Now that all the big moves have been made this off season the NBA landscape looks like it is pretty much set in place. The Brooklyn Nets executed a draft night trade to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry. They also signed veteran forward Andrei Kirilenko and resigned Andray Blatche to finish out their roster. The Los Angeles Clippers traded to get JJ Redick and Jared Dudley to add some shooters to the roster and resigned their franchise point guard Chris Paul. The Houston Rockets signed the biggest free agent of this class Dwight Howard. The Miami Heat didn't make any moves which is a great move for them.
Even with all these big moves I do not think any of these teams are the best team in the league the best team in the league in my opinion are the Indiana Pacers. Yep you can refresh the page I said the Indiana Pacers the team that took the Miami Heat to Game 7 this year in the Eastern Conference Finals. This is a true team in every sense of the word. They have no mega-star but they have a lot of really solid players that just know how to win.
We are going to look at the starting line-up that is all coming back looking to continue the success they had last year. This starting lineup has no real glaring weakness every player has his own strengths and no huge glaring weaknesses. George Hill the first year point guard had a good year last year as a full time starter. He is not a true point guard he is more a scoring guard who happens to play point. He could improve his ball handling and setting up his teammates. If he does this he will take the next step towards becoming an elite NBA point guard. Lance Stephenson also known as "Born Ready" was ready for starting lineup. He proved a lot of critics wrong that he could not defend or play under control. I mean at times he does play out of control but he was able to channel this at times in the fast break to blow by defenders and get to the rim. His area to improve is his outside shooting, he needs to be able to hit the open three pointer in the corner. He needs to do this especially if he wants to make sure he starting day one instead of Danny Granger, we will talk about this later in the article. Paul George, had a breakout season last year and put his name on the map with his playoff series against the Heat. He is a lock down defender, his three point shot improved, his ball handling improved overall his game is very complete. He has room to improve in the strength department and creating his own shot. I think next year Paul George will be an MVP candidate if he makes some minor improvements to his game. David West is the enforcer the glue that keeps this team together. Had a very productive year and his mid-range game and ability to finish through contact is something all championship teams need to have. Roy Hibbert, the big man middle pre All-Star break was having a very disappointing year but after the All-Star break and in the playoffs was playing like the best center in the game. If he is able to put together a whole season like he did in the playoffs the Pacers will have the best center in the game in their starting five.
The bench got revamped only two player returning player from last years bench is center Ian Mahimi and Orlando Johnson, everybody else was either traded or not resigned. The Pacers signed guards CJ Watson and Donald Sloan. Watson looks like he will get most of the time behind Hill and will hopefully be an upgrade over DJ Augistin who was inconsistent to say the least. Augistin made the transition from starter to the bench last year and he was not the same player. Watson is a career back up and hopefully he can replicate the type of seasons he had backing up Derrick Rose in Chicago for the Pacers. The Pacers drafted Solomon Hill who showed in Summer League that he can play either the 2 or the 3 for the second unit. The Pacers signed Chris Copeland from rival New York Knicks to bring some more scoring punch off the bench. During his rookie year he shot incredibly well from three point land and was able to create off the dribble to an extent again something that was non-existent last year. The most recent acquisition was Luis Scola from the Phoenix Suns. This brought in a veteran big man who has shown throughout his career that he can play the four or the five. He is able to hit the 15-17 foot jump shot with a much greater consistency than Tyler Hansbrough was able to and has other crafty post moves he can go to when he needs to score. All of these acquisitions will hopefully move this teams bench from 28th in bench scoring to somewhere in the top 10.
One thing the Pacers were missing all of last season too was Danny Granger who was sidelined with a knee injury. He is coming back to this roster and if he comes back to 100% the Pacers added an All-Star caliber player without losing any assets. The real question heading into the season is: will he be healthy and if so will he start? These are great questions to have. If he comes off the bench hopefully he can become a JR Smith type sixth man a starter who just comes off the bench. Or if he does start he stretches floor providing Hibbert and West more space to operate and moves the explosive pace changing Stephenson to the bench.
This team made some great additions without losing any contributors from last seasons squad that took the Heat to 7 games. Give this young core another year to mesh together and add scorers like Granger back in the mix and Scola and Copeland you are looking at a lot more firepower to a team that sure does make it hard for other teams to score if you score a lot of points and make sure your opponent doesn't you will win a lot of games. And I think that is exactly what the Pacers are going to do next year.
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