Post-NBA Free Agency power rankings
By John Buhler
Indiana Pacers
East, Central
We might be on the precipice of something we haven’t seen in 30 years with the Indiana Pacers, truly bad basketball. All-Star small forward Paul George wanted out and preferred to go to his hometown Los Angeles Lakers. So naturally new Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
Oladipo starred in Bloomington playing his college ball for the Indiana Hoosiers. Indianapolis will appreciate that. Sabonis is the son of a basketball legend in Arvydas Sabonis. However, Sabonis’ rookie year with the Thunder saw him get progressively worse. Not a great sign.
Indiana did make a few moves in free agency to offset some departures. With Jeff Teague going to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Pacers signed former Sacramento Kings shooting guard Darren Collison to a two-year, $20 million deal. Indiana also waived shooting guard Monta Ellis and opted to throw some cash at Bojan Bogdanovic in free agency. The Pacers are better than the Brooklyn Nets and he’d start for the Pacers instead of coming off the bench for the Washington Wizards. He inked a two-year deal with the Pacers for $21 million.
Overall, this will be a long rebuild for the Pacers, but at least they have Myles Turner on a rookie contract. He is a prime candidate for NBA’s Most Improved Player. The sooner he pops, the quicker this rebuilding process will be in Indianapolis. Are we sure head coach Nate McMillan survives with the Pacers through 2018? That’s the real question here.