John Hollinger at The Athletic has the Pacers winning only 2 more games than last season in his write-up. Says they don’t have a good enough 2nd option and lacking forwards.
While I generally have unrealistic expectations for the team, I will be a bit disappointed if they aren’t flirting with .500 this season. Only two more than last year where they basically tanked the last 3 weeks? And, yes, I realize it is only 4 wins, but it feels lightyears apart.
For those who subscribe and want to read: https://theathletic.com/4964093/2023/10/17/nba-east-predictions-bulls-nets-hawks-hollinger?source=user-shared-article
by crowezr
9 Comments
I am not sure what I would predict win wise.. that is a good question. For me atleast my concern is rebounding, I don’t see where that was shured up and it was a huge problem last season with the Pacers being near the bottom of the league in rebounding and worst in the league in giving up second chance points. I initially thought that was why Jerrace Walker was drafted but in these preseason games he just doesn’t look ready as he doesn’t look to know quite what to do when the ball is swung his way. Without knowing how the rebounding or chemistry will go I am going to say 41/42 wins.
37 feels like our floor if Haliburton stays healthy. Our ceiling is probably 45 if Mathurin and Nemby take a leap
Over/Under I saw was 38.5. Barring Haliburton injury, we’re going to beat that.
I caught Draft Kings and took the over at 33.5 games with a pretty significant amount. Not sure I’ve ever felt as good about a bet. So it’s safe to say we don’t win 34. Sorry fellas.
They’ve slept on us all off season let ‘em
a lot of open questions. for me, the most important are:
* who levels up, and how much?
* do we trade Hield, and for what exactly?
* how long will it take for the team to click?
my expectation is that the FO would trade Hield for the right offer. should that materialize, will it be today assets or tomorrow assets?
even if we don’t trade him, we’ve acquired a ton of new talent in the past couple years. we do not yet know the final shape of this team, and it’s anybody’s guess how long it takes to land that
We’re winning 50 games and idc if I’m being delusional.
Id guess we win about 41 games fighting for the 7-10 spot. Our defense isn’t gonna drastically improve in one season just because we added brown and our rebounding is still horrible. But I could see us maybe getting to 45 but a 10 win improvement seems like a stretch considering we are so young
Team has a ton of depth and should be much improved defensively. They feel like a dark horse in the East that could surprise a lot of people and finish as high as the 5 seed.