WASHINGTON, DC. — The Indiana Pacers played their third game without Victor Oladipo and unfortunately they looked like it..again. The Washington Wizards literally sprinted through them like a knife through hot butter 107-89.
When Vic went out with the ruptured quad tendon and we found out that he’d be out for the season. The first thing I asked on TheJayGravesReport Podcast was where are they going to get the leadership from now? Sure, they were losing their leading scorer at 18.8 per game but more importantly without Oladipo they don’t have a leader.
They’ve got a team full of soldiers now without a general. As good as Myles Turner is he’s not a leader. Remember when Paul George was traded to OKC and the intent was to build the team around Myles? Nobody knew what Oladipo would bring to the table in terms of leadership at this level because he’d been in the league for several years and hadn’t exploded yet.
I can remember Nate McMillan at Media Day last year telling us that they were building around Turner. I said to myself at the time, ‘Myles? He’s not ready to be the franchise yet?’ Luckily Oladipo didn’t waste anytime taking over as the leader.
However, now they’re in the same situation as before looking for someone to lead the troops into battle. Darren Collison isn’t him. Both Bojan Bogdanovic and Thaddeus Young give them a solid 12 and 13 point per game respectively but they aren’t generals. They’re great role players.
How can they be led if they don’t have a leader? Nate can’t go out there and play for them. Not only are they struggling in the leadership department but now they aren’t playing defense which has been their hallmark. After the loss to Washington on Wednesday night Nate McMillan had this to say, “It’s just low energy right now. We’ve kind of lost our way here, and we’ve got to find it. Vic is not coming back. We’ve got to move past that and not look at what we don’t have and focus on what we do have. But we’ve got to get more energy in the game. Defensively, we’re not stopping anybody.”
Now they’ve got double the problem. No leader and struggling to play defense. That’s a serious problem. Indiana can’t afford to keep losing games because of a lack of leadership on the floor and locker room. Somebody’s gotta step up and take on the responsibility before the water fills up in the boat. They’ve worked too hard to let it fall apart now. Stop me when I start lyin’!