New practice facility, new uniforms, new court and lighting in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 10 new players on a 16-man roster...if the Pacers were any newer heading into their 51st NBA season, they would be wrapped in cellophane.
What lies ahead is a mystery. In fact, this might be the most mysterious Pacers team I've encountered in many seasons, and that includes most of them. It's not only new, it's young, and it's always difficult to predict how much a young player improves from one season to the next. Sometimes it's by a leap and a bound, sometimes it's merely incremental and sometimes it doesn't happen at all.