Auditing The Indiana Pacers 09-10 Season
http://pacers.realgm.com/articles/19..._09-10_season/
Authored by Christopher Reina - May 12, 2010 - 12:20 am
The Pacers made the playoffs in 16 of 17 seasons, but their lottery streak now stands at four.
Record: 32-50
Season FIC Rank: 22nd, -5.0 per game
Efficiency Differential: 21st, -3.1 per game
What They Did Well In 09-10:
Danny Granger missed a handful of games for the second consecutive season and his PER was dorm from 21.8 to 19.8. His numbers were virtually identical across the board with the exception of his shooting percentages. His eFG% dropped from 51.8% to 49.8%, which is absolutely a big enough drop to be noticeable. Granger is clearly Indiana's best player by a sizable margin, particularly if he continues to get incrementally better on the defensive end of the floor.
But to be fair, Granger would have to be LeBron-good to be the best player by a sizable margin and still have his team be a contender.
Granger was one of their collection of very good spot-up shooters.
The Pacers held onto Troy Murphy at the deadline, who arguably had the best season of his career at 29. His TS% and rebound rate were down slightly, but he carried a bigger role in the offense as one of the NBA's better stretch 4's, attempting over five 3-pointers per 36 minutes for the second consecutive season. He enters the final season of his contract in 10-11 and will be one of the more valuable expiring in the entire NBA given the impact he can make for a team in the playoffs, as well as against the cap.
The Pacers can of course elect to let Murphy's $11.96M+ come off the books along with Mike Dunleavy, T.J. Ford and Jeff Foster for the 2011 summer when they will have salary enough cap room to sign a max free agent, but that is not a realistic goal to accomplish.
Roy Hibbert doubled his minutes and became a nice passing big. Even though his PER stayed flat, he showed tangible improvement and is plenty serviceable at center on the offense, though he gives up a lot defensively to the better scorers. Hibbert was essentially Indiana's only frequent option in the post and he performed well, all things considered.
A.J. Price ended up being an excellent second round pick and projects to be a well above average backup point guard.
What They Need To Improve In 10-11:
Cynically, the Pacers need to do a better job in not trying quite as hard late in the season when the playoffs are already an impossibility. As much as Jim O'Brien was criticized for the tyranny of their late season surge, which cost them multiple draft slots, the purist in me can't blast a coach for ever trying to win.
The Pacers played at the second highest pace of any team in the NBA, an ineffective strategy when you give up so much in the way of pure talent and offensive scoring ability. The Pacers frequently would take early shot clock shots in transition, but their conversion rate was utterly dreadful.
The Pacers were only ahead of the Warriors in terms of offensive rebounding, a symptom of having Murphy on the perimeter, but also because of overall quickness issues.
The quickness issue spilled over to the Pacers' ability to defend perimeter shooters, the number one culprit of how team's would attack their defense with such efficiency where they would allow 106.8 points per 100 possessions (14th in the NBA). Opponents shot 36.3% from beyond the arc against the Pacers (22nd) and they also struggled to defend the post, but the Pacers were fairly adequate to strong in most other facets of their defense.
Indiana had a net PER deficit of -2.0 and -4.8 at the point guard and shooting guard positions, along with -4.7 at center. Ford lost his job to Earl Watson and those two are part of a collection of Dunleavy, Price, Brandon Rush, Dahntay Jones and Luther Head, who ideally are guards off a team's bench rather than primary options.
Rush has had a PER under 10.0 in each of his first two seasons. He hasn't had as big of an all-around impact as the Pacers were expecting, though he has shot the ball unexpectedly well from distance and he has shown a nice ability to defend.
First round pick Tyler Hansbrough played only 511 minutes, largely due to a mysterious inner ear infection. The Pacers passed on Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, Rodrigue Beaubois and Eric Maynor to pick Hansbrough, which makes the need for an upgrade at point guard all the more frustrating.
Overall, the Pacers struggle to score off the dribble, whether it is in isolation or in pick and roll situations. Much of that starts with their average talent at point guard, but it also spills over to Granger, who doesn't compare to the game's best in this facet of the game.
Pacers Draft Needs:
If any team could use John Wall, it is the Pacers. They are in a situation similar to the Cavaliers pre-LeBron and desperately need a culture changing franchise player.
Indiana's biggest single positional need is point guard, but the draft is very lean and a player like Willie Warren, Eric Bledsoe or Avery Bradley would probably be a reach when they select. The Pacers could draft a power forward for the second consecutive season, as someone like Ed Davis or Ekpe Udoh or Patrick Patterson would be a fit.
Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cr_reina
http://pacers.realgm.com/articles/19..._09-10_season/
Authored by Christopher Reina - May 12, 2010 - 12:20 am
The Pacers made the playoffs in 16 of 17 seasons, but their lottery streak now stands at four.
Record: 32-50
Season FIC Rank: 22nd, -5.0 per game
Efficiency Differential: 21st, -3.1 per game
What They Did Well In 09-10:
Danny Granger missed a handful of games for the second consecutive season and his PER was dorm from 21.8 to 19.8. His numbers were virtually identical across the board with the exception of his shooting percentages. His eFG% dropped from 51.8% to 49.8%, which is absolutely a big enough drop to be noticeable. Granger is clearly Indiana's best player by a sizable margin, particularly if he continues to get incrementally better on the defensive end of the floor.
But to be fair, Granger would have to be LeBron-good to be the best player by a sizable margin and still have his team be a contender.
Granger was one of their collection of very good spot-up shooters.
The Pacers held onto Troy Murphy at the deadline, who arguably had the best season of his career at 29. His TS% and rebound rate were down slightly, but he carried a bigger role in the offense as one of the NBA's better stretch 4's, attempting over five 3-pointers per 36 minutes for the second consecutive season. He enters the final season of his contract in 10-11 and will be one of the more valuable expiring in the entire NBA given the impact he can make for a team in the playoffs, as well as against the cap.
The Pacers can of course elect to let Murphy's $11.96M+ come off the books along with Mike Dunleavy, T.J. Ford and Jeff Foster for the 2011 summer when they will have salary enough cap room to sign a max free agent, but that is not a realistic goal to accomplish.
Roy Hibbert doubled his minutes and became a nice passing big. Even though his PER stayed flat, he showed tangible improvement and is plenty serviceable at center on the offense, though he gives up a lot defensively to the better scorers. Hibbert was essentially Indiana's only frequent option in the post and he performed well, all things considered.
A.J. Price ended up being an excellent second round pick and projects to be a well above average backup point guard.
What They Need To Improve In 10-11:
Cynically, the Pacers need to do a better job in not trying quite as hard late in the season when the playoffs are already an impossibility. As much as Jim O'Brien was criticized for the tyranny of their late season surge, which cost them multiple draft slots, the purist in me can't blast a coach for ever trying to win.
The Pacers played at the second highest pace of any team in the NBA, an ineffective strategy when you give up so much in the way of pure talent and offensive scoring ability. The Pacers frequently would take early shot clock shots in transition, but their conversion rate was utterly dreadful.
The Pacers were only ahead of the Warriors in terms of offensive rebounding, a symptom of having Murphy on the perimeter, but also because of overall quickness issues.
The quickness issue spilled over to the Pacers' ability to defend perimeter shooters, the number one culprit of how team's would attack their defense with such efficiency where they would allow 106.8 points per 100 possessions (14th in the NBA). Opponents shot 36.3% from beyond the arc against the Pacers (22nd) and they also struggled to defend the post, but the Pacers were fairly adequate to strong in most other facets of their defense.
Indiana had a net PER deficit of -2.0 and -4.8 at the point guard and shooting guard positions, along with -4.7 at center. Ford lost his job to Earl Watson and those two are part of a collection of Dunleavy, Price, Brandon Rush, Dahntay Jones and Luther Head, who ideally are guards off a team's bench rather than primary options.
Rush has had a PER under 10.0 in each of his first two seasons. He hasn't had as big of an all-around impact as the Pacers were expecting, though he has shot the ball unexpectedly well from distance and he has shown a nice ability to defend.
First round pick Tyler Hansbrough played only 511 minutes, largely due to a mysterious inner ear infection. The Pacers passed on Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, Rodrigue Beaubois and Eric Maynor to pick Hansbrough, which makes the need for an upgrade at point guard all the more frustrating.
Overall, the Pacers struggle to score off the dribble, whether it is in isolation or in pick and roll situations. Much of that starts with their average talent at point guard, but it also spills over to Granger, who doesn't compare to the game's best in this facet of the game.
Pacers Draft Needs:
If any team could use John Wall, it is the Pacers. They are in a situation similar to the Cavaliers pre-LeBron and desperately need a culture changing franchise player.
Indiana's biggest single positional need is point guard, but the draft is very lean and a player like Willie Warren, Eric Bledsoe or Avery Bradley would probably be a reach when they select. The Pacers could draft a power forward for the second consecutive season, as someone like Ed Davis or Ekpe Udoh or Patrick Patterson would be a fit.
Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cr_reina