General Manager Pauly P has been around since the dawn of sim league time, pre-dating our very own People’s Basketball Sim League (shout out and RIP to the wild west that was Hornets Report Sim League). In the 34 seasons (including this one for the sake of win counts) that this league has been around for, Pauly has made the playoffs 18 times, won a division title 3 times, won a conference title once, and posts a career (at the time of writing this) 50.9% win percentage. Needless to say, Pauly knows what it takes to be a successful regular season GM and how to build a team that can advance to the playoffs. However, in the past seasons, the Pacers struggled to find the success that they would typically find in their team building, having missed the post-season 5 out of the last 6 seasons.
This season, the Pacers may have re-discovered the recipe for their success. They have risen from the ashes of the bottom of the Central (although not the basement like the Cavs have been calling home for god-knows-how-long). As of the end of December, the Pacers were ranked #10 in the Strength of Schedule Power Rankings (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7120). New rankings are being released soon, but an insider has informed me that after a strong start to 2024 the Pacers may have actually risen even higher than their end-of-December ranking! Be sure to check the Power Ranking Thread for updates later today!
Back to the team’s make-up, it was all about getting back to the basics. And by basics, I mean he reached back into his cook book and pull out a recipe from the 1990s era. Back in the mid-1990s, the Pacers were a mainstay in the top 3 of the Central Division. Three common denominators that Pauly’s teams always had were: defensive-minded guards, athletic wings, and dominant big man tandems.
During that era of Pacers success, we saw the rise of one of the best young, defense-first point guards from the 90s in the Dee Brown. The defensive mind-set of Dee Brown running point set the tone for the team, similar to the current roster and Marcus Smart.
Now, those who were around back then may slap me for talking about Dee Brown first, but trust me, I didn’t forget the Pacers superstar: Stacey Augmon.
The 3rd and final ingredient of 1990s Pacers success was the presence of a dominant big man tandems. In the early 90s, this was Patrick Ewing and A.C. Green (one of the original yellow/yellows that outplayed his color rating). This tandem frequented the League Leader Top-25 rebounder list for the seasons they played together, and the Pacers as a team were always Top 10 in the league in the rebounding category. Green scored when needed (and efficiently), while Ewing was the go-to post presence. In the mid-90s, this duo was replaced eventually with the combo of Rony Seikaly and Derek Strong. Fast forward to the modern-day squad… and what do we have? A new dominant duo in Judd Williams and Charles Kuntz leading the way in the paint. They are the two leading scorers on this roster and lead the way in terms of rebounding as well. Judd, while undersized, is proving to the league and its fans that he is well-worth the contract he received in the RFA.
With this combination of skill-sets (not only in the starting line-up but also off the bench), the Pacers have come out firing. Through mid-January, they sit at 3rd in the Central, only 4 games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Bucks. There is plenty of season time left, and things can change. But the under-dog Indianapolis Pacers are proving that maybe they aren’t the underdogs after all. Perhaps, they are becoming the team to beat in the Central. All it took was turning back the clock and doing what they always did best.
