The Pacers have completely flipped the way they're playing this season and no one is talking about it. The Pacers had the 8th best offense in the NBA and went 19-18 over the first half of the season. Their defense was atrocious however and ranked 22nd over those 37 games. Since that time, it was nice to see the Pacers really put together defensive effort and come together as a unit.
Since January 1st, the Pacers have the 7th best defense in the NBA. The only problem? They have the 16th best offense since January 1st, and have the 22nd best offense since February 1st.
In that time the Pacers have gone 24 -13, however this has entirely been because of play on defense - not offense. (I should note, that Myles is a huge part of the Pacers defense, and he missed a lot in the first half of the season. This could show why the Pacers defense was so bad early on)
Chris Herring at 538 had a nice piece on the Pacers (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...d-its-working/) as well as a discussion with Zach Lowe on his podcast. I like his work, however, I don't agree with his premise "The Pacers are bucking every NBA Trend and it's working". It is NOT working!
In the column Chris goes into detail on how the Pacers are taking wide open 2 point shots, which I do like by the way, and it is working on offense, however, the offense is bad because the Pacers are NOT getting to the line, they are not getting as many open threes for Bogie, Myles, DC and Oladipo and the offense is suffering because of it.
I also have a theory on some of Oladipo's struggles of late, tho he had a wonderful game against Golden State. Nate has completely eliminated the Oladipo Isolation. As a massive fan of advanced statistics, like most stat fans, I am not a big fan of isolations, or long 2 point shots. However, like all things there are conditions - most players are not good iso players, so running iso's are bad, and two many long 2s will end up with a bad offense. Oladipo, is not most players. I think he's the second best isolation player in the NBA behind Harden, and unless he's defended by PG, Butler, Kawhi, or Draymond, he needs to take advantage of 1 on 1 matchups. He was doing this earlier in the season.
Everyone may remember the Pacers Cavs game in december when Oladipo scored 33 points. In the third quarter, Oladipo had JR Smith on him. He knew JR had no business defending him and he scored 16 points in the period, all on JR. It wasn't till the end of hte period did the Cavs put LBJ on Oladipo to stop the bleeding. It was brutal to watch. Now as teams are sending a ton of double teams and heavy traps on Oladipo, a lot of these can be avoided, if Oladipo has a less than qualified defender on him in an isolation position.
This was also helping the Pacers win all those close games earlier in the season. Again, I hate hero ball in general - watching PG try to play hero ball was as bad as watching Danny Granger play it- neither were equipped to do that. Well. Oladipo is. He is so explosively quick, that defenders cannot stay in front of him. The Pacers have not closed out games as of late, and I believe this is the reason why.
Finally - Myles Turner is way too good on offense to not be featured prominently as our second scorer. The only opportunities he has to score is out of the PnR. He frequently every game has ideal matchups in the post. Against David West, who has no business defending Myles, the Pacers didn't get Turner the ball once. This is Nate's play calling, and it's not working.
Come playoff time it would be nice to see the Pacers continue to play defense but focus on the following: Double screens for Myles and Bogie open threes at the top of the key. Everyone watches GSW run this play for Klay. No, I''m not suggesting either are as good as Klay, I am suggesting they can shoot and we need to get them open looks. I'd like to see Oladipo aggressively beat bad matchups in isolations. I'd like to see frequent Myles Turner post ups. The playoffs are about matchups. Myles Turner is too big and long for most defenders and he can get that Dirk shot and make it consistently. THe Problem is, he isn't given the opportunity.
Myles grew up in Dallas and watched Dirk play his prime. And he's replicated his gorgeous 1 legged shot: http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nb...0x540_2500.mp4 Myles can make that. Consistently.
Anyhow, I thought the Pacers completely changing the way they have played is definitely interesting and thought some people would find it interesting.
Since January 1st, the Pacers have the 7th best defense in the NBA. The only problem? They have the 16th best offense since January 1st, and have the 22nd best offense since February 1st.
In that time the Pacers have gone 24 -13, however this has entirely been because of play on defense - not offense. (I should note, that Myles is a huge part of the Pacers defense, and he missed a lot in the first half of the season. This could show why the Pacers defense was so bad early on)
Chris Herring at 538 had a nice piece on the Pacers (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...d-its-working/) as well as a discussion with Zach Lowe on his podcast. I like his work, however, I don't agree with his premise "The Pacers are bucking every NBA Trend and it's working". It is NOT working!
In the column Chris goes into detail on how the Pacers are taking wide open 2 point shots, which I do like by the way, and it is working on offense, however, the offense is bad because the Pacers are NOT getting to the line, they are not getting as many open threes for Bogie, Myles, DC and Oladipo and the offense is suffering because of it.
I also have a theory on some of Oladipo's struggles of late, tho he had a wonderful game against Golden State. Nate has completely eliminated the Oladipo Isolation. As a massive fan of advanced statistics, like most stat fans, I am not a big fan of isolations, or long 2 point shots. However, like all things there are conditions - most players are not good iso players, so running iso's are bad, and two many long 2s will end up with a bad offense. Oladipo, is not most players. I think he's the second best isolation player in the NBA behind Harden, and unless he's defended by PG, Butler, Kawhi, or Draymond, he needs to take advantage of 1 on 1 matchups. He was doing this earlier in the season.
Everyone may remember the Pacers Cavs game in december when Oladipo scored 33 points. In the third quarter, Oladipo had JR Smith on him. He knew JR had no business defending him and he scored 16 points in the period, all on JR. It wasn't till the end of hte period did the Cavs put LBJ on Oladipo to stop the bleeding. It was brutal to watch. Now as teams are sending a ton of double teams and heavy traps on Oladipo, a lot of these can be avoided, if Oladipo has a less than qualified defender on him in an isolation position.
This was also helping the Pacers win all those close games earlier in the season. Again, I hate hero ball in general - watching PG try to play hero ball was as bad as watching Danny Granger play it- neither were equipped to do that. Well. Oladipo is. He is so explosively quick, that defenders cannot stay in front of him. The Pacers have not closed out games as of late, and I believe this is the reason why.
Finally - Myles Turner is way too good on offense to not be featured prominently as our second scorer. The only opportunities he has to score is out of the PnR. He frequently every game has ideal matchups in the post. Against David West, who has no business defending Myles, the Pacers didn't get Turner the ball once. This is Nate's play calling, and it's not working.
Come playoff time it would be nice to see the Pacers continue to play defense but focus on the following: Double screens for Myles and Bogie open threes at the top of the key. Everyone watches GSW run this play for Klay. No, I''m not suggesting either are as good as Klay, I am suggesting they can shoot and we need to get them open looks. I'd like to see Oladipo aggressively beat bad matchups in isolations. I'd like to see frequent Myles Turner post ups. The playoffs are about matchups. Myles Turner is too big and long for most defenders and he can get that Dirk shot and make it consistently. THe Problem is, he isn't given the opportunity.
Myles grew up in Dallas and watched Dirk play his prime. And he's replicated his gorgeous 1 legged shot: http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nb...0x540_2500.mp4 Myles can make that. Consistently.
Anyhow, I thought the Pacers completely changing the way they have played is definitely interesting and thought some people would find it interesting.
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