Know Your New Orleans Pelicans Opponent: Indiana Pacers Q&A

As we head towards the start of the 2015-16 season, New Orleans Pelicans fans are mostly concerned with the way the Pelicans are adjusting to a new system. While that is the most important question for the Pelicans right now, there are also 29 other teams in the NBA with questions and the answers to some will directly impact the Pelicans. With that in mind we decided to go around the league and do Q&A sessions with a blogger for each team in the league. Today we are joined by Ian Levy, a person who writes just about everywhere including The Sporting News, FiveThirtyEight, The Calderon and other places I have surely forgotten. Ian is also the editor in charge of Hardwood Paroxysm (which just put out a great season preview , and yes I was involved in it), the first editor I ever had and a Pacers fan. So here is Ian on the Pacers.

1. Paul George has hated the idea of being a stretch-four since the moment it was talked about. He reiterated that after facing Anthony Davis in the preseason opener. Do you think it actually happens and if so does it make it the entire year?

Ian: I think he’ll eventually settle into the role. Even though he’s starting at power forward I think they have some other small ball options, so he’ll occasionally play next to Chase Budinger or Glenn Robinson III and they’ll be defending the big, thus removing the most onerous burden of the position change. I am sure they’re not going to play small 48 minutes a night either so it’s not really an all-or-nothing situation. Also, I think George will, with time, find some of the ways the change makes things easier for him on offense. Those offensive advantages will be appealing and soften the impact a little. Or he could demand a trade by January.

More from Pelicans News

2. The Pacers are embracing the league’s shift into a faster paced game. So are the Pelicans who hired Alvin Gentry to improve the pace. The Pacers finished ahead of the Pels in pace last season, do they do it again?

Ian: I think they end up in similar places. The Pelicans are playing about five possessions per game faster than Indiana in the preseason, but everyone is a little over-accelerated right now. It seems to me that the Gentry will have the Pelicans running a more intentional half-court offense so that, while they’d like to run, each opportunity doesn’t feel life-or-death. My sense is that the Pacers half-court offense is going to be a little more chaotic and that running in transition may be a stand-in for good half-court execution. In that context, Indiana may have more of an impetus to run, if that makes sense.

3. Both the Pelicans and the Pacers have their superstars in Anthony Davis and Paul George. Davis should eventually be the best player in the league, where do you think George’s ceiling is? Top 5?

Ian: It’s hard to say with the injury disrupting his career the way it did. There are not a ton of precedents for players missing an entire season and then returning to form. FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO Player Projection System projects George to be about 50 percent less effective this season than he was in 2013-14, his last full season. More importantly, they project he’ll play about 800 fewer minutes. I think that’s ultimately the question with George’s ceiling — can he stay healthy and how will even normal, little nagging injuries affect him mentally? I think his pre-injury trajectory had him headed towards one of the ten best players in the league. I think a cautiously optimistic assessment now would put him maybe as headed for the top 20.

4. Both rosters have tons of questions about the supporting casts. Which do you like better?

Ian: Call me a homer, but outside of George and Davis, I like the Pacers’ roster a lot more. George Hill is one of my favorite players and coming off a career-season where he was finally allowed to step out of the box of “traditional floor general.” Of course, he has to share ball-handling duties now with Monta Ellis (who I’m not very high on) but I think he’s the best second-banana on either team. The Pacers also look deeper to me. They have a lot of similar players — athletic wings to suit their new style — but I think there is more versatility there and more potential to survive an injury, something which has been a challenge for New Orleans the past few years. I mean, Tyreke is now out indefinitely and the Pelicans ceiling looks dramatically different. Remove C.J. Miles or Solomon Hill or Rodney Stuckey from the Pacers and I don’t think it’s as big a drop-off to the next guy on the roster.

5. What are the expectations for the Pacers this season? What do you think is a successful season?

Ian: I’m perhaps a little more pessimistic than most. I think the roster has less talent than it had the past few years and has abandoned the rigid defensive structure that supported them against more talented teams. I expect they’ll be some growing pains as they work through the stylistic changes and try to accommodate all the new pieces. My guess is they fight for one of the last playoff spots in the Eastern Conference and finish around 0.500. I think success though is more about getting this system entrenched, figuring out the kinks and feeling like it’s something they can continue with for the foreseeable future instead of having to start over with a new plan next year.

Next: The Wizards' Q&A

More from Pelican Debrief