Shortly after jettisoning Roy Hibbert, the Indiana Pacers began talking about wanting to play faster and smaller. Two seasons have since past and they still haven’t done it consistently, let alone well. Instead, they got into a battle of wills with Paul George, temporarily broke C.J. Miles expecting him to play a role for which he wasn’t prepared, and spent a sizable portion of last season counting on the yet to be demonstrated concept of tempo to compensate for shaky defense and erratic floor spacing.
However, when Miles was inserted into the starting lineup at shooting guard right before Thaddeus Young injured his wrist, they were close.