The Pacers’ incredible season should have earned everyone’s respect

After the Indiana Pacers swiped Game 1 from beneath the Cleveland Cavaliers, and after Victor Oladipo forced Game 7 with a triple-double in Game 6, and after the Pacers clawed and scrapped in an eventual elimination game loss to the Cavs on Sunday, LeBron James embraced Oladipo and spoke some words into his ear. The look the Pacers star gave James after hearing those words validated what many have realized after one incredible season few saw coming.

Indiana was tabbed one of the biggest losers of the summer when they traded Paul George for Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Pennies on the dollar was the term floating around. Many predicted this team would not even get to 30 wins. Instead, the pushed James and the Cavs to the absolute brink in the first round. One season without Paul George, and the Pacers are all profit.

Oladipo is the shoo-in Most Improved Player this year, averaging 23 points in the regular season then 25 in the playoffs, including a triple-double and a 30-point, 12-rebound, three-steal effort in Game 7. He became a first-time all-star in his first season as THE man in Indiana, leading the Pacers as high as the No. 3 seed in the East. The wildest part: Their success wasn’t only on his shoulders.

The Pacers are well-coached. For a team with the seventh-slowest pace in the league, Indiana played fast. Its offense is efficient. Its defense is reactive. The Pacers hustle. They grind, and they’re not scared of anyone. That was apparent when they took Game 1 in Cleveland.

Lance Stephenson isn’t all jokes. He’s equal part heart and hustle, and his play checking James in the first round showed it. Sabonis is the son of Hall of Fame big man Arvydas Sabonis, and in his first season with the Pacers, 11.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, and two assists per game on 51 percent shooting and 35 percent from three wasn’t a bad way to rep his father’s legacy. He proved a legitimate inside-out threat for the Pacers this year, and his future looks as bright as any player his age at his position.

Bojan Bogdanovic is an absolute assassin. He only had three points on 1-of-9 shooting in Game 7, but ask the Cavs about his 30-point performance in Indy’s Game 3 win. Thaddeus Young is a tough all-around competitor. His stature and physicality posed some issues when he defended James one-on-one. And head coach Nate McMillan got the most out of a Pacers’ team most had written off before the season began, then squeezed even more out of them in a wild first-round series against a team that has been to the NBA Finals three years in a row.

The Pacers had the fourth-lowest payroll in the NBA this season, and assuming Young ($13.7 million) and Cory Joseph ($7 million) exercise their player options and opt into the final year of their respective contracts, Indiana’s cap hit could be below $85 million, according to salary data from Hoopshype.

The NBA’s salary cap has increased every season, and Indiana could use a boost at the center position. The Pacers project to have a bit of change to play with in free agency this offseason, and Brook Lopez, DeAndre Jordan, DeMarcus Cousins, Aaron Gordon, Enes Kanter, and Greg Monroe could each be available on the market.

But even if Indy doesn’t make any splashy summertime acquisitions, this Pacers’ team as-is put up the fight of their lives against the reigning Eastern Conference champions and were a few calls (goaltending in Game 6) and a few possessions away from coming out victorious.

Maybe it’s just like Oladipo said after his team was eliminated from the playoffs: “If y’all don’t have any respect for the Indiana Pacers now, I have no respect for you.”