After Pacers team president Kevin Pritchard said that he views forward T.J. Warren as pivotal to the team’s success, and his absence as a key reason why Indiana had a disappointing season, J. Michael of the Indianapolis Star considers whether Warren’s presence is as crucial as Pritchard believes.
“The most important thing in this league right now is having rim defense and a big wing who can guard those guys,” Pritchard said of losing oft-injured Warren for all but four Pacers games due to a foot surgery. “We didn’t have a lot of that for a lot of the year.”
Michael acknowledges that Warren was the team’s best option as a defensive forward, but notes that there is room for improvement still, as Warren occasionally fouls too often while hunting for steals. The emergence of Oshae Brissett as a viable option for spotting Warren will lessen his burden when he returns to full health next season, Michael adds.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- The Bucks will be raising crowd capacity at their home arena, Fiserv Forum, from 9,100 fans to 16,500 fans for the rest of playoffs, per a team press release. The earliest date this could go into effect is June 1, if the team’s series against the Heat extends to five games.
- The fact that the Pistons were able to land two stellar mid-first-round selections during the 2020 NBA draft bodes well for the club’s future under first-year GM Troy Weaver, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Langlois notes that rookies Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey already appear to have carved out roles as reliable role players in their first season and could be capable of much more in the coming years. With an 80% chance at nabbing a top-five pick in the upcoming draft, the rebuilding Pistons will have an opportunity to add more firepower to their intriguing young roster.
- The Bucks internally talked about tanking a matchup with the Heat in the final weekend of the season to avoid facing Miami in the first round, but unanimously decided against it, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN. With Milwaukee on the cusp of taking a 3-0 advantage in its series against Miami tonight, it appears that was the right call.
Really???? Why would you avoid the team that knocked you out. Especially when you think you are best in East. That’s the team I would want. Plus this is not same Heat team. espn is so full of it.
Pacers have a chance to pickup a nice player in lottery. A healthy team plus this pick. And they can enter top 4 again. They had better record than East champion Heat. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Don’t get why they would want to move Turner. He and Sabonis make up one of best bigs combo imo.
ESPN is definitely a poor source, this year’s team in Miami isn’t nearly as good as it was in 2020. Letting Jae Crowder sign with Phoenix was a big mistake, and trading for Victor Oladipo was an even bigger mistake.
They didn’t really give up anything for Olidipo though so how is that a bigger mistake? If Miami is right they gain a potential all-star, if they’re wrong they gave Olynyk and Bradley. (who cares?) The swap rights don’t mean anything’s my as both the Nets and the Heat will be better than Houston for the foreseeable future
I have come to the realization that I have no clue as to the names of NBA arenas and which team those arenas are associated with. You could have given me 20 guesses as to which team played in Fiserv Forum and I doubt I would have gotten the correct answer. To be completely honest, if you didn’t tell me it was an NBA team, I would have probably guessed hockey teams.
It takes journalism to associate the official arena name with a team because tv reporters are not allowed to say for instance “Bucks venue” and skip the sponsor name. Locally at least, sponsors have actually paid announcers every time they say the sponsor name!
I know and understand why they do it. I guess I just miss the days of the name of a stadium or arena NOT being sold to the highest bidder. I doubt we will ever have an iconic name like Madison Square Garden again.
If the Bucks had tanked, it would have been to avoid the Nets in round 2.
At least then they would have had a good chance of getting back to the ECF.
Have you seen the Bucks play this postseason? They are absolutely making last year’s EC champs look like a high school team. I think the Nets should be the ones worried right now.
Besides, shouldn’t you want to play a tougher team early on before they get on a roll? The Nets have not played that much together this season, getting them early before they gel might be the best way to defeat them.
Zach Lowe is full of it. They were at least 4 or 5 games ahead in the standings so tanking a couple of games would not have changed anything. Tanking the last part of the season is what teams chasing high draft picks do not teams chasing championships.
Miami was in position to get to the 4/5 matchup at the end of the season — the Bucks’ win over them on the second-last day of the season prevented them from doing so. Tanking that game likely would’ve lined up the Bucks to play the Hawks instead of the Heat. I’ve updated the wording in the post to make this a little clearer.