Indiana Pacers Blogs  |  Caught In The Web  |  

Please bear with me as I proffer an eight-letter word that is regularly grouped with those half its size.

Patience.

This is not the time to judge the Pacers, to look at six losses in seven games and make decisions about personnel, coaching or management. That's because you haven't seen the Pacers yet – at least not the team Larry Bird and Jim O'Brien had in mind.

Fifteen games into the season, they've already used five lineups – a sixth might be on the way tonight in Sacramento if Dahntay Jones replaces Brandon Rush – and lost 48 player games to injuries.

Only now are they healthy. Only now are their core players on the court together for the first time. Only now can O'Brien begin to assemble his preferred lineups and rotations while re-establishing the identity of the team.

Only now can the 2009-10 Pacers begin to take shape.

"I'm very anxious, as is Larry," said O'Brien. "We have a group of guys that we think playing at the highest level can be a very solid basketball team. We would like to see that happen. We would like to see exactly what we have and that's going to take a little bit of time and a little bit of luck to stay away from injuries.

"It took Murph (Troy Murphy) a couple of games to get back into the flow of things. It's taken Jeff (Foster) a little bit of time. It's going to take Michael (Dunleavy) some time. And then they have to earn their minutes."

With those three players out (Dunleavy missed all of camp and the first 13 games, Foster missed most of preseason and eight games, and Murphy missed six games), O'Brien had to improvise a different offensive approach.

A team built on a fluid, instinctive passing-game system had to rely on set plays.

"When we're going with a small lineup, usually our big guys come into the elbow area and we move off of them," O'Brien said. "We're having difficulty getting Roy (Hibbert) down into that area a lot and none of our smaller guys are used to it. With Jeff coming back there will be more movement, with Michael coming back there will be more movement.

"I think having those guys out for the period of time that they were out really caused us to lose a little bit of that movement because Jeff as a big guy is the best and Mike as a perimeter guy is the best. So as they get back I think you'll see a lot more movement."

The challenge lies in rebuilding the conditioning and rhythm of those key players while dealing with the adjustments to the lineups and rotations that undoubtedly will affect team chemistry – and doing it all on the fly.

"You prepare the whole summer with healthy players in mind," said O'Brien. "You don't assume that Murph is going to be out an extended period of time or Mike's going to be out an extended period of time, or Jeff. …

"I have tremendous confidence that Murph's a guy we need on the basketball court. I'm tremendously confident in Michael and what he can do for us. But this is not preseason. You kind of get guys involved over a period of time and get them involved hopefully as you're winning basketball games."

So take a deep breath, count to 10 and let your blood pressure drop. The Pacers are like a holiday package from home. You know it's on the way and you can't wait to see it but awaiting its arrival can be tortuous.

Once the big day arrives, though, all involved believe your patience will be rewarded.