Still unemployed so Pacers obsession is my work!

The defense is bad! but here are some interesting things i discovered while digging around some stats and partly inspired by some of what Tony East has recently on his Locked on Pacers podcast.

Taking some stats from here: https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/team/indiana-pacers/stats

#Opponent Shooting Percentages

53.8% (16th) / 39.6% (28th!) / 84.7% (30th!!)

rounding up teams are shooting a staggering 54/40/85 against us any given night! Opposing teams have a 55.3% EFG (22nd) against us. There are three teams in the NBA that average that FT% on a regular basis (OKC, Philly, Miami) and league average is roughly 78%. Toronto is bottom-3 averaging 73% from the charity this season and shot 83% from the line against us.

This is insane. especially for a team that is also bottom-5 in giving up attempts (as the highest paced team possibly ever in NBA history we are obviously giving up a lot of attempts).

#Opponent 3PA and FTA per game

However! Interestingly enough, we are NOT giving up the most attempts right now - we are bottom-5 but I thought for sure we’d be dead last. In fact, we are ranked 1st in giving up 3 point attempts to opponents and only giving teams 25.3 3PA per game!!! Detroit and Lakers are both tied for last at averaging 29.1 per game.

Opponents are averaging the most FTA and FTM against us. We’re giving up 27.8 FTA per game which ties Orlando average per game in second place (Philly in first with 28.4 FTA). Us and Detroit give opponents 2 more attempts per game than the other 28 teams.

We are bottom-10 in rebounding but surprising not last.

We are dead last in points in the paint.

Some eye test opinions: teams have been shooting lights out against us. and hitting tough shots. Maxey, Giannis, Trae, Grant, and more have particularly roasted us no matter what we threw at them.

We definitely run guys off the line as much as possible however whatever switching schemes we’re running has resulted in far too many easy and open looks around the basket and second chance points off opponent offense rebounds. The iron curtain on the three point line has often resulted in the lone center protecting opposing bigs and driving guards with the ball with one of our guards being late to rotate or provide any help or rebound.

We’re letting bigs get easy looks around the rim and hoping Myles handles it or not and trying to out shoot them on the other end however teams have rose to meet us with their shooting but this will regress to the mean