Through the first month or so of the season, no team has really surprised me more than the Pacers. This was a team that I was sure would be in the bottom 3 of the NBA, right next to New Jersey, Minnesota and Sacramento. But, lo and behold, they own wins on the road against the Lakers and the South Beach Heat.
I think the reason that they're positioning themselves for a run in the Central Division is their surprising brand of offense. They've got two big men that are really great, gifted passers. First, Roy Hibbert has been an absolute revelation through 20 games, averaging 16/9 with 3 assists and a very serviceable 2 BPG. Danny Granger, known for his box score stuffing shenanigans, is averaging 21/5/3/1/1 and maturing into a borderline first banana. I really like the risks they took on Brandon Rush and Collison, who are both paying big dividends for the team. The end result is a team with a sweet post guy, sweet drive guy and 2 sweet spot-up shooters. The Pacers are morphing into a poor-man's Laker team and are giving the rest of the NBA fits in defending them.
This is surprising because they're outside the top 20 in the NBA at offensive efficiency (Just over 100 points per 100 possessions), but they really do some good things on defense too. The Pacers are 8th in the league in defensive efficiency and play one of the fastest paced games on the court. This style of play is letting them gun for good shots, get back on D, grab the rebound and wear out the opponent by repeating it. Not many teams really have the conditioning to play the Pacers well.
The exact opposite in the conditioning world are the Pistons. They look just sluggish after half-time, like Kuester can only stand to have the team practice for 24 minutes before he quits giving a rat's ass. The Pistons have blown more leads at halftime than any other team I can think of, and often get annihilated in the 3rd and 4th quarters by good teams because they simply don't have the youth or talent required to stick with them. Whereas Indiana is a team with complimentary parts that gives some matchup problems, any team with a forward or two could tear the Pistons apart. Indiana has a nice blueprint for success and will be the best of the middle teams in the East. Hell, I think they could give a team like Orlando, Atlanta or the Knicks fits in the playoffs this year.
It doesn't quite make up for IU basketball/football/athletics in general, but at least the Hoosier state has one team looking competitive this year (Sorry Peyton!)
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