You can compete for the championship even if you never show off your bad luck! The Pacers are the NBA s favorite model team

As the NBA is trying hard to curb the destruction, the Indiana Pacers rose from the ruins of mediocrity, just at the right time.

In the NBA world, many people have a consensus: the worst thing is that the team's combat effectiveness is stuck in a position that is neither up nor down. You can't be so bad that you can draw the top talent, nor can you compete for the championship, you can only hover at the playoffs year after year. If the league wants to curb its bad performance, it needs to prove that the above consensus is not an iron rule. The Pacers who entered the finals have become a model case.

Pacers had dark moments, and Carlisle just came to re-sponsor the team that year, and they won only 25 games. But it was a season plagued by injuries, and the Pacers' approach was not completely a mess. They sent LeVer to the Cavaliers for a draft pick and exchanged Sabonis Jr. for Halliburton in another trade to reshape the future.

Since joining the NBA, the Pacers have never regarded playing badly and drawing the No. 1 pick as a target. Larry Bird did not coach, Vogel did not coach, and of course Carlisle did not.

The Pacers have been in a sense like a typical "no championship team" because they cannot get the top talent. In those 10 years from 2011 to 2020, the Pacers made nine playoffs, but only once reached the division finals. They once traveled for five consecutive years. At present, the Pacers have returned to the finals stage after 25 years. Only Mathering and Jares Walker were selected in the top ten picks in their team, and the rest of the players were selected at lower positions, or from the trading and free agent markets.

Pacers suppressed the urge to give up Miles Turner early, bet on Halliburton, and then exchanged for Siakam at the right time, which eventually led to the current team. They have not paid luxury tax since 2006, and since 1988, they have not selected players in the top five picks.

is such a team. They reached the NBA Cup finals and the Eastern Conference finals last season, and this year they came to the finals stage. If the Pacers win the championship, they will beat two 60-win teams, and the last time they did this was the 1995 Rockets.

This is exactly the way the league wants to build a team. When superstar teams are no longer successful, the best team building model may be to compete hard, draft smartly, develop and develop players. This is how the Denver Nuggets won the championship two years ago, and it is what the Pacers do now.

(text/Thai Fu)