Rich Paul just handed Pacers fans a little extra fuel.
LeBron James’ agent was talking Indiana up in a recent interview with Max Kellerman, and the praise centered on the Pacers’ addition of Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles Clippers. James himself is almost certainly not headed to Indianapolis, but Paul’s comments still gave the Pacers a spotlight they don’t usually get in this kind of conversation.
Kellerman opened the exchange by floating Indiana as a team people might be overlooking in the East.
“You know who no one's thinking about in the East, but might come out of the East?”
Paul answered, “Who?”
Kellerman then said, “Indiana.”
Paul jumped in quickly: “Oh, Indiana's back home. With Zubac.”
From there, the conversation turned into a back-and-forth about how dangerous Indiana looked before and how much the roster has changed since then. Kellerman pointed to the Pacers’ run against the Knicks and their Game 7 battle with OKC, while Paul agreed that the team had a real shot in a year when everything seemed lined up.
“Yeah in Game seven, with Hali, yes,” Paul said.
Kellerman followed with the thought that Indiana may have been one break away from a title run.
“Game seven, on the road, tied at half time, then you lose your best player to injury, and then you lose the game. Who's to say they wouldn't have won that game?
They might have won the game. They might have won the title.”
Paul responded, “If there was a year to win it, it was this year. And the Knicks did it. But like you said, everyone’s getting better.”
Kellerman then called Indiana a sleeper, and Paul immediately tied that idea back to the Zubac addition.
“The Pacers are a sleeper team? They added Zubac.”
Kellerman added that Indiana is easy to miss because so much of the league chatter is going elsewhere right now.
“Yeah, only because no one's thinking about them. What you hear now, Philly just got Jaylen Brown.
Obviously, the Knicks are the champs. Boston made moves.
Miami gets Giannis. All these things are happening.
No one's thinking about Indiana. Indiana's going to be good.”
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