Breaking Down Indiana Pacers' Point Guard Position for 2014-15 Season

The Indiana Pacers' point guard position involves the usual suspects, but it's a group worth analyzing as the 2014-15 NBA season draws ever closer. 

These are George Hill, C.J. Watson and Donald Sloan. 

This crew—despite the absence of a bona fide playmaking point guard—helped steer Indy to a 56-26 record, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and another stint in the Eastern Conference Finals last season. 

Team president Larry Bird gave his point guards his full confidence in an interview with Pacers.com's Mark Montieth on June 27:

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You have a problem with our point guards (smiling)?

Well, you can speculate all you want, but I'm pretty set with our core group. I'm going to give them another shot. They almost got there two years in a row and I think they deserve another shot. 

"

Note that Bird made his declaration before Paul George's horrific injury on Aug. 1. When his franchise player broke his tibia and fibula during a Team USA scrimmage in Las Vegas, he knew he had to act to make the Pacers competitive. 

And he had to act fast. 

Bird had 2013-14's Most Improved Player Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns on his radar. He dangled Roy Hibbert, Chris Copeland and cash to Phoenix, but the Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa (via BrightSideOfTheSun.com's Dave King and Jogi) reported on Aug. 10 the Suns rejected the trade. 

Now the Pacers must rely on Hill, Watson, Sloan and new recruit Rodney Stuckey (who plays both guard spots) to help Indy pull off a few surprises and possibly snag a playoff spot this season.

Easier said than done without PG-13 in tow, but who knows?   

Grading Indy's Point Guards for the 2013-14 NBA Season 

George Hill's second year as the Pacers' starting point guard saw his scoring (from 14.2 PPG to 10.3 PPG) and assists numbers (4.7 APG to 3.5 APG) drop from the year before. 

Hill's defense goes unnoticed by the casual fan, but it should be regarded right up there with the best of them. In a June 13 interview with Montieth, Bird said, "I love how he defends. You ain't going to find anyone better defending the point." For his part, Montieth described Hill as "a superior defender" in his article. 

Hard evidence of Hill's prowess on the defensive end was when he helped hold the Atlanta Hawks' Jeff Teague (who gave Indy fits all series long) and the Washington Wizards' John Wall to identical 5-of-16 shooting clips in Game 7 of the first round and Game 6 of the second round of last season's playoffs, respectively. 

As for Hill's offense, Montieth says it's a trickier issue:

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His offense is more difficult to analyze. He's laid-back by nature, and seems to remind himself frequently to be more assertive. That 37-point outing against Portland on Feb. 7, when he hit 12 of 19 shots and got to the foul line for 12 free throws was intriguing and enticing. He also had nine rebounds and eight assists that night, showing his varied skills.

"

His backup, C.J. Watson, wasn't much of an upgrade over D.J. Augustin (who thrived in Tom Thibodeau's system with the Chicago Bulls). Watson chipped in with 6.6 points while shooting 36.6 percent from the arc. His hamstring injury in March didn't help matters as Indiana went just 6-11 during a 17-game span.

Come playoff time, his production gradually declined. It culminated in a 3.7 PPG average on just 36.8 percent shooting against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

The third point guard, Donald Sloan, didn't get too many opportunities last season (he appeared in just 48 games). However, Montieth points out Sloan played well when he took the floor. An example of this was when he tallied eight points, eight assists and zero turnovers in an April game against the Milwaukee Bucks when coach Frank Vogel rested his starters. 

Though an erratic shooter, Sloan has a penchant for being a decent ball handler and defender who doesn't turn the ball over. 

To grade Indy's point guards, we will consider the team's overall statistical production and how far it went during the season.

While the Pacers continued to lord over the rest of the league defensively (second overall with a 92.3 PPG average allowed), they still struggled mightily on offense (24th in the NBA with 96.7 PPG) and assists (27th with 20.1 APG). Despite Indiana's embarrassing slide after the All-Star break, it managed to get within two wins of its first NBA Finals berth in 14 years. 

Clearly, the lack of a true playmaker hurt Indy's chances. Hill is more of a combo guard while Watson and Sloan are not bona fide game-changers. A playmaker would have helped cure the Pacers' woes in offense and assists. 

Overall grade: C+

What's In Flux For 2014-15 

Hill, Watson and Sloan return for a second tour of duty in 2014-15. Throw Stuckey into the mix as well. They will run the offense for a club that is missing its franchise player and leading scorer in George (21.7 PPG in 2013-14) as well as the versatile Lance Stephenson, who signed with the Charlotte Hornets on July 18. 

In his Oct. 7 blog, Montieth weighed in on how Hill—who packed on an additional 10 pounds of muscle mass this offseason—will benefit from not having George and Stephenson around:

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Hill figures to be the Pacers player to benefit most from the absence of Lance Stephenson and Paul George. As the team's most dynamic players last season, the offense usually ran through them. 

Hill rejects the notion that he's playing more like a conventional point guard to prove himself to critics. The change in approach is borne of necessity. Still, it should enable him to silence those who question his playmaking skills, and allow him to unleash more of an arsenal that was partially kept in storage in past seasons while others flourished.

"

Stuckey and Miles are not going to be as productive as George and Stephenson were last season for the simple reason that the former pair are not in the latter's stratosphere. That being said, expect Hill to take on more of the scoring load in 2014-15. 

Stuckey is more of a scorer and slasher than a playmaker. Still, he is expected to see some time at the 1-spot. If Hill swings over to the shooting guard position (his natural one), Indy will benefit from a backcourt that can penetrate at will and create more opportunities for the other Pacers on the offensive end. 

Watson and Sloan will remain the team's No. 2 and No. 3 options at the point, respectively. Watson's game has somewhat regressed over the years. The Pacers will need him to be healthy this season so they can have an outside threat at the 1-spot, and if they are to prove the naysayers wrong.

For his part, Sloan could be a pleasant surprise for Indiana. 

Montieth wrote on Oct. 11 that Sloan, the Pacers' third-leading scorer in the 2014 Orlando Summer League (18.5 PPG), had shot 4-of-11 from the three-point area entering the Oct. 12 preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks. Vogel even told Montieth that Sloan is "going to give us quality play" this season.

The Final Say  

Unable to acquire Dragic, the Pacers will return with essentially the same cast of point guards in the 2014-15 season. Without the legitimate playmaker it so desperately needs, the challenge for Indy will be no less than daunting.

No Paul George. No more Lance Stephenson. A lack of firepower on offense. Struggles in the assists department. A host of unproven players (Solomon Hill, Damjan Rudez and Shayne Whittington).

Expect the Pacers to still be in the bottom rung of the assists ladder. The presence of David West, Roy Hibbert, Stuckey, Miles, Solomon Hill, Rudez, Chris Copeland and Luis Scola will give the point guards more options on offense, which is realistically not going to make a significant leap across NBA ranks.   

With so many questions surrounding the team, fans can only wonder what kinds of answers the Pacers' point guards can provide.

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all stats are current as of Oct. 17 and are courtesy of ESPN.