Frank Vogel has a mounting problem, one that threatens to keep him up nights and could, theoretically, infiltrate his locker room and do damage to his won-loss record. And he knows just who to blame for it.
"It's Larry Bird's fault, really," Vogel was saying before the Pacers overwhelmed Milwaukee by 37 points on Saturday to improve to 8-5. "He gave me too many good players."
Too many good players. Look up "good problem to have" in the dictionary and you might see a photo of the Pacers' bench. It's getting deeper and deeper, no matter how many players are removed from the roster for injury, illness or personal matters.