George Hill leaves with knee injury, creating more problems for Pacers
Oct 22, 2014, 10:45 AM EDT
The Pacers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, but it was an elite defense that carried them that far.
Offensively, things were much rougher in Indiana, where the team finished just 22nd in points per 100 possessions.
Things are likely to be even worse this year, after the Pacers lost their two top playmakers in Paul George (injury) and Lance Stephenson (free agency). And due to injuries, this preseason hasn’t provided the customary time for the team to figure things out.
The latest came Tuesday night to George Hill, who left with a knee injury and did not return.
From Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star:
David West did not make the trip. Rodney Stuckey did not play. C.J. Watson did not change out of his warm-up suit. And later in the night, George Hill left the game, his left knee swelling, to pile on the team’s woes during a preseason that has produced more injury reports than traces of promising play.
“It takes time,” center Roy Hibbert said. “Especially with guys out, it’s going to take even more time.”
Hill, whose knee crashed to the floor while he was tied for the team high with 14 points, will “take it day to day,” as coach Frank Vogel described. However, the Pacers are running out of days to figure out their familiarity with one another and the system. So even missing three starters, plus the top backup point guard on Thursday – the final game on the team’s preseason schedule – could be a possibility, the Pacers don’t have the choice to sit down and heal up. They have too much to fix before Oct. 29, the regular-season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Indiana has played with a lot of effort and fire during the preseason, but that only gets you so far. Most projections have the Pacers finishing out of the playoff picture in the East, and trying to overcome a slow start due to dealing with so many injuries is only going to make it that much tougher to prove the pundits wrong.
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- sportsfan18 - Oct 22, 2014 at 10:58 AM
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They’re getting kicked while they’re down…
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- ecnuob51 - Oct 22, 2014 at 11:02 AM
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Yea. It’s sad now that they’re best scorer is cj miles, I mean he’s good I went to hs with him and he’s a great guy but he has no business being the best scorer on a team.
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- ProBasketballPundit - Oct 22, 2014 at 1:20 PM
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I love that The Offspring song.
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- lenbias34pt - Oct 22, 2014 at 11:09 AM
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The injuries are going to be a distraction from how poorly Bird has run this team.
Plumlee, Green and Stevenson are 3 very talented young players…….and to show for their loss you have Louis Scola.
If you want to argue that Stevenson is over paid consider who Larry has paid:
Hibbert 58 M – 4 yr
Hill 40 M – 5 yrFans are loyal to Larry for obvious reasons, but as a front office man Larry has been brutal.
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- edon8334 - Oct 22, 2014 at 11:27 AM
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He better hope Hibbert steps up, and he did draft George who turned out to be a stud so you gotta give him credit with that, no one could predict these injuries bombarding them
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- arrondior - Oct 22, 2014 at 1:21 PM
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I have to agree with you. And Byrd won’t be the first GM to pay a big that doesnt produce. Let’s also keep in mind that Hibberts’ issues seem to be mental and not talent based.
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- lenbias34pt - Oct 22, 2014 at 2:00 PM
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A full on look at Bird’s draft failures is extensive.
In short:Bird whiffed with pick 11 in ’08.
Did poorly with pick 13 in 2009 (Hansbrough).
George was a huge pick, but again Bird is picking 10th for a reason!
and Amazingly traded the 15th pick (Kawhi Leonard) to San Antonio for George Hill in 2011.Stevenson , his best pick (40th pick 2010) he just gave away.
It’s Birds’ job to know Hibbert is fragile between the ears. It’s also his job to know Green and Plumlee are each superior to Scola….and when he has guys like Josh McRoberts, DJ Augustin and Jarrett Jack to keep them.
Mistakes will happen, but with Bird it comes down to two great picks and a # of poor picks and a # of poor personnel decisions.
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- moppop - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:47 AM
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@lenbias
The Leonard pick was actually San Antonio’s. They had made the deal prior to the pick. SA told Indiana to draft Leonard.
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- yankeesalldway11 - Oct 22, 2014 at 12:54 PM
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GHill was not paid by Larry, that was Walsh’s move, along with Ian’s 16 M – 4 yr.
There also was no way that we could let Hibbert go, he had no bigs behind him on the roster, and at that moment it looked like Hibbert was going to be one of the best centers in the league.Also its Lance Stephenson, not Stevenson
Larry built a championship caliber team in an era of large market mega teams that have entire starting line-ups of all-stars. I think he has done a great job.
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- lenbias34pt - Oct 23, 2014 at 8:30 AM
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Thank you for your response.
Could you please tell us the good moves Larry made?
Isn’t the large market angle weak considering Philly, Lakers (or Clippers in the 20 years prior) ……………….and I think there is a team in NY , mister Yankee.
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 22, 2014 at 12:01 PM
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This is where I feel like tanking should be allowed and not scrutinized. Indiana should TRY to be the worst in the league. No point of pushing for the playoffs when they probably won’t even make it and if they do, they have zero chance of a ring. They could get a top 3 pick to go with P.George next season and they’re back where they left off. They could even trade Hibbert for another 1st round pick. They could draft Okafor to replace Hibbert or Mudiay to be the point they need.
Situations like these make it alright to “tank” imo. I’m not saying the players will go out and lose on purpose but Bird might as well make this team as bad as possible. They could draft the next Tim Duncan (for ex. cuz it worked for the Spurs) next season and be a contender for the next 15 years.
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- arrondior - Oct 22, 2014 at 1:22 PM
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Well here’s the thing. Indiana won’t be tanking this season. They will be genuinely bad. And it will work out in their favor because they are mostly bad due to injuries. They will have their chance to pick up another stud and have a go at free agents for 2015-16.
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 22, 2014 at 2:16 PM
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Being genuinely bad is something a lot of teams deal with, but for some reason people call it tanking which is why I put tank in parenthesis. For example, if Indiana does poorly this season and gets Okafor and he ends up being legit, in 10 years people will say Indiana tanked 2014-2015 to get Okafor.
But I agree with you, they are going to be bad by default so they don’t have to intentionally do anything to tank. When I said Bird should make this team as bad as possible, I don’t necessarily agree with that method. I was just suggesting options like using assets like Hibbert for a chance to secure a top 3 pick or additional 1st round pick unless they think Hibbert is the bigman for them going forward.
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- arrondior - Oct 23, 2014 at 2:07 PM
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Yeah I hear you. But really, they tried to dish Hibbert and no one wanted to give Indiana anything for him. His performance in the playoffs really damaged his stock. So they kept Hibbert and brought in some help so that he could develop some offensive moves. The biggest knock on Hibbert though is his ability to Jekyll and Hyde in pressure games not so much his skill set or talent.
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- spursareold - Oct 22, 2014 at 1:10 PM
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Honestly? The Sixers game is probably less challenging than several of their pre-season games so far, and can be used as a tuneup.
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- jamesgrande1 - Oct 22, 2014 at 3:22 PM
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I absolutely agree about the Larry Legend comment. He paid 2 players that never proved much of anything really opposed to others, in hindsight, should have paid and stuck with.
Hill can shoot and has length, but he’s not a natural PG. He benefited from Lance & PG handling the ball fairly frequently.
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- jamesgrande1 - Oct 22, 2014 at 3:23 PM
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Indiana is in big trouble.
