night
Hansbrough brings the attitude to the Goon Squad and gets 14 & 5. (Sixth Man Award)
Hill gives us the energy and drive he gave to the Spurs.
The rest of the bench jells and play like they have some pride in their roles.
Pacers win 44 games and 4th seed, Depth and youth gets them into the Eastern finals losing in 7 games to the Heat.
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Winning is a process, unless you acquire a transformational talent....
The Bull and the Heat will be in the East Finals. The Bulls have shown us they are better than us and the Heat are better than the Bulls. I don’t see that changing this season. We might win a series should we get the right matchup, but we still don’t have enough talent or experience to win multiple series. West was a good signing. Hill is better than Price. But neither of those moves get us to the Conference Finals.
by thomasezekiel77 on Dec 19, 2011 2:41 AM EST reply actions
Wow
Both of these scenarios you mentioned are totally unrealistic. For example, in the best case one, our starting line-up scores 86 points a game, with our 6th man upping the average to atleast 100? That’s just 6 players giving us an average of 100 a game.
Last year our starting line-up averaged around 65 points a game. With that being said I think some of your randomly generated statistics are a bit exaggerated. I mean, if this was the case, I can’t imagine how bad our DEFENSE must have been to only win 44 games with our top 6 players giving us an average of 100 points a game…..
I never insinuated this was a prediction
My point is that this season is their best chance to make any noise at all. If it was a full season my best guess would be 40 to 45 wins and maybe win a playoff series. In this rushed & condensed season youth and depth will play a major factor. With this in mind I can see a few teams slipping and some surprise teams outplaying their expectations. I said “best case scenario” and know full well that it won’t turn out like this anymore than the the “worse case scenario”.
This season will hurt teams like the Celtics, Spurs, Mavericks etc… I could see the Celtics and Spurs slipping to a 6th or 7th seed. A bunch of thirty something players are going to feel all these back to back to back games in their legs without any depth to get them through.
The way this team is built there's very little chance it misses the playoffs if healthy
It would take an epic meltdown, which we saw at times last year. But the bottom of the Eastern Conference is so bad (there’s literally only currently five playoff locks and they’re the five best teams in the conference) that it would be a bizarre set of circumstances that this team couldn’t pull out another 8-seed. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone around here will be satisfied with an 8-seed. With this group of guys, exhibiting the chemistry they showed at times under Vogel last year, I’d expect nothing less than a winning record, which should be enough for something in the 6-seed range. I’d really like to see what these guys can do with a full off-season, and a first round draft pick from the 2012 class.
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