Indiana Pacers, or the Poor Man’s Guide to Building a Winning Team

The Pacers came within just one game of making the NBA Finals. Although the star-studded Heat defeated them, here is a team that threatened the defending champs with a roster built of a collection of underrated, unappreciated, or forgotten stars who came together to make their way back in to relevance. Indiana constructed this team in the old-fashioned way: drafting smartly, even in low picks, and spending money wisely on their few marquee free agents.

As we look ahead, the future is incredibly bright for this young squad.

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5-Man Armies: The best 5-player lineups in the NBA this season

Newsflash: Basketball is a Team Game. Yes, your superstars can be the difference between a win and a loss in a close fourth quarter finish, but the majority of the work is done by how the unit on the floor performs as a whole on both sides of the floor. In basketball, five players on the court have to work as one single entity: passing, scoring, defending, rebounding, and even fighting together as a group.

Taking the point-differential (+/-) as a reference point, let’s countdown the top five lineups in the league that have been the most effective when they are set together on the court this season.

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Centers of Attention

For the past few years, the NBA has been extremely thin in the middle, and with the recent exception of Andrew Bynum, there have been no talented Centers left to challenge the supremacy of Dwight Howard. The future seems to be brighter for the big guy though, and here are a few big young'uns who will hope to become the Centers of Attention in coming years.

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All for one / All 4 Win

Basketball, as a game, offers uniquely opposing perceptions from different-thinking players and lovers of the game. On one hand, it is a game where five individuals, all taking on the court at the same time, mesh and mold perfectly together to make a strong unit to defeat their opponents. It doesn’t matter who the individual is or how much he scores as long as his team outscores the opposing team at the end of regulation.

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