Grading the Indiana Pacers' Final 15-Man Roster
The Indiana Pacers' 15-man roster for the 2014-15 NBA season is set.
The Pacers issued a press release on their official website on Oct. 25 regarding the matter:
"The Indiana Pacers announced Saturday they have waived C.J. Fair, Arinze Onuaku, Chris Singleton and Adonis Thomas. Fair is a 6'8" rookie forward out of Syracuse, who played in two preseason games and averaged three points; Onuaku is a 6'9" second-year forward, also out of Syracuse, who played for both the New Orleans Pelicans and the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2013-14 season.
He played in four games and averaged 2.5 points; Singleton is a fourth-year, 6'9" forward out of Florida State, who played in two games and averaged three points. He played all three seasons of his NBA career with the Washington Wizards; Thomas is a 6'7" forward that played collegiately at Memphis. He is in his second year in the NBA, having played for both (the) Orlando (Magic) and Philadelphia (76ers) in the 2013-14 season and averaged one point.
The Pacers' roster now stands at 15.
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Grading this final lineup ought to give Pacers fans realistic expectations for the upcoming NBA season. We will also probe deeper into each position for a more thorough analysis.
In grading the Pacers, the potential to deliver as well as the depth of the roster will be considered.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats are current as of Oct. 27 and are courtesy of ESPN.
Point Guards
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Here we go again.
Sure, the Indiana Pacers were a force last season with their 56-26 record and a second consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearance with George Hill, a shooting guard in a point guard's body, manning the starting 1-spot.
Backing up Hill were C.J. Watson and Donald Sloan. The former showed flashes of his old, deadly shooting from the outside but never got it going as last year's playoffs wore on (just 3.7 points on almost 37 percent shooting). As for the latter, he joined guys like Chris Copeland and Lavoy Allen at the end of Indy's bench, posting 8.2 minutes per game in 48 appearances.
Now, after ESPN's Marc Stein reported the Pacers tried to pry 2013-14 NBA Most Improved Player Goran Dragic away from the Phoenix Suns, Pacers President Larry Bird has stood pat at his point guard situation.
Bear in mind that the Pacers nearly bottomed out in the assists department (27th with a 20.1 per-game average) last season when they still had Paul George and Lance Stephenson, who was the most consistent performer from that group.
Now, it will be interesting to see how the trio of Hill, Watson and Sloan can direct the flow of the offense without George and Stephenson and with new faces C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey, Damjan Rudez and Shayne Whittington around.
Expect Hill to take on a bigger scoring load in PG-13's absence. He and his point guard mates aren't expected to dazzle fans with their playmaking, however. Stuckey offers depth at the 1-spot, but that won't be enough to get the most out of this Pacers team.
Grade: C
Shooting Guards
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Will the shooting guard pair of Rodney Stuckey and C.J. Miles be enough to offset Stephenson's departure?
Let's put it this way: Stuckey is a shot-creator and penetrator who has an erratic shooting touch from the outside (28.6 percent three-point shooter for his career) while Miles is just the exact opposite. He's more of a spot-up shooter (35 percent from the three-point arc for his 10-year NBA career) who can make you pay if you gamble on defense.
However, neither of them is as versatile as Stephenson is. Neither man has what it takes to register five triple-doubles for an entire season.
The fact that Stuckey hasn't tasted NBA playoff basketball in five seasons should give him a newfound hunger to succeed in Indy. Pacers.com's Mark Montieth spoke with him on July 22 to get his thoughts on joining the team:
"I want to win; I want to go to the playoffs. It's not fun having the whole summer to do nothing. I just want to play basketball. This is a good opportunity to come and do that.
I'm not going to have a problem fitting in with these guys. I'm very humble, laid-back respectful. We're not going to have a problem getting along.
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As for Miles, he lit up Stephenson's new team, the Charlotte Hornets, for 23 points in Indy's final preseason game in 2014-15. This could be a very good omen for the Pacers if Miles—who has never been known to be a big-time scorer—can keep this up.
George Hill will also see some time at his natural 2-guard position should head coach Frank Vogel choose to go with a smaller lineup. Second-year man Solomon Hill, a natural small forward, could also see some action at shooting guard.
All things considered, most of the Pacers shooting guards for 2014-15 are solid and veteran-savvy even if they are unspectacular.
Grade: B
Small Forward
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Just who exactly is up to the task of replacing two-time All-Star and franchise player Paul George at the small forward position in 2014-15 is a big question mark in the minds of Pacers fans.
A candidate who should be up to the task is none other than "Optimus Cope" himself, Chris Copeland.
Copeland had some success coming off the bench for the New York Knicks two seasons ago as a stretch 4 (8.7 PPG on 42.1 percent shooting from the arc). Last season, he was relegated to the end of the bench. In those times they took the court, he and Rasual Butler were the two shock troopers who made the most of their opportunities.
With George temporarily out of commission, Copeland should find himself thriving at the 3-spot. He has the shooting touch to keep opposing defenses honest although he could use more work on his post-up game, assists (career per-game average of 0.5) and rebounds (career per-game average of 1.6).
Montieth confirmed Copeland will join sophomore Solomon Hill and veteran C.J. Miles in Indy's depth chart at small forward in his Oct. 1 blog:
"He'll [Copeland] test the waters at small forward in the upcoming season, a move he and coach Frank Vogel were considered by the end of last season and one that became a better idea than ever after Paul George broke his leg on Aug. 1.
C.J. Miles and Solomon Hill also will contend for playing time there, with Miles the early favorite to start, but Copeland should get more calls to action than last season—particularly with Vogel's plan to use a 10-man rotation throughout the regular season.
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Rookie Damjan Rudez, a Euroleague veteran, should also see time at small forward. With George in the equation, this is a solid rotation that is deep and capable of producing for the Pacers. If only PG-13 can come back sooner than later, all the better it will be for Indiana.
Grade: B+
Power Forward
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The power forward position is the Indiana Pacers' deepest.
Consider their roster at the 4-spot: Veterans David West and Luis Scola are the purest power forwards while four players play hybrid positions (Chris Copeland and Damjan Rudez are small forwards/power forwards while Lavoy Allen and Shayne Whittington are power forwards/centers).
With West out for the first three games of the 2014-15 NBA season with a sprained right ankle (per The Indianapolis Star's Autumn Allison), Scola is a prime candidate to take his place in the starting lineup. The Pacers need more from Scola, who had some consistency issues in his first full year off the bench (he shot just 37 percent from the field in February, for instance).
West should be his usual gutsy self once he returns from his injury. According to HoopsHype, he has a player option for the 2015-16 season while Scola is in the last year of his contract with the Pacers. Unless both players re-sign, their time in Indiana is nearing its end. It would be good to see them savor more playoff success, but the makeup of this team makes that a 50-50 possibility.
West and Scola will provide inside scoring while Copeland, Rudez and Whittington will act as the outside threats for Indy's power forward crew. It would also be nice to see Allen develop his game. He played sparingly in 2014-15 (just eight minutes per game in 14 appearances), so to see him blossom into another Antonio Davis would bode well for the Pacers.
This is a group that stacks up well across the league in terms of depth. It also has a nice combination of veterans and youngsters that ought to mesh nicely as the season wears on. The challenge is for the other Pacers power forwards to take the scoring load off West to make their offense more unpredictable.
Indy's small forwards get a higher grade by virtue of Paul George spearheading that group.
Grade: B
Center
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Here we go again, part deux.
The Indiana Pacers are standing pat on their center position just like they are for their point guard lineup for the 2014-15 NBA season. That means it'll be Roy Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi manning the middle for Indy. Power forwards Lavoy Allen, Luis Scola and Shayne Whittington can also play some center when need be.
The 5-spot all starts with Hibbert, who was an absolute stud during last season's first half and an embarrassing dud during the second (as in the case of those two zero-point, zero-rebound games in the postseason). David West had to chew Hibbert out after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Washington Wizards for the Pacers center to regain his bearings.
Without PG-13 for an undisclosed period of time, the Pacers need Hibbert to not just be consistent; he also must assert himself on both ends of the court. It was just two seasons ago when he averaged 22.1 points and 10.4 rebounds in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat.
According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the Cleveland Cavaliers were interested in Hibbert, but the fact is that he is still a Pacer. Indiana is at its best when he is at his best, so this is something he must take to heart during this make-or-break season.
Mahinmi enjoyed his best season as a Pacer in 2014-15, doing the things that don't show up on the stat sheet (setting screens, boxing out and other hustle plays). He is not a threat on offense, however (just a career 4.3 PPG average). He and Hibbert were the Pacers' pillars at center during their back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals stints, but a revamped roster without George figures to make this a long season.
Whittington and Allen provide depth at center, but it remains to be seen how much they'll play in 2014-15.
Grade: C+
The Bigger Picture
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The Indiana Pacers are looking at a long season without their franchise player, Paul George.
Now, a slew of injuries (David West, George Hill and C.J. Watson) makes Indy's 2014-15 NBA season even tougher, per an Oct. 27 update from The Indianapolis Star's Autumn Allison:
"The team announced on Monday that David West, George Hill and C.J. Watson will miss not only the Wednesday night opener, but the first few games of (the) regular season due to injuries.
West, who sprained his ankle during the Oct. 18 Dallas Mavericks preseason matchup, will miss three games. Hill is expected to be out three weeks with a knee contusion and Watson is looking at two seasons with a bruised right foot.
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The Pacers' depth and mettle will be severely tested in 2014-15. Even prior to the beginning of the regular season, Indiana already has had several misfortunes (George's injury and Stephenson's departure, among others). Veterans C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey and Luis Scola as well as unheralded players Solomon Hill and Chris Copeland will be counted on to make the Pacers competitive and keep them alive for a playoff spot.
This year's Indiana team is reminiscent of the 2004-05 Pacers, who had to endure lengthy suspensions to key players in Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace), Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal after the infamous brawl with the Detroit Pistons. Today's Pacers are in no way dealing with those same issues, but they are staring adversity right in the face just like their counterparts did 10 seasons ago.
The good news is that O'Neal and Co. were able to rebound from their misfortune to finish 44-38 and make it to the second round of the playoffs against the very same Pistons squad. The 2014-15 Pacers are capable of overcoming the odds, too.
They're also capable of missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
It really is all up to them.
Overall Grade: C+
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