Indiana Pacers: When Winning Becomes a Bad Thing

The Indiana Pacers are winning themselves out of ping pong balls.

Just a few short weeks ago, the Pacers were finally giving their fans something to get excited about when they dropped to as low as fourth last in the NBA. 

With the season already in tatters and making the playoffs a virtual impossibility, this had fans dreaming of the likes of John Wall (11.9 percent chance) and Evan Turner (12.6 percent), future stars with the potential to finally turn the franchise around.

Since then, the Pacers have gone on an inexplicable hot streak, winning six of seven and seven of nine, by far their best performance of the season.

While other teams are tanking in a mad frenzy for the Wall and Turner sweepstakes, the Pacers have gone in the opposite direction, moving up to 14th to 10th in the Eastern Conference, and from 27th to 21st in the league. 

To put things in perspective, of all teams that are out of the playoffs, not a single one apart from the Pacers has a winning percentage of 50 percent in their last 10 games.  The Pacers have won 70 percent of games in their last 10.

If the season ended today, the Pacers would have the 10th worst record in the NBA, giving them a minuscule 1.1 percent chance of landing Wall, and a 1.3 percent chance of drafting Turner.  They will have a staggering 87 percent chance of ending up with the 10th pick.  Compare that to the 82.8 percent chance that the Pacers would have had of landing a top five pick just a couple of weeks ago.

So what do the Pacers think they are achieving in winning what are essentially damaging wins at this point in the season?

Danny Granger said after their win against the Wizards: "I really don't believe in trying not to win.  I don't even know how you can say that about a team, tell them not to win. It goes against every principle of sportsmanship that's out there."

That's a fair statement, but why not use this opportunity to give more playing time to the younger guys (like AJ Price) and benchwarmers (like Josh McRoberts and Solomon Jones)? 

If they can win games playing their youngsters, then so be it.  But in the Pacers' current hot streak, all five starters are playing at least 30 to 35 minutes a night, and often topping 40 in some games.

Earlier in the season, when the playoffs were still within reach, such inspiring play would have been worthy of celebration.  Unfortunately, all the Pacers are doing now is ensuring that the franchise will be stuck in mediocrity for yet another year.