The NBA regular season has ended. It is over. Done with. Finished… And once again, for the second straight year, my beloved Pacers have missed the playoffs…

The entire season was not a negative however, there have been some very bright spots as well. Please read on for my take on this years Pacers season…

This year’s season started off with a healthy dose of optimism from yours truly. The Pacers had missed the playoffs for what seemed like an eternity (9 years) the previous year, but there were some changes made over the summer. Rick Carlisle was fire, and Jim O’Brien hired as the new head coach. No, Jermaine O’Neal was not traded. But I have been one of the very few Pacers fans who does not want to see J.O. in a different uniform. Call me sentimental I suppose.

Our season began on a 3 game winning streak, and I vividly remember watching an ESPN broadcast of another NBA game, and Rick Carlisle, the coach we had just fired months before, predicted that the Pacers would be the last undefeated team standing. All the NBA analysts were in a frenzy because the Pacers jumped out of nowhere to win against some good teams at a fast clip out of the gate… Then came the next 6 games… L L L L L L …

All of a sudden the Pacers had seemed to lose their way. Of course, all the media love immediately turned to bashing. The Pacers had been “Overachieving” and they were now playing the way they “should be”… Badly … But anyone who is a fan of this team like myself knows that the Pacers are a team that does not like making things easy on themselves. Rather the opposite, they take the long and treacherous road time and time again.

The season progressed and the team had flashes of great play, but longer stretches of uninspired, flat play. The team looked destined to perhaps secure a very low playoff seed, or even miss the playoffs alltogether. It had gotten to a point where the Pacers could have made themselves a competitive team if they had just came together and worked as a team under Coach O’Brien’s philosophies, but they never quite got there… Then the inevitable happened.

Both Jamaal Tinsley and Jermaine O’Neal went down with (basically) season ending knee/leg injuries. Not only does this eliminate 2 of your most talented players from the lineup for the season, but also thrusts unexperienced backups into their starting roles. A blessing in disguise for the Pacers, several players benefited hugely from the loss of Jamaal and J.O. - Mainly Danny Granger, Travis Diener, Mike Dunleavy and role-players such as Kareem Rush.

The Pacers concluded the final month of their regular season in dramatic fashion.

  • Jermaine came back to play the final couple weeks of the season, and helped to shore up the terrible defense the Pacers were playing during his absense.
  • The Pacers went 11- 5 in the final month of the season to give the 8th place Atlanta Hawks a serious run for their money. (The Pacers finished a mere 1 game out of the final playoff spot)
  • Several Pacers played the best basketball of their careers during this stretch, showing the teams heart and determination to make the playoffs, which bodes well for next year and beyond!

So, although the Pacers will not get the honor of being swept in 4 games by the Celtics (have fun Hawks!) in the playoffs this year, the future is bright! The Pacers will most likely be receiving the 11th pick in this years draft, and with Larry Bird now fully in charge of basketball decisions (due to Donnie Walsh’s resignation… *We will miss you Donnie!*) Hopefully there will be many changes for the better to the team this summer.

I am very excited and optimistic for this offseason, as well as next year. I will conclude this Year in Review with a quick recap of the Pros and Cons I feel from this season. Be on the lookout here soon for offseason Pacers coverage, as I am sure there will be LOTS for this humble Pacers fan to blog about!

Indiana Pacers 2007-08 Season Recap:

Pros:

  1. New and exciting style of play implemented by Coach O’Brien.
  2. Emergence of Danny Granger as a future All-Star.
  3. Emergence of Mike Dunleavy as a go-to player that other teams will have to contend with every night.
  4. Excellent play of Travis Diener in a difficult situation (thrown into heavy minutes when Tinsley is injured)
  5. Promise to change the culture of the team by Pacers management and ownership, to shed the negative feelings felt by many basketball fans to recent Pacers players and teams.
  6. Late season surge of great basketball, making a very strong push for the playoffs which fell *JUST* short, but revived and encouraged the fans for the future.

Cons:

  1. New up-style tempo offense lead to very poor defense for the entire year.
  2. Injuries once again effectively doomed the Pacers season.
  3. The emergence of certain players kept other young players from developing as we would hope.
  4. Second consecutive season of barely missing playoffs.
  5. Pacers attendance among the worst in the NBA, as fans become increasingly tired of Pacers players involved in off-court issues.
  6. Lack of salary-cap room may limit the Pacers negotiating stance during trade talks this summer.

With all that being said. I am still proud of my Pacers, and am already eager for next season to start!

GO PACERS!