Blue is Me

Tag: pacers

  • Which teams were the hardest for Michael Jordan to beat?

    I’d go with a few teams here. In the Eastern conference playoffs, my pick is the 1992 Knicks and 1998 Pacers. Both of these teams were the only teams to take Jordan’s championship Bulls to 7 games.

    1992 New York Knicks

    This was a tough team for Jordan’s Bulls to beat. The 1992 series vs Knicks went a full 7 games. The Knicks roster consisted of all time center Patrick Ewing, not one, not two but three big enforcer type dudes in Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason, one of the most consistent passers ever in Mark Jackson and two of the best guard defenders of their era in John Starks and Gerald Wilkins. This was a tough series for the Bulls because the Bulls didn’t have as much size as the Knicks, Horace Grant was a great defender and ok scorer, but Oakley had more toughness. Bill Cartwright obviously is a mismatch against Ewing. Gerald Wilkins guarded Jordan better than anyone I’ve seen. McDaniel gave Pippen quite a few headaches. and Pat Riley ofc was an all time great coach to rival Phil Jackson.

    1998 Pacers

    The 1998 Pacers were also quite formidable. Reggie Miller, like Jordan, raised his game in the playoffs. Mark Jackson was also on this team as well. Rik Smits was one of the best non HoF centers in the 1990s. And the Davis brothers were quite solid as well. There was also a developing Jalen Rose and HoFer Chris Mullin coming off the bench. This team was tough for the Bulls because the 1998 Bulls were probably the weakest championship Bulls team. Jordan was 34 and had a dislocated shooting finger which threw him off that season. Pippen was injury prone that season and wasn’t even an all-star. Rodman’s mentality was very on and off and was not the same Rodman as in 96 anymore. They also lost a lot of big men like Bison Dele and Jason Caffrey. That’s why this Pacers team really took Jordan’s Bulls to the brink.

  • Comparing the 2021 Finals to the 2000 Finals

    I noticed that this NBA Finals eerily brought back memories of the 2000 Finals in terms of the matchup. Shaq even handed the torch to Giannis in a post congratulating him on bringing back ‘old school bully ball’.

    That made me curious to do the comparisons between these two Finals:

    2000 LA Lakers – #1 seed – 67 wins

    2000 Pacers – #1 seed – 56 wins

    2021 Bucks – #3 seed – 46 wins

    2021 Suns – #2 seed – 51 wins

    Seeding wise, the 2000 Finals was more of an even matchup between the top two teams of their respective conferences, but the 2021 Finals the Bucks could be considered the underdogs here.

    However, its the play style of these two teams that intrigue me.

    The 2000 Pacers were a better perimeter scoring team than the 2000 Lakers while the Lakers were more of an interior scoring team. This is exemplified by the main stars on both teams – Reggie Miller for the Pacers and Shaq on the Lakers.

    2000 Pacers – 58% TS%, 46% FG%, 42% 3P%, 85% FT%

    2000 Lakers – 53% TS%, 48% FG%, 38% 3P%, 57% FT%

    The Pacers shot better than the Lakers and yet still lost in 6 games.

    We have a very similar matchup in 2021. The Suns were a better perimeter scoring team (led by Devin Booker and Chris Paul) and the Bucks were an interior scoring team led by Giannis.

    2021 Suns – 59% TS%, 49% FG%, 38% 3P%, 86% FT%

    2021 Bucks – 56% TS%, 47% FG%, 35% 3P%, 73% FT%

    Here the Suns just shoot better than the Bucks across the board and yet still lost in 6 games.

    This is especially curious given all the narratives of the modern NBA where ‘Steph Curry changed the game!’ echoes – the last 3 NBA Champions featured superstars that were midrange and interior scorers. I think teams are quickly finding out that the Warriors are pretty much a unicorn because they have two unicorns on their team (Klay + Steph) that they can’t replicate and thus teams are trending once again to more traditional styles of play which is a combination of interior + perimeter play.

    Comparing the top two stars from both teams:

    Shaq (2000 Finals): 38 PPG, 16.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1 SPG, 2.7 BPG, 61% FG%, 39% FT%

    Kobe (2000 Finals): 15.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 37% FG%, 91% FT%

    Reggie Miller (2000 Finals): 24.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 41% FG%, 98% FT%

    Jalen Rose (2000 Finals): 23 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 47% FG%, 83% FT%

    I think its safe to say we all know how dominant Shaq was at his peak, and the 2000 Finals was won because nobody could deal with Shaq. Free throws be damned, Shaq just dominated in the paint and those numbers back that up. It’s obvious he was the clear factor in this series here as Kobe averaged less than half the PPG he did on almost half the FG% as well. Jalen Rose probably doesn’t get enough credit for playing almost at the same level Miller does in this series.

    Giannis (2021 Finals): 35.2 PPG, 13.2 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.2 SPG, 1.8 BPG, 62% FG%, 66% FT%

    Kris Middleton (2021 Finals): 24 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 5.3 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0 BPG, 45% FG%, 89% FT%

    Devin Booker (2021 Finals): 28.2 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 4.0 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 45% FG%, 87% FT%

    Chris Paul (2021 Finals): 21.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 8.2 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 55% FG%, 75% FT%

    Here it’s a similar story. Is Giannis the new Shaq? Well I would say he isn’t quite as dominant if you’re talking about pure presence in the paint, but Giannis gets very close while also being a more versatile defender and can distribute the ball a lot better. Efficiency wise he’s certainly Shaq-like – and he’s slightly better in free throw shooting. Middleton makes a very solid Robin here – better than 2000 Kobe but below 2001/2002 Kobe and around the same as 2012 Wade here. And despite all the CP3 hate going around, CP3 clearly was shooting quite well and distributing as well as he always does, I just wish he took more shots in this series when Booker was clearly feeling off.

    I just wanted to do this comparison because I thought it was very interesting that the 2021 Bucks basically was a deja vu of the 2000 Lakers, with a superstar that played traditional ‘bully ball’ on the interior, beating their opponent in 6 games, and bucking all trends in the modern NBA, doing it without shooting all that well.

  • In rankings of the greatest players for each franchise, why is Dr J considered the Net’s best player but not Mel Daniels for the Pacers?

    Whenever people make these lists of ‘greatest players for each franchise’, Dr J is inevitably considered (either him or Jason Kidd) as the best Nets player.

    (there are many articles that have Dr J for the Nets but here’s some examples):

    https://fadeawayworld.net/2020/01/11/ranking-the-greatest-player-of-all-time-from-every-nba-franchise/

    https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1396605-the-single-greatest-player-for-each-nba-franchise

    In other rankings, Jason Kidd comes out as the best Nets player, and I don’t have a problem with those rankings because at least they are being consistent.

    However with the articles that have Dr J ranked as the best Nets player, they are including ABA achievements to make that decision since Dr J only played for the Nets in the ABA, not the NBA.

    And if they are, then Dr J is almost certainly the Net’s best player with a Nets resume of 3x MVP, 2x Champion, 2x Finals (playoffs) MVP, 4x All ABA, 4x All-star, 3x scoring champion.

    Yet inevitably for the Pacers, Reggie Miller is always considered their best player. I understand that Reggie Miller is a 5x all star, 3x all-nba, an all time great shooter and all time clutch player and played for the franchise 18 seasons.

    But accolades seem to matter more than longevity for the franchise, else Dr J or Jason Kidd would not be considered the best Nets player – it would be Buck Williams.

    Reggie Miller unfortunately never won a championship for the Pacers, and only went to 1 Finals in his career.

    Since Dr J’s Nets career comes from the ABA, we are allowed to consider the Pacer’s ABA players as well. There are three Pacers players in ABA history who could be considered more worthy than Reggie Miller – Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, and George McGinnis.

    -Mel Daniels is a 7x All Star, 5x All-ABA, 2x MVP, 3x Rebounding leader and 3x Champion for the Pacers

    -Roger Brown is 4x All Star, 3x All-ABA, 1x Finals (playoffs) MVP and 3x Champion for the Pacers

    -George McGinnis is a 3x All Star, 3x All-ABA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals (playoffs) MVP and 2x Champion for the Pacers

    All of these guys have better Pacers resumes than Reggie Miller – they won championships for the franchise and MVP or Finals MVP (or both) for the franchise. Personally I feel Mel Daniels has the strongest case out of these three guys.

    If we’re going to count ABA awards and stats then Mel Daniels should definitely be considered the greatest Pacers player ever, over Reggie Miller.

    Why there is this inconsistency with ranking all time greats? even NBA 2K left out Roger Brown and Mel Daniels (and other ABA Pacer greats like Freddie Lewis and Bob Netolicky) off of their all time team, which is a travesty.