This.
. .this will get ugly.
Paul George is likely done for the year with a broken leg, and Stephenson is grazing at purpler pastures. Down their two best perimeter players on defense and offense, the Indiana Pacers are going to fight in a big way.
Frank Vogel nevertheless has Roy Hibbert at the middle, and George Hill will continue to be among the NBA’s better defensive point guards. So getting stops still ought to be a power for Indy, but scoring is going to be rough.
Really rough.
Bear in mind, this team ranked 22nd in offensive performance last year. Following the All-Star fracture, only the Sixers’ scoring attack was less potent, per NBA.com. Taking away two of Indiana’s three leading scorers is going to make it nearly impossible to have buckets at anything better than a bottom-five rate.
Maybe Chris Copeland will stretch the ground with his shooting. Perhaps Hibbert will become a larger threat on the cube. David West might have one more big year .
But even though all three of these things come to pass, it is difficult to say they’ll compensate for losing George and Stephenson.
And in what might be the most frightening harbinger of an offensive catastrophe to come, Donald Sloan leads Indy in preseason points per game and will be the starter at point guard for up to three months while Hill’s left knee mends.
Oh dear.