I'm being a fanboy, and I'm telling you, I freakin' love these Pacers

Haliburton, Nembhard, Toppin, McConnell. The list goes on. This is a special group doing special things.

I’m going to be a fanboy today. No effort at maintaining journalistic dispassion or objectivity. None of that today.

Because:

I freaking love these Indiana Pacers.

But Bob, you won’t be seen a serious Big J journalist any longer.

Fine. Who’s going to fire me? Surely, not the owner/operator of bobkravitz.com, which would be me.

I love this team and what they did Thursday night by dispatching the ill-tempered and yes, short-handed Milwaukee Bucks at Gainbridge, and I love what they’re about to do, which is give the New York Knicks everything they could have wanted, and more.

(Pacers in seven. Clip and save.)

I love what they did organizationally some 2 ½ years ago, finally – finally – agreeing to a complete rebuild. They cleaned house, made smart trades and rebuilt rapidly, much the same way Donnie Walsh did twice during his brilliant career in Indianapolis. After speaking to Herb Simon and hearing how he was “happy with my little team,” I thought, “This man is happy with mediocrity.” From that point on, I screamed from the rooftops that it was time to quit being fine with 42 wins and a first-round series blowout. Strip it down, start over and take your chances. I thought the rebuild would last longer than three years – from 25 wins to 35 to 47 and a first-round playoff series victory seemed a bit audacious – but with Simon’s blessing and the smart work by Kevin Pritchard and his front office, the Pacers put together a team that plays precisely the kind of basketball this city and state adore. The Haliburton trade. The acquisitions of Aaron Nesmioth and Obi Toppin. The drafting of Andrew Nembhard, who has a marvelous series and did his level best to slow down Dame Lillard. It was, in fact, an almost totally painless rebuild.

I love what Rick Carlisle has done with this team. When he returned to Indiana, I wondered how he might handle coaching a team on the decline and then a young team with virtually no post-season experience. Well, I’ve been around Rick for the better part of 24 years, and my sense is he’s having as much fun now as he ever has during his long, Hall of Fame-worthy career. When Carlisle was here the first time, the Pacers played slow, methodical, paint-by-numbers offense, Carlisle micromanaging from the sideline. All these years later, Carlisle rarely if ever calls a play, leaving the offense in the steady hands of Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell and, to a lesser extent,  Nemhard, who mostly plays off the ball. Thinking back to those old Pacers team, who routinely scored 70 and 80 points, consider now that Carlisle’s Pacers are the highest-scoring, highest-pace team in the NBA.

That’s growth. That’s evolution. Carlisle on the cutting edge of a changing game.

“It’s hard to go through a playoff series against an experienced team like this as you first time in the playoffs and we had a lot of guys who were first timers in this,” Carlisle said. “But they learned the things that you need to learn along the way.”