Pacers GM Chad Buchanan On Being Ahead Of Schedule

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The Indiana Pacers are moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade after dominating the New York Knicks in Game 7!

The Pacers return to the cusp of the NBA Finals was certainly not something many predicted going into the year. Sure, there were playoff expectations, especially after the trade for Pascal Siakam, but a deep run in the postseason didn’t seem especially likely. The Pacers were just too young, too inexperienced. Instead, the Pacers have grown on the fly, while also being on the receiving end of some good injury fortune regarding their playoff opponents. Now, almost unbelievably, they are 4 wins away from playing for an NBA Championship.

During Monday’s edition of The Ride With JMV, Pacers GM Chad Buchanan joined the show, and spoke about the Pacers being ahead of schedule.

“You try to map thing’s out of where you’d like to get to, as a goal as a team, but it’s hard to project how things are going to play out. How the chemistry of your team is going to come together, how the health of your team [will hold up]. A little bit of luck comes into play obviously for all teams as you get into the NBA season. I think our coaches created one of the best NBA offenses we’ve ever seen, and I don’t know if we could have projected that happening this quickly with this group. We were hopeful to be a playoff team this year, and then once you get to the playoffs anything can happen.

While the Pacers may not have necessarily expected to make it this far, that doesn’t mean they are taking this experience for granted.

“There’s nothing guaranteed to you in this league. There’s great teams that are sitting at home right now that are wishing they’re where we’re at, but we’re also very fortunate and we understand how lucky we are to be where we’re at still right now playing, and we’ve got to take advantage of this. Like I said, this opportunity in front of us isn’t guaranteed next year, or the year beyond, and it’s time for our guys to continue looking forward. We celebrated yesterday, but it’s on to the next series now. There’s no time to sit back and be content on what you’ve done, it’s ‘Let’s go battle this next opponent’ and see where the chips fall.”

Listen to JMV’s full conversation with Pacers GM Chad Buchanan down below, and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!

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