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Why are the Indiana Pacers so inconsistent? Plus the rookies, Haliburton, Siakam, LA Lakers talk



Why are the Indiana Pacers so inconsistent? Plus the rookies, Haliburton, Siakam, LA Lakers talk

Why is this Pacers team so inconsistent such high highs such low lows well rep bow and I have some theories and we’re going to break them down today as well as talk on the rookies and the stars on the Pacers on today’s locked on Pacers podcast you are locked on Pacers your

Daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what up y’all happy Friday congrats you made it through the week and welcome into another edition of the lockdown Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always my

Name’s Tony East I cover the team for Forbes and Si and today we have a lot to get to on this Pacers team eight games to go they play the Lakers tonight we talked a little about that but we’ve got more to get to than just that red Bower

Friend of the pods going to join us today we lead off with a discussion about why this team is so consistent what about their makeup makes them be able to beat anybody but lose to anybody we have some theories that we dive into then we talk about the rookies Ben

Shepard and jarus Walker the roller coaster that is rookies on a winning team and we talk about the Stars Tyrese Halbert and Pascal sakam both off nights on the same night for the first time Wednesday what that means for the Pacers and going forward some internet issues

For me today hopefully that that isn’t too big of a deal or a hindrance on this episode thankfully I have my Phil’s hat on I got my IU shirt on excited to watch that women tonight opening day it’s all coming together but this is a Pacers

Show let’s just get right to the convo with rep hour he’s back it’s a great day to talk some Pacers it’s a great day to look at the good and the bad about this team after what I would consider a successful road trip with an absolutely atrocious ending the Indiana Pacers get

Throttled by the Bulls and that has kind of been the story of this team and that’s where I want to start talking with Rhett Bower today Rhett you’ve had a crazy day I won’t make you people listening but how are you uh is your life and results more consistent than the Pacers

Recently um I think if chaos can be considered consistent yes uh my my life is is as consistently chaotic right now as it could possibly be but uh with the same sort of highs and lows that the this Pacers roster has sort of been over been going through

These last couple uh weeks so no I’m I’m I’m good doing doing good so look I I said this on yesterday’s podcast but three and four nights fifth game of a road trip that doesn’t excuse what happened but I’m not like shocked that they looked atrocious

In Chicago but results wise I it’s just what they’ve been so much this season of you know beat La beat Golden State lose to Chicago you know beat New Orleans beat Dallas lose to San Antonio I mean I could just keep going back and back I don’t think anybody really has the

Answer other otherwise we would be able to uh maybe get that up the chain yeah exactly get it up the chain a little bit but I think specifically last night it just looked like the Bulls were just sort of manhandling the Pacers in every way shape and form like javante green

Came in and just dominated the game javante green like high energy player very physical but like you should not you should not have a Graphic on the screen that says the the Bulls are plus 17 since Chon green entered the game like his first game of the season right

Right yeah it’s like okay cool but I think stylistically for the Bulls like them being such a good team at keeping people away from the rim really really stood out last night because it didn’t seem like the Pacers could do anything without the just like swinging the ball

Around the perimeter and hoping for the best and then on the other end they couldn’t stop anybody either and it I think that was more fluky than anything because there were some shots that were going in it was like please come on that that is not a shot that uh Alex Caruso

Or Andre Drummond or Tory Craig like that the runner left side the floor with the right hand Tory Craig hit coming across the middle of the lane in the second half like we watched him for how long and he never once did something like that and so uh could be a little

Bit fluky I know that was a game of physicality but I don’t know if there’s a consistent theme between all these disappointing losses other than not really looking like the Pacers team that is firing on all cylinders when they beat really good opponents I had a a like half baked seed

Of a theory but it’s not very good um so here’s where I here’s where I started from right I’ve talked about this before they’re 24 and 20 against above 500 teams that’s the third most wins in the East and uh most in the league of any team right that’s great that suggests

They’re potentially a team that could make the second round they’re so good against winning teams but they have 13 losses against sub 500 teams of teams that are in the playin or playoffs in either conference that leads the NBA uh there is one other team in the league r

That also has 10 losses to below 500 teams that is in the planner playoffs in their conference do you know who it is uh Suns it’s the Hawks ah the suns are close the Suns have eight and three of them are to the spur it’s the Hawks

The Hawks uh have a similarish profile to the Pacers actually the Hawks beat the Celtics tonight so perfect timing to bring them up the Hawks are 20 and 26 against above 500 teams that’s more wins against above 500 teams than New York and Cleveland and Philly and that’s the

Same numb as the Dallas Mavericks like that’s pretty impressive and they’re 14 and 13 against below 500 teams I bring that up to say do you know what the Hawks and Pacers happen to have in common is that they are both very good offensive teams and Absolut absolutely

God awful atrocious defensive teams the Hawks are 26th in defense and eighth in offense the Pacers are 25th in defense and second and offense over the course of the whole season I kind of think that that is where this is is that they are so dominant on one end that and so bad

On the other that there’s two ways that a game can go which one is if the water shut off and you can’t score as much it’s going to be hard for you to keep up and the other is the opposite if the other team is well I guess that’s the

Main one but you know if you if you have a good defensive night you can win and so when they’re playing good teams and they’re laser focused and they’re ready to go right their margin for improves and they can win those games but then when they’re not as focused because

They’re playing a team like blls or like the Pacers many losses you know all of a sudden their offense is a little flimsy and the other team can just score and keep up so easily like I think it’s because it’s so extreme that it leads to extreme results right there’re able to

Keep up with anybody when they’re lasered in and focused and so that almost makes me think it’s a mental thing but maybe it is just something to the elite offense trash defense style leads to these just kind of like anything can happen kind of results yeah

I think if you if you look at it from a perspective of okay if a team stops you doing what you want to do what are your other options and I think for the Hawks and for the Pacers we’ve kind of seen it this year is that if a team can get the

Pacers out of what they want to do do and just stop them from being able to even get inside the three-point line which is easier said than done for a lot of the time but if you can just slow them down on offense you know you’re GNA

Get some pretty darn good shots on defense like when the Pacers are defending and so you can just end up winning the game whether you’re the Spurs or the Bulls and I think that your point about you know the uh high level of variance in a style like that

Especially bring up the Kings kind of in a similar vein as we saw last year and some this year too I think that that definitely could be part of it but the funny thing about it is that this game happens in a stretch where the Pacers defense had been awesome pretty Dar good

Yeah and so that’s weird but uh well it’s funny you say that because I wanted to flip the stat really quick you know we we saw this with the Pacers under Nate McMillan like that team was always top whatever single digit number in defense and they always beat inferior

Teams like they just you know a year after year consistent consistent so let’s look at the top seven teams in defensive rating this year r that is the Timberwolves Celtics magic Cavs Thunder pelicans and Knicks the most losses any of those teams have against sub 500

Teams is the Cavs with six six right so I think that this is clearly something to it is when your defense is so poor it just opens up your variant so much and so for the PA for the Pacers and the Hawks quite frankly because they’re able

To score and keep up and put themselves in these games they’re able to win against anybody but they’re also able to lose against anybody and it’s funny saying all this stuff out loud because like we talk about this when we talk about the team like we know their

Offense is good and defense is bad and that has impacted their results but now that we’re like this is my my Half Bake theory is growing as we’re talking like it just seems like that’s what it is it’s just until they can get their defense up to somewhat credible levels

Yeah their offense is amazing and that’s why they’re going to have a winning record and could have a good chance to be in the playoffs but it’s going to be really hard to find consistency until they start defending better and this month their results haven’t been consistent but like they’re like two or

Three clutch possessions away from a really good month and guess what they were defending really well this month like their best stretch of the season when they won six in a row was their previous best stretch of defense like I know this isn’t rocket science to say

That stopping the other team is more important but to to the degree of the roller coaster of the season I think kind of what it is yeah I think the the in the now quarter baked or three quarter baked idea it’s bacon it’s in there um I think the

Interesting part is when you look at the games that the Pacers have lost since like March 1 and it probably goes back further than that um the defense hasn’t really been as much of a problem as the offense like 99 points against the Bulls Lakers game 150 145 that’s just that’s

The exception though that 103 against the Cavs lost by five you know 129 against the Bulls in overtime 111 against the Wolves 10 105 against the Spurs 102 against the Pelicans 102 against the Hornets when they lost to the Hornets in February like that is a really

Unique problem to have for a team that does kind of like they have struggled defensively for most of the year they ramped it up lately but then with SE yakum playing so well still ends up not being as potent on offense in some of these games and I don’t know if you can

Point to I mean the Bulls like I said being pretty physical is one thing Timberwolves obviously have an insane defense Pelicans insane defense y Spurs wimy like that’s a whole different world but then it’s the Hornets like how do you score 102 points against the Hornets it’s just a really weird combination of

Things but I think that there’s another subcomponent to this at least recently in the offense game Ben mathine is a change of pace like him being out might help the defense in a lot of cases but if some if your regular offense isn’t working in the way that

You’re used to it working there’s not a whole lot of players on the Pacers who can do something different other than SE yakum when he’s been doing it with the bench like you and dererk talked about which has been phenomenal but uh that just sort of the Gunner role isn’t

Something the Pacers really have right now and so I wonder how much that spark uh impacts what they do in games where they can’t get it going like against the Bulls or the Wolves yeah this is easy to say because they won one game and lost the other but like the Clippers would

Have been a tougher game for maen because it’s a bunch of Savvy vets who will punish you if you like make sloppy mistakes yeah but the Bulls game they could have really used him because they needed somebody to do all the stuff he’s really good at and they only scored 99

Points right so like that’s just kind of the the ride of not having a guy like that who’s really good on one end and still working through the other and adds adds some juice to our Theory hey guys short little break here as we can talk about eBay Motors passion drive

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Customers and is a transition that I will let you decide next he’s a young guy but he’s so good would you like to talk about young guys AKA The Rook first round pick Rook iies next or you talk about the Stars next I want to talk about the rookies first because I think

Go ahead say it and then I’ll go no I like if you’re looking for something to change over these next like eight games or so I think that the rookies are like front and center of that sort of discussion and I know that you and dererk talked about jarus over Doug uh

And what sort of rotation decision that might look at and what Ben Shepard’s going to do close out this year saw the Perils of that pretty quick sure did yep and so uh I I want to talk about those guys yeah that that’s exactly what makes

Me bring it up right and I I actually can’t even who I talked about this with but you know what’s funny is this the last time the Pacers played the Bulls is the last time I really had to dig into this you know why because they lost in

Overtime so the margins of that game were so thin and Ben Shepard that night was five from the field and had I think a couple turnovers or something and like he defended fine but he makes one of those they win right and I thought after that game like this is kind of The

Perils of relying on rookie sometimes is they’re inconsistent and that’s fine that’s not a negative of been like inconsistency isn’t good but like rookies are supposed to be like this it’s not like I’m killing him for it but for a team trying to win that’s not that’s scary sometimes right you can’t

Always live with a lack of consistency and so they just played the Bulls Derek and I talked about yeah jarus just had this great game against the Clippers like good enough that you probably want to think about playing him over Doug mcdermit and he comes out and like his

Second touch he’s throwing like a one arm weird pass ahead that to I think Turner had a small on him like the idea was good but like it was not a serious like two hand strong get it to him pass and he turned it over and like he only

Played 10 minutes and he missed both of his shots he had two turnovers and they lost his minutes by 10 and then they went to mcder and his spot in the second half like again is what rookies are a lot of the time I’m not saying this is

Something bad about Ben sheeper and jerus Walker they’ve been good especially recently it’s just for a team that has thin margins and eight games left and is trying to make the playoffs the pros are you’re developing them in serious important games that matter maybe that pays off for the Pacers long

Term but right now micro s eight games to go this is kind of The Perils of it and I just think it’s an interesting spot that Pac are in because of that yeah uh I had not looked at the the advance box score stats for the for

Either Bulls game and it’s obviously a one game sample size but do you know what the Pacers offensive rating was when Ben Shepard was on the floor for his 11 minutes oh God Wednesday night Wednesday night yes a literal zero oh Jesus that is that is INS I don’t know

If I’ve ever seen that before jarus Walker shout out for his 11 minutes and 27 overall offensive rating uh there you go just a little little bit of a tangent there but no I think you’re I think you’re exactly right that that is the Perils of relying on a rookie but that’s

Also kind of why you want to get these stretches out earlier than this if you can yeah you know what I mean like I I get and to be fair when the season started and you’ve got Obi toen coming in okay that’s a different type of situation know you still got jayen and

Ixs in their situation uh and like trying to figure all of that out so like I think we talked about the beginning years like okay how long until jarus is in the rotation or how we would have started him right away but how long until jarus is like really more involved

And that just hasn’t happened until inconsistently lately but now he’s working through all of the Kinks that you would have liked for him to have worked through in December so that you wouldn’t have to sort of have this conversation and be like man we could really use some some juice like you said

With mathine but in a different kind of way with jarus and you just can’t get that out of him when he’s still making those one-armed nonserious passes and in games that are kind of already slipping away from the Pacers and so I get it is rookies are perilous and but I don’t

Think that should deter them from continuing to play them to close out this year either yeah I agree with that yeah and there’s another reality where he flings that pass perfectly to Turner and then they win we’re like oh jarus is feeling it this is this is great that’s

How thin the margins are though like yes that’s true yeah and so like I think Ben Shepard would still be playing but like fully fully healthy Pacers right now is it possible that the bench unit would be McConnell maen McDermot to and Smith and then there’s no rookies like maybe right

Like maybe their season was not baked into having this be a need and they’re and they’re missing three Wings a lot of the times when jerus is playing right so it it’s just kind of how it is where they have to rely on them and again that might be fine that

Might pay off and now they’re more reliable if you need them down the stretch oring the postseason that’s great but they didn’t lose the Bulls game that just happened because of these two guys to be totally clear it’s just part of the discussion when right after

An awesome best game of his career from jarus Walker he has a and then Ben Shepard is over for this is two Bulls games to go but has the 0 for five game where if he was one for five they win in regulation it’s just

How it is and yet R and yet I did not know this did you know this Pascal cakam against the Bulls Wednesday night he was two for seven that was the first time with the Pacers he shot under 40% in a game that’s crazy I did not

Realize he had been that consistent I went back because I was like I wonder what the record is when he shoots that poorly from the field uh 0 and one and one yep zero and one is the answer his previous low shooting percentage with the Pacers was when he was eight for 19

In New York on February 1 right so so easy to write that game off so easy for me to be like whatever he played bad it happens yeah Hal Burton also wasn’t very good um against the Bulls uh last night four two nights ago for you guys listening four for 15

26.7% we could talk about the rookies we can talk about the role players if that’s what you get from those two you lose you just you just lose so the reason I wanted to look at siakam’s games with that bad of a shooting percentage is because of the following

St I’m about to give you uh do you know the Pacers record R when tyres Halbert and shoots worse than 33% from the field um say it’s it’s probably under like a 30% winning percentage oh yeah it’s under that yeah yes it is zero perc they have not won a

Game how many games 10 10 times wow he 10 games shooting under 33% they are zero and 10 in those games the closest one was the five-point loss at Boston in late January where we only played 22 minutes only three of those 10 games werein 10 they got smoked a lot of the

Time so I kind kind of hate the the like oh the Pacers have a great record when eron nouth scores 15 points like yeah though when a role player makes his shots and scores a lot of points the team’s more likely to win but with star specifically

Who actually have the ball out and control the game and control their own shot attempts and like attack certain matchups it’s different like it actually does their efficiency is more telling and important and so Halle Burton’s best games yeah they win a lot and Hal Burton’s worst games they lose a lot and

So we can nitpick all we want from this Bulls game and stuff and we’ve talked about Halbert and shooting for forever and ever but like they’re were just not good in that game and it’s one game for sakam specifically I’m not gonna again I’m not going to say anything about it

He was amazing in California right before that like two days prior but they just need to be better that’s where the Pacers are they’re the Stars they’ve got to be better uh do you want to know an even more concerning thing or maybe not as concerning thing about that halberton

Stat you said about shooting under 30% six of those 10 games have happened in the last 20 oh God gosh I did not do that research yeah six of his 10 games shooting under 30% have happened in the last 20 games and so obviously I think

You’ve talked about it it kind of has seemed that way it’s like okay maybe there’s a little bit of rust there or maybe not 100% or not speculating on whether he’s still injured or doesn’t look right or whatever it is but I think you know spanning after the allstar

Break to to be shooting like that and the Pacers lose all of your games shows how important tyres halberton is shows how like there might be something to that but then also like if you are 0 and six in the last 20 games because your star just shoots under 30% like the rest

I I would be so curious to see what the rest of the guys are doing in that game because that’s just I don’t I mean maybe tyes halberton is that good but I don’t know if he should be you can’t win a single game across TW like across six

Games in the last 20 that where he didn’t shoot well that just seems that seems crazy to me it is it is crazy uh yeah you’re absolutely right only two of them came in 2023 like the year yeah which is wild to me and one was that

Magic game where we were all like whoa what just happened the magic just kicked their butt so it sometimes it’s that simple like and I brought this up after the Bulls game because I saw people covering the Clippers who were talking about this like we can debate about how

Important am your coffees 10 minutes are like if Paul and Kawhi aren’t good enough it doesn’t it doesn’t matter how good them your coffe 10 minutes are right and so they they they got their butt kicked in Chicago like it was so bad that I’m tossing that out the window

But that was the first game where both of them stunk like especially compared to their expectation and so it’s worth noting that with eight games to go like we could talk about who should be the 10th guy in the rotation we should talk about how much the rookie should play

And all this stuff but like if Halbert and yakum are good they’ll probably do pretty well in these last eight games and then they might have a good shot to 60 that just be what it is yeah it’s crazy when your good players play good you do good that’s that’s anal people

Tune in for right this analysis I mean is there is there anything that you notice from this game that stood out for why halberton and SE yakum both did not play well because the very different players they get theirs in very different ways and just coming

Off of a couple games where no I mean that it’s not fair just no they just yeah I mean they just couldn’t get into the that’s that is that it to me but it was brutal I I don’t feel like Caruso’s good but I don’t feel like that should

Be it it’s like you just can’t get in the paint it was ridiculous one more break here guys we got to talk about two awesome groups of people first up the good folks over at Nissan are you the kind of driver that loves to push things a little further

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You haven’t checked out Fire TV channels you should trust me to learn more visit amazon.com loock onfire TV uh you know who else they didn’t get in the paint against very much in the inseason tournament right was the Los Angeles Lakers they did better at that uh last Sunday that’s their opponent tonight

And I like talking about the Lakers because I want to see how the Pacers adjust they just played them six days ago and I only say that because the teams that have given the Pacers the absolute biggest fits this season by a mile our teams with lots of size lots of

Size especially like size at the 23 the 234 has been a problem for them they solved it against the magic who don’t have as much size on the wings but the Lakers when they’re and their Cam rishes and their Toran princes and the ru ET then you are letting that size get

Settled on the other end and so that makes your life way harder on both sides of the floor because that size is stopping you when you’re on offense they’re getting more rebounds than you they’re getting out in transition they’re more physical and it’s just it just Cascades just bigger is just

Generally better but I think in these sorts of games especially with teams like the Lakers where they can just run out there just length and physicality all across every position I I think it’s just being relentless I think it’s it almost comes down to an effort thing

Which is not like I hate to be that just try harder than the other guy you’ll do it and T.J McConnell maybe that’s the answer is he’s just successful because he just doesn’t stop going but I do think there’s also something to that where it’s like a team is so big that

They’re probably not used to defending 20 seconds off the shot clock though you know like if you just keep going beak going oneon-one Anthony Davis or against LeBron or you know like anything along those lines or halberton driving into the teeth of the defense to get into Anthony Davis and then try to

Figure something out from there like as long as you’re just keep as long as they keep moving and they keep like taking keeping and maintaining the advant AG I think that’s where they have to try to offset that because they are naturally at a disadvantage being smaller so when

They can try to just get a microsc more of an advantage off every pass I think that’s probably the only way they’re going to be able to do it or just hit a bunch of Threes that’s there’s that let’s let’s talk like like let’s just generically look at some large human

Teams in the NBA the Orlando Magic who the Pacers struggled with and lost two twice and fin got over that Bugaboo literally earlier this month the Toronto Raptors they’re smaller than they were ear in this season but guess what P struggle against the Toronto Raptors too the Denver Nuggets obviously they’re

Very good Pacers got swept by them the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Pacers got swept by this season uh the Lakers who they are on the cusp of potentially getting swept by like every team the Pacers have really struggled with is huge the only team they are winless

Against that isn’t huge is the Portland Turtle Blazers which is just the most ridiculous thing ever that I have to say out loud but like that is among the many Pacers things that you could call their Krypton nitter issues or whatever like they just have really not been able to

Handle size and that game where they finally kicked the Magic’s behind they got really creative defensively schematically like they were switching four five in new ways and they made shots that night and zakum was awesome so I kind of think it’s going to be about defending pretty well I know

That’s lazy to say but if they can find a way to not let the like Signs is definitely more effective around the basket like if they can force the Lakers to like pal banero settled for jumpers and fron vogner were settling for jumpers because the B Turner had a

Really good night that night and in general the Pacers did keep them out of they not a good shooting team they like to attack to for that reason they throw differential is so insane among uh other reasons but you know to me that is to me

That’s a big part of this and so you can’t just force a team to take jumpers like that’s not a feasible thing NBA teams aren’t dumb but trying to coax them into it as much as possible and maybe DLo just goes crazy or Lebron makes the because he can do that now and

You lose but I think that is a more tenable strategy than when they gave up 150 last time you know what happened Sunday so they’re they’re really good for a reason but I think that would be what I would hope to be the case if I’m the Pacers because like SE has been

Their biggest Boogyman this season by far yeah no no question and I think it has been for the last couple Seasons I think and that’s kind of why we were so excited about the Pascal SE yakum acquisition it’s like hey an actual forward same thing with Obi toen and

Same thing with jarus Walker like like it’s that size that that does end up mattering and uh I I think it’ll be really interesting to see whether the last couple games for Anthony Davis and LeBron James have taken a toll because Anthony Davis played something like 52 minutes against

The Bucks and kind of tweaked his knee a little bit and then LeBron just played against the Grizzlies so he could beat beat up on GG Jackson who was born in LeBron’s second year in the league uh and so I I think those that sort of wear

And tear could get a little bit interesting because the if they’re just like that half a second slower or not as aggressive in some instances that could be all that it takes to to sort of even that out as far as the advantages are concerned but I think

With the defense part of it is a team like the Lakers there’s only so many guys that are dangerous like you know and they they obviously last time they played they had four 25 Point scorers which is pretty impressive but you’re gonna have you’re gonna have your

Cam reddish is out there you’re gonna have some Max Christie out there ruy is gonna be out there it’s like okay we pick who beats you and if ruy hamaru has to score 40 points to beat you or tan prin If torine Prince scores 14 points okay but if you know if Anthony

Davis and LeBron James combine for 80 points or something like that like I I have a harder time losing that way than if I do if some random role player just goes off so just agre minimize mistakes in those big matchups and let the smaller matchups kind of fall in

Hopefully fall in your favor until it got figured out a little bit and halberton got hurt maybe the best stretch of the Pacer season was when they were like let’s try to make a bigger starting F so perhaps tonight specifically against the team where that could be valuable I don’t think they

Should change your starting lineup to be clear but a couple more minutes of that thing you and I have talked about and they’ve gone to a little bit n Smith at the two I don’t I don’t know exactly what the full lineup needs to look like but it’s worked at times it’s gotten

Them some extra size it does hurt your ball handling you got to have very specific seum has to be a part of that group like must to have the ball in there and then the point point guard there’s a lot of options obviously halton’s the best of them but you know I

Think that is perhaps something they should I mean I’ve said they should explore for a while but spefically against the Lakers they should go to it we’ll see I can’t wait to see how they try to adjust just because these games are so close LeBron and AD both

Questionable I as someone who will be watching the game and hopeful they play because I like watching LeBron James play at 39 years old and Crush people but I understand fans maybe not wanting them to play so the Pacers can Bank a I would I wouldn’t I don’t know what the

Odds are going to be for the game but less probable win in their playoff hunt how about that Rett do you have anything else you would like to talk about today or do you have stuff to do because you’ve had as you said a chaotic

Day yeah uh I have a endless amount of stuff to do and so but no I I appreciate the time I appreciate uh coming back on talking about some patience hopefully we can uh we can be we can look really smart when this episode comes out and we

Listen to it it’s like hey you know what they just made a bunch of Threes And defended really well and they beat the Lakers that’s crazy Rett and Tony nailed it um but no red I don’t ever look smart anymore you know this um I’ve been burned too

Many times by this team I looking forward to this game R everybody will be back for play in playoffs wherever time comes uh I’m lining up getting the guest list going for postseason time for the Pacers they have again locked up they’re going to be in the play they’re very

Close to lcking up at least two rounds of the play so we’ll have lots to talk about there uh Lakers game is Friday then the P don’t play till Monday so we will just this is easy for scheduling we’ll talk Pacers Lakers on Monday what happened what didn’t the keys all that

Stuff and then we’ll look at the Nets who they play twice early next week so looking forward to all of that hope you guys enjoyed Today’s Show R where can people find you and your amings on the NBA and the Indiana Pacers find me on Twitter at rettore Bower I don’t know

How uh active I will be but I will definitely be watching the uh Lakers Pacers game and so you can probably find some incoherent ramblings there and uh wait until next week where we can talk about some play in less frequent recent Tweeter R bow it’s a sad day when my timeline

Features less anyway I’m on there at Tony rast this show is at lockon Pacers hope you guys enjoyed Today’s Show and learn Something

The Indiana Pacers have been wildly inconsistent this season. Why is that? Host Tony East is joined by Rhett Bauer to break it all down. They also discuss Ben Sheppard and Jarace Walker + trusting rookies before taking a closer look at the Pacers stars and the LA Lakers.

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19 Comments

  1. tony are we incosistent i think beating good teams and losing to bad ones is a form of consitenct

  2. Because they keep trying to play to Pascal's halft-court Offense all game. Soon as they go back to transition/pace. Move it quick, shoot.. smdh I've said it from day one.. It's as if they refuse to turn it on and play the way they had all year… Let Pascal rest and then run like hell. When he comes in, keep that energy. Just ever so slightly less. Idk if this is going to work… They aren't using our player's or lineups right…. It's so obvious to me.. Idk if I'm not explaining it well.. but you can see it.. and we simply need size and wings… not playing Walker at SF is ignorant. Not getting Obi involved and told to go off.. Go crazy. I honestly think when they brought in Pascal it pissed him off. Would have me. He was destroying team's offensively.. Then they just take all his mins and bench him. Make him do crap when they want to give him a few minutes… Facts are Hali plays better at a fast pace. Opens the floor. Plays better with Obi than Pascal and we lack shooter's, wings and any solid D anywhere. Also not having a real big, or anyone who can rebound or stop anyone in the paint.. not having any guy's who are driving and gettin out in transition except Obi.. occasional slow cut dunk from Pascal.. Hali is gonna have to get his strength up so he can drive and kick amongst the trees and fight through the D to the basket.. Losing Mathurin hurts.. he done some of that and Nesmith is just doing so much.. it's like he has nothing left to give once he's on Offense. Then injured.. I didn't see Smith in this game… again. He plays well on AD.. sucks when he doesn't play.. another great shooter too.

  3. I wanna see the 7 seconds or less Suns Offense again. That's all I want to see. It got us wins, was exciting. Whether D was always great or not, we won. Yet for some reason we thought hey. Let's just randomly trade for these other guy's and completely go away from what was a #1 Offense. Instead of simply adding Defense wings and glue guy's later. Letting the young team ww had continue to have played this way all year and see what theh turnt into.. Instead we threw it all away.. not playing our 7th pick and have a Pascal who wants a Max and isn't even the right fit for us.. despite how good he plays individually.. It doesn't contribute to US winning.. THE OTHER PLAYER'S getting going…

  4. Obi does more Offensively in not even half the mins. Will shoot 7/9 on 70 to 80% shooting. Yet Pascal will shoot 29 shots and make 16.. play Obi more with Hali and RUN.

  5. Give Obi 25 mins a game and about 10 to 15 of the extra shots Pascal would get. Move the ball, cut, run, dunk, shoot open 3s..

  6. We need Herb Jones, Caleb Martin, Monk, Oubre, Caruso, DeRozan and Drummond. I'd even take Dillon The Villan. Lol Rather have Tari Eason tho.

  7. Ben Sheppard Is just following the veterans suit.

    Tyrese has been inconsistent for almost half the season.

    Nesmith is inconsistent.

    Nembhardt is inconsistent.

    Your favorite player Buddy Hield was so inconsistent he was traded.

    3 points or less in 5 of the last 7 games he was on the team and went 0/6 from 3 in almost all of them.

    Putting Ben Sheppard on blast for being inconsistent is laughable.

    Tyrese haliburton is the one you should have a segment on for being inconsistent not Ben Sheppard.

    Nembhardt was horrifically inconsistent last season scoring wise and not once did you have A segment about it or put him on blast.

    He had a 10-15 game stretch where he Shot under 20 percent. That's pretty damn inconsistent.

    Myles Turner has been inconsistent damn near his entire career.

    Sheppard being inconsistent has nothing to do with Him being a rookie. He's not anymore inconsistent then almost the entire roster is.

  8. No lie, this team is in enough of a crisis at SG/SF that we need to bring back the fun, the energy. LANCE DANCE STEPHENSON 🎸 🎶 🤟 I'd at least watch again. Lol

  9. Thanks Tony for always putting out content I know I'm critical but your consistency is solid love it

  10. I think you're making a mistake trying to analyze the Bulls results by looking at the wing rotation when yesterday you correctly said it was Drummond. we don't do well against teams with physical centers who dominate the paint on both ends.

  11. 10:38 Tony it's not half baked it's a function of great offense mediocre defense. Great defenses with mediocre offense beat bad teams lose to good teams.

  12. Rhett may have chaos in his life but he is cool level Headed guy and I enjoyed his thoughtful analysis a great guest! Enjoyed the interaction and conversation between you both. Nice work on a frustrating topic

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