Going into the All-Star Break, it looks like the Indiana Pacers will be sitting at 21-32 or 20-33, depending if they can beat Portland. (Boston and Detroit are probably safe bets for the loss column given their play of late.)

Some people will look at that and think that’s just horrible and that they need to win the rest of the season to make the playoffs. But I say do everything in your power, short of “throwing” games, to lose the rest of the way out and have a decent shot at high lottery pick. If you make the playoffs you’re only ensuring yourself of an early exit and no decent draft picks.

Miami is clearly doing this, so why not give them and Minnesota a bit of competition? The attendance this year is the worst in the league (rightfully so, and the fans are making a statement by staying away). If they can manage to get a lottery pick in the top three they can probably grab Eric Gordon which would do wonders for the attendance at the very least (they blew it last year in getting one of the three local players in the draft).

But then again, historically the Pacers aren’t too bright when it comes to draft picks and they’d probably pick someone from overseas that has no intention of playing in the NBA anytime soon. So go ahead. Make the run for the last playoff spot.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 12:35 am and is filed under Indianapolis, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.