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Indiana Pacers (Projected Record: 33-49)

Indiana traded Paul George this summer for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, to many snickers from opposing fans and media and with much hand-wringing from their front office about the better deals they thought they had, but which they, ultimately, didn’t have. In shocking news, Oladipo, given his prior disappointing performance, does not have the look of a player who we should expect to be better than Paul George this year. (On the other hand, through the first few games of the season Oladipo is performing way better than anyone could have expected and certainly better than the +1ish per 100 possessions for which I had him projected.)

Oladipo, Myles Turner, Thad Young, Darren Collison, and Corey Joseph form a top-five of players that are all pretty average. Beyond those guys, it gets bleak for the Pacers pretty quickly, which is how you end up with a 33-win projection. A top five of merely average players with nothing but players who grade out as varying degrees of bad beyond that is how you end up with a below average team. That’s who the Pacers are this season.