Let me start by saying that it truly pains me to even have to write this article due to the circumstances. Who would have thought that the play in the picture to the left would end as horrifically as it did. It’s a play we see every game, a simple contested fast break layup and then snap. When Paul George landed in the play to the left, his foot wedged into the basket’s stanchion resulting in one of those “oh God no, please no.. don’t look at the replay” type of injuries while playing in a Team USA inter-squad scrimmage game. Paul George will certainly miss all of the 2014-15 season, and if he started day one of the 2015-16 season, I would be very surprised.

While it’s uncomfortable to even do, I have to write up this piece on the fantasy repercussions post-injury to the Indiana Pacers. I was down on the Pacers going into next season anyway and losing George leads me to doubt that they will make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers will be a totally different team this season; even for the returning players it will feel like they were traded. No Indiana lineup without either of George or Lance Stephenson logged over 28 minutes last season, per Zach Lowe.

Indiana has no choice but to run the offense through their big men, David West and Roy Hibbert. Hopefully for them, Hibbert is over the funk he was in mentally to end last season, and he will come out looking to beast this season. Hibbert had such a disappointing season that his two blocks per game weren’t even worth it. We all expected much better than just six rebounds and 11 points a game at a putrid 44% from the field out of the seven year pro. Hibbs FG% has dropped each of the last two seasons and 44% was a career low. Look for Indy to get the ball inside to him a lot more this season with scarce options due to George being out with the severe injury and Lance Stephenson gone via free agency. You have to believe Hibbert is capable of putting up around 15 points, 8 boards, 2.5 blocks and there’s certainly upside to that PPG projection, although he’s never averaged over 12.8ppg in a season so I will temper that.

David West has always gotten his, but with George not around to be the go-to guy, West is the team’s best option on offense and should up his points per game from 14 to at least right around 20. West is no stranger to putting up points. He averaged 17.1 in 2012-13 and over 18ppg five times in his career (all with the then New Orleans Hornets.) You would think more FGAs for a power forward would lead to a much worse FG% but the X-Man is a 49% shooter for his career even when he was getting more shots. He also always ends up with right around one block and steal per game as a cherry on top. West could become a steal in drafts if people sleep on his situation.

As of now you would have to think the Pacers run out newly signed Rodney Stuckey and C.J. Miles as their starting SG and SF. The degree of downgrade from Paul George and Lance Stephenson to these two is astronomical. Also, note that the Pacers can receive an injured player exemption giving them over $5MM to possibly bring in another wing like a Shawn Marion for example, which would hurt Stuckey and especially Miles’ outputs. As a starter in 34 games last season (only 20 minutes per game in those starts) for the Cavaliers, Miles posted 9.6 points, one steal and 1.6 treys per game. If Miles can log 25 minutes a game or more this season he could likely end up around 13ppg, 1.5spg and easily over two treys a game.

Stuckey will gladly take on any of the scoring burden left on the Pacers. Much like Derek Jeter, scoring is what Stuckey does, and oddly enough for a shooting guard he tends to do it without hitting many trifectas at all. In fact, you’re better off hoping Stuckey simply accepts that he’s not a three-point shooter rather than him try and extend his range to where it just shouldn’t be. Last season in 73 games Stuckey was a measly 24 of 88 from deep, 27.3%. Stuckey really isn’t that great of a shooter anywhere on the court other than at the rim, as seen here:

In five starts last season for the Pistons, Stuckey stunted on his opponents averaging 20.4 points, 2.8 boards, 2.6 dimes, one steal and most of all did what he likes to do best, took it to the rack and got to the free throw line. In those starts Stuckey got to the charity stripe more than seven times a game and hit 83% of those freebies. Between 2009 and 2012 with the Pistons, Stuckey got to the line an average of 5.5 times a game. That is where he really can tack on to his scoring totals. With Indiana’s lack of true scorers coming into this season, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Stuckey average at least 16ppg. He’s not going to help you much elsewhere besides points and FT%, but he’s now worthy of a late round pick if you need to tack on some cheap scoring.

George Hill, the Pacers starting point guard, will need to step his game up from the letdown he was last season. Hill had an ADP of 70 on ESPN, and his stats didn’t come close to earning that high of a pick. I don’t like Hill much overall but under the circumstances I feel he can at least get back near his 2012-13 numbers of 14.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, one steal and 1.7 treys. I would say that’d be about his ceiling, too. He’s just not a dependable source of stats on offense even if the team is lacking talent and depth.

One guy who could be a slight sleeper — deep leagues — in this mess is the Pacers 2013 1st round pick, Solomon Hill who often got praise from coach Frank Vogel and Larry Bird. Solomon only played in 28 games at barely over eight minutes a game so we don’t know what he’s really capable of, but he can be a decent off the bench 3-point shooter to stretch the floor maybe with Solomon and Miles on the court at the same time. That would force their opponents to stay loyal to the outside, opening up more space for West and Hibbert down low. Chris Copeland is someone who will battle Solomon for backup SF mins and Copeland should also get a few backup PF mins as well. Copeland missed a good chunk of last season due to injury but when he got healthy and was given opportunity he never really made much of it. Coach Vogel seemed to not put much faith in Cope even for backup minutes and unless he has a helluva camp, he’s likely to stay in an irrelevant spot for fantasy purposes.

The bottom line is the Pacers went from one of the top contenders in the East to being a fringe playoff team with the losses of George and Stephenson. As we’ve seen with other poor teams though, just because a team is poor doesn’t mean there’s no fantasy value on the team, somebody has to score. They’re a team to keep an eye on as we approach the season and pay close attention to position battles and how guys like Stuckey and Miles look in this offense. Really outside of David West, I wouldn’t be hopeful of rostering any of the Pacers players unless they really fell in the draft or possibly Hibbert if I’m really in need of blocks and his ADP doesn’t rise too far.

If you have any questions or comments for Zack, you can follow him on twitter @BigZack44