My buddies Michael De Leon and Jeff Garcia (who you might remember from the latest episode of The 8th Seed podcast) over at Project Spurs asked me a few questions about what they can expect out of the Pacers tonight. Here’s an excerpt of the first few questions. Head over there to read the rest. And be sure to stop by there on the reg for all the latest on San Antonio’s finest.
Mike De Leon: The Pacers are now 24 games into the season with a 9-15 record. Is this where you thought they’d be 1/4 of the way through the season?
Jared Wade: Pretty much, yeah. I was hoping an early return from Mike Dunleavy, Jr. — who is and has been the engine of the team’s offense whenever he’s been healthy — would have had them closer to .500 but this is around where they were expected to be record-wise. Unfortunately, just as MDJ was getting back (and he’s still actually on a 24 to 28-minute-per-game limit due to his knee), Granger went down. With Murphy and Jeff Foster missing some games as well and Brandon Rush looking like a guy who should be playing in the Spaghetti Leagues of Italy at best, the 9-15 record actually isn’t that bad.
Mike: The Pacers have been considered an offensive team for the past few years — and they definitely have always and still do push the pace — but their inability to score has been their main problem this year.
Jared: It’s just horrible to watch them try to put points on the board. They’re shooting 43.4% so far this year, and the only teams worse than that are Chicago, Charlotte and woeful New Jersey. Being that inefficient should be impossible in Jim O’Brien’s offense, which generally gets players a ton of open jumpers. Some of it is just unexpected poor shooting by guys like Granger and Murphy (who has been hot in his last 5 games). The injuries and lineup inconsistency don’t help either, of course. But more than anything, it’s just been 24 games of stagnant, standing-around offense — which is something I imagine the old legs of the Spurs will have no trouble defending tonight.
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Related Topics:
Game #25,
Jeff Garcia,
Mike De Leon,
Project Spurs
I’m not sure if you are one of the tens of regular readers of Both Teams Played Hard, but we spent like half the summer doing an exceedingly slow roll out of our NBA Logo Ranking Project, which picked apart each team’s logo from #30 to #1 and was generally a waste of everyone’s time. It was a foolish endeavor, but there were some good bloggers involved and it kept a couple of my friends entertained for a few months so it was worthwhile. Plus, it kept me from having to write about even foolisher things that people like to pretend are news during the offseason like NBA players saying “controversial” things on Twitter, Ricky Rubio’s true feelings on the state of Minnesota and the ongoing pretend officiating apocalypse.
One of the my favorite entries came from Project Spurs‘ Jeff Garcia, who mocked the Orlando Magic’s dumb logo and suggested an Arrested Development-themed replacement. If you’re an Arrested Development fan, chances are you’ll think it’s pretty funny. Or at least clever. But if you’ve never seen the show, you will have no idea what the whole thing is about.
Anyway…
Because of my recent logo fascination, I was very glad to see ESPN’s Page 2 put forth it’s own “New and Improved NBA Logos” for all 30 teams. The Nuggets, Nets and Wolves are all particularly good. And while the Pacer one might not be all that funny, it is pretty clever. Nationally, no one really knows what to think about Indiana, and it seems that even local fans are just as divided on whether or not this team will be among the worst in the league — as they have looked the last two games — or whether they might be able to sneak into the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Here’s their take, with the whole before-and-after, side-by-side effect. Really, the only thing else that’s missing from the question mark is a picture of Mike Dunleavy’s knee. Still, pretty well done.
Related Topics:
Arrested Development,
Both Teams Played Hard,
Jeff Garcia,
Minnesota Timberwolves,
Orlando Magic,
Ricky Rubio,
The NBA Logo Ranking Project
