The age-old question of roster continuity vs acquiring new talent seemed to have a rigid answer this offseason, as nearly every top team shifted stars in wake of the decline of the Hampton Warriors. The Indiana Pacers, who said goodbye to seven players and hello to six (and counting), were no exception.
After a summer in which President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard opted mainly for roster continuity and increased team chemistry, the Pacers saw the consequences of staying put. While the team was on pace for a mid-50 win season before Victor Oladipo‘s injury, Oladipo wasn’t up to his 2017-18 standards, there wasn’t substantial internal improvement from anyone but Domantas Sabonis and Bojan Bogdanovic and the team’s ceiling with the first Oladipo-era roster seemed to have been all but found.