NBA Power Rankings: Cavaliers are right where they want to be

. . Indiana Pacers. 18. team. 100. Things are not looking good for the Indiana Pacers. They were dismantled by the Charlotte Hornets last night. Their defense didn’t even bother to show up as Kemba Walker and his team were able to get into the restricted whenever they wanted on offense. Paul George is not happy with the product he’s seen on the floor to begin the year and his comments should have Pacers faithful just a tad bit worried. <p>After beginning the season looking like the team ready to make a return back to the elite of the Eastern Conference, things have cooled off for the Indiana Pacers. Paul George is back fully, but the new uptempo look has failed the Pacers throughout the beginning of the year. The push for making the team a better offensive unit has meant that it’s taken a large step back defensively. Jeff Teague and Thaddeus Young aren’t exactly racking up All-Defense votes over their careers.</p> <p>For all the talk of quickening the offense and pushing the tempo, it’s been their play on defense that has been their biggest detriment so far. Frank Vogel had built Indiana to be a defense-first type of squad and when Larry Bird showed him, Roy Hibbert, George Hill, and David West the door in consecutive offseasons they took with them the team’s identity. No one seems to be particularly happy with the new and improved product coming out of Naptown.</p> <p>Things in Indiana are seemingly getting worse before they get better, but with Bird so vehemently behind these changes it might not be the greatest for those working within the organization. Many questioned the hiring of Nate McMillian when it was announced in the offseason. If the struggles continue for the Pacers it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Bird finds his fall guy on Indiana’s own sidelines.</p>