Stephenson and Paul George will come back down to earth and the Pacers will have a bad streak of games soon. I see the Pacers finishing 2nd in the Least and around 5 or 6th in the NBA with about 50 wins.
Paul George is an even more likely candidate to drop off than Stephenson. No way he keeps playing this well.
George has put it all together and improved every season, immensely. The only way he would be slowed this season would be due to injury. This guy is a bonafide all-star with true superstar potential.
They are "unwatchable" only to the casual fans who don't know how to appreciate great defense. If they could add one more good scorer off the bench, they'd be extremely tough to beat. I like this team. I hope they beat the heck out of the Heat in the playoffs.
Nonsense, he's been beating up on bad teams and bad players and he's had a hot shooting stretch. I repeat, no way he keeps playing this well. I expect him around 20ppg season's end.
I don't expect him to score 25 ppg like he is now because the pacers normally spread the scoring more than that and the pie is small (94 ppg team average due to their defense forcing long possessions and allowing the least fast break points in the league) Funny how the George naysayers never have ANYTHING to say about his defense, half of the game. Let's look at some of the "bad" defenders he has matched up against so far: Aaron Afflalo, Josh Smith, Tony Allen, Luol Deng, Rudy Gay, Joe Johnson. Some pretty good defenders there.
Josh Smith probably shouldn't be guarding most small forwards. He can get away with it, but that doesn't make him a plus defender against a guy with wing quickness. Tony Allen is 4 inches shorter than Paul George and really does much better against smaller guards. Rudy Gay is a garbage defender, he's seriously terrible. Joe Johnson isn't what he used to be. He's only an average defensive player at this point in his career. Afflalo's defense has always been overrated. The only one of those guys I'm REALLY high on for defending SFs is Deng, and sure nuff, PG didn't play so well that game. Poor efficiency, not that many points.
Josh Smith is an elite defender at the 4. He is not elite when defending a skinny, quick SG/SF hybrid.
2nd in the east could well be 60 wins There are a LOT of bad teams in the east, they could well have a 40-52 or better conference record
Even then, they'd have to let Scola go. Interesting decisions for the Pacers this summer. I think it's either Stephenson or Scola+Granger. And of course if Stephenson keeps playing anywhere close to the current level for the whole year, then he's just out of their price range, pure and simple, because he'd be worth easily over 10 mil per.
i think they let stephenson go this Off-Season due to someone overpaying him. a team like the bobcats who you previously stated come to mind. i believe scola will be looking for a longer less money deal compared to a higher salary shorter year contract to play with a competitor. i think the only competition the pacers will truly have for scola will be the rockets but i think he'll stay with indy for about 3mill. as for granger, i still think they are going to trade him this year. they have been doing great without granger so they will likely try and recieve a young cheap quality player and an expiring + a pick maybe. I really have liked the pacers these past few years, alot of that has to do with talking back and forth with you donatas, but i really do root for them in the east, and its a sad situation with the salary cap with them. this is their window and they wont go over the tax, just WONT. they have a very good core with quality starters and a much better bench this year. but man im scared they will take a step back next year because of losing stephenson, granger and even possibly scola. ill continue rooting for them from a far while monitoring their off-season situation.
