It aint easy being brilliant...

2011-12 Record: 42-24

Playoffs: Lost to Miami in Eastern Conference semifinals

Key losses: N/A

Key additions: DJ Augustin

The Indiana Pacers are the absolute best NBA basketball team that NOBODY outside the state of Indiana talks about.

They play defense, they rebound, they can score, they hustle, they have garbage players, and not a single one of them is out there to look pretty.

This Indiana Pacers team actually reminds me quite a bit of the 90’s Pacers teams that slugged it out with the New York Knicks for Eastern Conference supremacy during the Bulls “no Jordan” years.

Danny Granger is as underrated a perimeter scorer as we have in the league, Roy Hibbert is among the games premier up and coming young big men, Tyler Hansborough knows only ONE speed, and I actually really like the addition of the speedy DJ Augustin to an already feisty group.

This Indiana Pacers team is NEVER going to look pretty. They are most likely never going to blow anybody out.

But they ARE going to win a shit ton of basketball games, and Pacers fans have all the reason in the world to be thrilled about their teams’ chances.

Prediction: 54-28. 3rd in Eastern Conference.