To Tank, or Not to Tank?
By Alex Golden (@AlexGoldenNBA)
ISL Contributor
With 21-games left for the Indiana Pacers this season, they currently sit as the 9th seed of the Eastern Conference. They have a two game lead over the 10th seed Bulls, and are just three games back of the 4th-seed Hornets. With T.J. Warren out for the season, Myles Turner out with an ankle sprain and recent injuries to Brogdon and Sabonis (who both came back Friday) the decision to push for the playoffs became a topic of discussion amongst Pacers fans. A handful of fans want to see the team win and push for the playoffs, while the others want to see the team pack it up for the year and get a quality draft pick.
The upcoming schedule for the Pacers is well distributed. They play ten opponents who currently have a record over .500 and they play eleven opponents who currently have a record under .500. Twelve games are at home, where the Pacers have struggled this season (9-15) and nine games are on the road, where Indiana is tied for the most wins in the Eastern Conference (15-12).
It’s hard to predict what will happen with the Pacers over the next 21-games, but based on the franchises history, tanking won’t be an option. These guys are going to fight and scrap every night to try and secure a playoff spot, even if it means another first round playoff exit. Will that upset fans? Without a doubt it will; but this has been the Pacers MO for decades.
The benefit of getting into the playoffs gives the front office more time to evaluate their roster. It’s one thing to see a guy play well against a terrible team like the Timberwolves, but it’s another thing to see them in a 7-game series, against a much better team in the playoffs. If the Pacers do indeed make the playoffs this year, you’d like to see which players elevate their game from regular season mode, to post season mode. We’ve seen several former Pacers elevate their game when the playoffs arrived, and we also saw some fade under pressure. This is a good test for this current roster, sans T.J. Warren.
Making the playoffs this season also gives the front office a chance to see how their head coach does in the playoffs. Last season, the players and front office were unhappy with the lack of adjustments from Nate McMillan. With Nate Bjorkgren now calling the shots, it would be interesting to see how differently he would coach a playoff series. Throughout the 2-game mini-series we’ve seen from the Pacers this season, it’s been pretty successful for Bjorkgren. The team went 1-1 against Boston and Toronto at home, and went 2-0 against Miami on the road.
So yes, there are some reasons to want to see the Pacers make a playoff series, even if it would result in a first round exit. However, is that the best result for the franchise? Some would argue no. Missing the playoffs could actually help push the franchise into a different, yet better direction. The Pacers ‘never tank’ mentality has landed them in the back half of the draft more times than not.
Missing the playoffs and inserting themselves into the Draft Lottery would give this team an opportunity to find a player that can contribute to their franchise for several years, while on a much cheaper contract. This team clearly has glaring holes on the roster, and if you can draft a young player to help better your team, that’s a great reward for missing the playoffs. The other advantage this gives the Pacers, is that draft pick now becomes an asset they can attach in a trade. While it maybe more exciting for the fan base to cheer on the newly drafted prospect, adding an established player to your current team might be the best option overall.
After battling back and forth with what I want the Pacers to do, I keep coming back to this same answer: “I can’t root for the Pacers to lose.” There is something inside me that cannot actively root against this team. Since losing has been common this year, knowing the Pacers could get a nice draft pick makes me feel less frustrated when they don’t win. All I want is for the franchise to get out of this middling state they’ve been in for the past six years, and get back to being relevant.
There will have to be wholesale changes, and that might mean trading away some of my favorite players. I’m okay with that. I want to see this team grow into a powerhouse in the East, and not just a team that always says “nobody believes in us, let’s go shock the world.” We need to quit embracing the underdog mentality, and do whatever is possible to get this franchise back to a dominate eastern conference team.
So to tank…or not to tank? I don’t want this team to full on tank, but I don’t want to see them be a first round playoff exit either. I want to see them compete the rest of the regular season and want to see continued growth from our younger players. The Pacers could miss the playoffs without tanking, or they could get hot and have a super competitive 4-5 playoff series.
The team has not been as fun to watch over the last few weeks and fans are growing frustrated. Getting into the Draft Lottery over the playoffs will give the fans more hope for next season. So if you’re forcing me to pick one side or the other, I’d rather them get a higher pick than make the playoffs. However, that doesn’t mean I want them to full on tank. Let’s get healthy, let’s retool this off-season, let’s get a higher draft pick and let’s get healthy.
