All right, here we go. Let us now speak of the Indiana Pacers and third time guests now.

Caitlin Cooper is joining us. How are you doing, Caitlin?

I'm doing well. Third time. That speaks well of me because anytime you get the return invite,

then I'm confirmed that I wasn't a total disaster on the prior two episodes. So glad to

still be here and doing a third episode.

Yeah, I definitely appreciate you coming on. I'm always like very touched that people are like happy to

come on the show because I'm like, you're, you're doing me the favor here. Like I'm, I'm depending on

you guys. Uh, so yeah, uh, let's let's get rolling here. And, you know, I kind of struggled as I was thinking about this show of just how much I wanted to talk about what took place a year ago.

You know, it's not strictly relevant to this podcast other than the fact that two players who are key pieces of that team are not part of the team this year.

But I guess I think people are just interested.

So I'm going to ask you, as you look back on it now, you know, four months hence or so,

how are you feeling about that magical playoff run they had, which of course ended in such

tragic fashion? I mean, it's possible that the past might inform on the future to an extent, because when you look at when their season turned around, it was during the break in the in-season tournament when they had four practice days in a row. It coincided with when Andrew was off the minutes restriction. He was defending it at all NBA level, and they also got Ben Shepard back. Like, their point of attack defenders were coming back. But part of the biggest reason why their defense took, made the upgrade that it did is because their offense got better. And when you really look at, you know, what is the reasons why their offense got better? It was mostly because Tyrese started looking like himself again. So, and because they stopped turning the ball over as much. The fact that they were able

to limit turnovers to the degree that they did when they're passing the ball as much as they do,

when they're playing as quick in transition as they do as well in the half court and getting

between actions, I think that that could be telling as to how they play this year because they're

going to have to find other ways to compensate for the fact that I'm pretty confident they're going to turn the ball over

more this season without Tyrese as the immaculate exception and they're not going to have his gravity on the floor anymore so it's going to change what they do but after that point in December you know they were a top 10 defense they were a top 10 offense and there was little inflection points that started making me believe, like, this team could, like, I had picked them.

I'm like, if there is, like, I had picked them.

I'm like, if there is a team that upsets Boston or Cleveland in the Eastern Conference, I'm pretty confident it's going to be the Indiana Pacers because some of the markers that I was noticing over the back half. So really impressive season, incredibly fun team to watch. and I think it's going to be just as interesting this year

to try to figure out how they kind of still,

I think they're still going to want to play the same play style, but the little tweaks that they're going to have to make in order to make that possible is going to be an interesting puzzle for them to solve, I think. Yeah, and especially with the McConnell now out with this hamstring injury, We can talk a little bit more about that.

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