INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- After an off-season of drastic change, the Indiana Pacers will be making their preseason debut against the New Orleans Pelicans. This will be the Pacers' first actual game since completely changing their offensive style. Pacers coach Frank Vogel stated that this will be treated like a practice for the Pacers. They are still seeking to fine tune their new offensive scheme and their defensive rotations.
Indiana is almost an entirely different team from last season. There are seven new players on the team, and Paul George is fully healthy and had a full off-season to improve. All of this change has a few main goals; increase the tempo of play, increase offensive production, and improve the defense by increasing their speed.
Among the new players for the Indiana Pacers are; Monta Ellis, Myles Turner, Joseph Young, Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger, Glenn Robinson III, and Rakeem Christmas. All of these players were brought in as better fitting pieces for their new system. The old pieces just simply reached their ceiling as a group. This was especially the case with how the league is changing their style of play.
Everybody is going to play for the Pacers in this game. However, nobody is going to get a lot of minutes. Head coach Frank Vogel stated this earlier in the week. With all of the changes that the team has made in the off-season, it would be ideal for everybody to get experience with each other in real game situations.
George Hill, Monta Ellis, C.J. Miles, Paul George, and Ian Mahinmi is the projected starting lineup for the Pacers for this season, and for their preseason debut. There wasn't really any change in training camp. Vogel stated this as his projected starting unit prior to the start of camp, but it is unknown whether or not he has decided to stick with it. But all signs point to this starting lineup. As for the Pelicans, their projected starting lineup for tonight is; Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Quincy Pondexter, Anthony Davis, and Alexis Ajinca.
Indiana is getting a difficult assignment for their debut of small-ball. Paul George will be matched up against Anthony Davis, which will be a fantastic indicator of where George is currently at for the power forward position. The expectations should be low since it hasn't been long since George has made the shift to the four, but it is important that he shows some signs that this will pan out. George will most likely struggle defensively, but his offense should at least be impressive.
Monta Ellis has a favorable matchup against Indianapolis native Eric Gordon. This is a matchup that should be attacked early and often since Ellis has a major offensive advantage over Gordon. The stage is set for Ellis to have a terrific debut for the home crowd in Indianapolis, but it all depends on the chemistry of the unit as a whole. Monta might struggle if the floor spacing isn't what it should be, but the team made that area of the game a point of emphasis in training camp, so they should be fine.
George Hill has an interesting matchup against Tyreke Evans in this game. Much like that Monta Ellis matchup, Hill should have no problem exploiting Evans with his explosiveness and ball handling skills. This is also a favorable matchup that should be attacked to exploit the lack of quality help defenders on New Orleans. With the miss match that Ellis has, Hill could get a good amount of easy baskets since Evans is a bad help defender and since Gordon will need a ton of help to seal off Ellis.
Ian Mahinmi and Omer Asik is another favorable matchup for the Pacers. Asik has very little skill both defensively and offensively. Mahinmi is a role player for the offense, which means he will likely only score off of offensive rebounds, the pick and roll, cutting to the basket, and not much else. Since Asik is such a poor defender in space, Mahinmi could be in for a big night with the supporting players he has around him.
C.J. Miles doesn't necessarily have a good individual matchup against Quincy Pondexter, but he should get his fair share of catch-and-shoot jump shots. Paul George, Monta Ellis, and George Hill all are offensive miss matches and should be able to easily exploit the team defensive rotations of the Pelicans, resulting in open opportunities for Miles. Pondexter has speed and length that could harass Miles in individual offensive situations, but Miles should have little problems utilizing his ball handling and athleticism to get around Pondexter. Basically, Miles will struggle to get his shot off against Pondexter when he is in individual situations, but other than that he should be fine.
This is an overall great matchup for the Pacers to really showcase that new offense. There is a variety of significantly favorable matchups for the Pacers to attack and create easy offense against. But one thing is certain, the offense should start with Monta Ellis and then they should work the ball around to exploit the other miss matches. This Pelicans defense is simply not good enough to contain this Pacers team, but early-season chemistry problems could hurt the Pacers if they don't already have a quality rhythm as a group.
From a defensive stand point, the only concern should be how to defend Anthony Davis. Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Omer Asik, and Quincy Pondexter all have matchups that are not favorable for their offensive skills; however, Davis does. George could have worked on his post defense a lot this past off-season, but we haven't seen him defend a dynamic post player like Davis just yet. But that doesn't mean it will be easy for Davis. This game is the perfect opportunity for the Pacers to showcase their trap schemes to pressure Davis in individual offensive situations. The key for the Pacers will be their team defensive rotations, if they can do those effectively, the Pelicans should really struggle offensively.
Everything for the bench players is up in the air since it is unknown who will play where and how many minutes they will get. But the only key for the bench is to be ready whenever their number is called. This is when players earn their minutes, so now is the time to impress the coaches because there are still position battles that haven't been completely decided. Some of these position battles include; Jordan Hill versus Lavoy Allen, Ian Mahinmi versus Myles Turner, and Chase Budinger versus Solomon Hill.
Despite the uncertainty regarding bench roles, there are still key bench matchups for tonight's game. Rodney Stuckey versus Jrue Holiday and Joseph Young versus Norris Cole are two key bench matchups, the rest of the Pacers' bench players have miss blaring miss matches. Holiday is known as one of the top defenders at the point guard position, so everything will be more difficult for Stuckey tonight. Cole is known as a good defender as well, so it could make things challenging for Young in his preseason debut. Myles Turner has a blaring miss match against Alexis Ajinca, so he could be in for a big game tonight. The rest of the players are supporting cast players that don't necessarily dictate much. Their offense will come from the playmakers that create offensive opportunities.
Indiana has a few injuries to report; Monta Ellis (back) is questionable for tonight's game, and Chase Budinger is out with a hamstring injury. Dante Cunningham is out for the Pelicans since he is recovering from knee surgery. There are no other injuries so far to report, but this will be updated as developments happen.
Myles Turner, Joseph Young, and Rakeem Christmas are set to make their NBA preseason debuts. The team stated that they want to give Turner and Young a "good amount" of rotation minutes this season, but Christmas is not expected to see much time at all. In fact, Christmas is expected to make some trips to Fort Wayne and play with the Mad Ants to develop his overall skills. He is more of a long term project, so don't expect him to play much with the Pacers this season.
New Orleans did not make any significant off-season moves. They believe that they have a good young core in place that will get them to where they want to be when they develop. But the Pelicans did make a coaching staff change, as they hired Alvin Gentry to replace Monty Williams. Their hope is to make it back to the playoffs in a congested Western Conference.
Tip-off for this game is 7:00 P.M. EST on October 3rd (Saturday). This game will not be televised. Local radio broadcast for Indianapolis is 1070 The Fan, for New Orleans it is WRNO 99.5. Check back with VAVEL-USA for the recap of this game.