The “Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” era of the Indiana Pacers was defined by their stellar defense and grinding style of play, certainly not the pace of their offense. But his offseason Larry Bird declared the team would embrace the modern NBA’s pace and space philosophies, and no longer be the plodding, middle to back of the pack offense they had been.
So how does that translate onto the floor? For starters, the Pacers have increased their offensive rating to 102.1, without sacrificing defense as their rating stands at 98.9 for a nice +3.1 net rating. That is better than last season (100.