Pick your musical accompaniment for this dive into the mediocrity of the Indiana Pacers 2016-17 season. Your options are current pop music, early-2000s alternative rock, or mid-90s alternative rock.
According to FiveThirtyEight.com, that Pacers team was exceptionally unexceptional. You can follow that link to see their method for determining that, but the idea is that they were as close to league average as statistically possible.
A combination of Larry Bird’s questionable choices, players not being on the same page, and the then landscape of the NBA made Paul George’s last season with the Pacers was a forgettable one with a 42-40 record followed by a four-game sweep in the playoffs.