Indiana Pacers Roster GOOD ENOUGH! Caitlin Clark to RETURN! Jonathan Taylor needs start like ‘24 end

Indiana Pacers Roster GOOD ENOUGH! Caitlin Clark to RETURN! Jonathan Taylor needs start like ‘24 end

Pacers because I think a lot of people are looking at the Indiana Pacers and saying, you know what, they’re not very good right now. Given the roster, given the injuries, given Miles Turner going to Milwaukee, I think they’re just fine. I got no problem with predicting that the Pacers as they stand today, if everybody’s healthy, that includes Isaiah Jackson, James Weisman, all the guys who had been hurt in 2024 25 are ready to go and compete at a high level. If that’s true, this is a playoff team without another move by Kevin Pritchard. But I think he’s going to make another move, if not multiple moves, to get this roster right for 2526 because the Pacers aren’t playing around. They’re in win now mode without Tyrese Hallebertton. They’re in win now mode. They’re not No, we’re going to wait for 26 27 and we’re going to take it easy and we’re going to make sure we’re in good shape for No, no, no, no, no. They are in win now mode and I think Pritchard’s going to behave like it. We’re going to talk about the Indiana Fever. Caitlyn Clark spoke at practice today and said that she is going to be the plan is for her to be back tomorrow night. I’m not pushing all my chips into the middle of that table because I want Caitlyn Clark to be 100% healthy. Give herself the best chance to finish this season healthy because when she’s healthy, this is a hell of a women’s basketball team. they are a really good WNBA team that could win that championship and and her hurrying back is not going to help. So, I hope that she’s 100% healed. I hope she’s prudent tomorrow night going, you know, the the game they got against Golden State. That’s a game that they should win even without Caitlyn Clark. So, if she needs a couple more days, take the couple more days, but it’d be great for the fans who are going to go tomorrow night to see Caitlyn Clark play as they did in practice today. We’re going to talk about the Colts. The Colts, Jonathan Taylor did something really, really interesting at the end of last season. And if he starts the 2025 season and continues to play like that through the 20, that dude’s going to break records because what he did over the last four weeks absolutely huge. as he finally healed from that high ankle. Hopefully, it does not recur. And if it doesn’t, Colts might be in a better situation than a lot of us think that they’re in right now. Right now, I think they’re an eight- win team, maybe a nine- win team. I’d like to see him win 10 because I think at 10 wins, they’re going to win the AFC South. And I need to see him win the AFC South. I want Chris Ballard to keep his job. I do. But I think that Ballard and the Colts have to win the AFC South this year for that to happen. And I think Ballard’s got to get aggressive about it, but that’s not his way. He’s going to do things the way he does his way. And he is not going to manage that roster for his own career benefit. He’s just not. It’s not. He believes that he knows right from wrong, and he’s going to do what he believes to be right for the franchise, short-term, long term. And that’s one of the reasons he’s kept his gig for these uh into his ninth year, right? Cubs at Minnesota tonight. What the hell is with these inter league games? Can we stop this crap? Two things we got to stop. Somebody’s got to put a foot down and that foot is me on Rob Manfred’s head. Get rid of the DH in the National League and get rid of inner league play. Even limited inner league play. I do not want I can’t keep track all these teams. You got 30 damn teams in Major League Baseball. How the hell do I know who plays second base for the Cleveland Indians? I don’t know a single player for the Minnesota Twins. Now, I used to know some of them, right? because they were always in the American League and they played against American League opponents. I knew everybody who started for the Reds, for the Mets, for the Phillies, for the Pirates, for the Cardinals. I knew them all because the Cubs played them all the time. I can’t keep track of 29 teams. Are you out of your mind? Rob Manfred is a stone cold Here’s what he’s done. He’s tried to go the NBA route and continue to build Major League Baseball around stars. No, no, no, no. Build it around franchises. If if if silver could go back and undo something that Stern did, it would be that that constant branding based upon stars. Now, the stars of the 80s and 90s, they were worth branding around. starts today minus LeBron James at the age of what is he 48 62 I don’t know what the hell old he is I think he’s 41 going to be 42 he’s a star anybody else names who Kevin Durant you want to pay money to go see Kevin Durant what are you out of your mind you want to go see a guy hit 18 foot jump shots what you crazy anyway no no no no that’s the thing with Miles Turner Turner thinks he’s a car worth $26.75 million. Nobody’s going to pay money to watch basketball in Milwaukee based upon Miles Turner. Nobody. Nobody. I’m not sure. Miles dad bought tickets to go to games at Gamebridge Fieldhouse to watch Miles Turner play basketball. Nobody bought tickets to go watch Miles. Nobody is buying subscriptions to the uh network that carries the the Pacers. I can’t remember which gambling site it is. Is it FanDuel? Might be FanDuel. Might be DraftKings. I’m not sure. Whatever the network is, nobody’s paying the 20 bucks a month to watch the Pacers play on that network. Or nobody did because Miles Turner was playing. Oh, we got to see what Miles Turner does. You out of your mind? Good heavens. And anybody calling Herb Simon cheap is insane. People in the media calling Herb Simon cheap because if Herb Simon had not been cheap according to their definition and the Pacers had signed Miles Turner at 26.75 million and maybe if Miles had given the Pacers an opportunity to match, they would have. I don’t know. Pritchard said he found didn’t have any opportunity to match and found out about the deal with the Bucks via Sean on Twitter. Okay. If he had paid the money, that’s going to cost him not 26.75, but about $47 million for what? 10 and four, 15 and six, 1.8 bucks. Are you psychotic? What’s the matter with you people? That’s not cheap and it’s not frugal. It’s prudent. You know what? Don’t criticize a man for being prudent with his own money. Where are you spending your money? You know what I mean? How prudent are you? This is Inside Indiana Sports on how with Kent Sterling for uh Tuesday, July 8th, 2025, brought to you by the great people at Today’s Dentistry. If you got a dental problem and you need it administered to immediately, call 317-849-2933. That is your greatest point of regress in terms of getting your dental uh hygiene dealt with quickly and excellently. Hit the like button because the like button is fantastic. That’s where polite people go. And subscribe if you want to win a great prize like this Chicago Bears football or football helmet autographed by the great safety Mike Brown. How about this? A Jack Young Bloodood jersey. Rams jersey autographed by the great Jack Young Bloodood. Jack Young Bloodood played in a Super Bowl with a broken leg. How about that? And how about this? This is an autographed slick. An autographed 8×10 by the great Pton Manning. Got an autographed slick by John Gilliam who was tremendous back in the day. And all you need to do to be eligible is subscribe. And then you’ve got a content. Wise men’s wise guys. That’s the pay. That’s the uh phrase that pays today. All right. Uh Barco Media says, “What will Indie do to their starting lineup with Halley out? Do you think Nebard takes the point and Matherine starts or do you think TJ or Cam Jones?” I think you got it right the first time and thanks for the lead in. All right. Oh, by the way, if you want to make a donation, as Barsco Media just did, feel free, but ask a question or make a comment that elevates the level of discourse on the station. And and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about. The starting lineup right now is this. Andrew Nehard at the point, and he’s going to be an okay point guard. He makes a few too many mistakes. Maybe an early shot in the clock that he doesn’t need to take. Got to be a facilitator first and a scorer second. He is a very very good defender. He’s got to he’s got to get rid of some of the turnovers. Reduce the turn. You got to shrink shave down the peaks and lift the valleys. That’s what you do if you’re Andrew Neb Harden. If he does that, Pacers got a chance to be really good at the two. Benedict Mathan who left to his own devices is going to score an absolute ton of points. might drop a fitty burger on somebody this coming year if he averages 33 34 minutes a game which I think he’s going to have to right at the three Aaron Nmith why change anything there really good defender really good shooter Pascal Seakkum at the four one of the best fours in the game and at the five I’m going to say I’m going to pencil in James Wisman I hope he’s healthy if he’s healthy I think he plays I think he plays a lot and I think he’s going to play well Then you’ve got I I think uh the backups McConnell obviously at the point Shepard I think at the two maybe Fury at the two. Maybe Fury also at the three. Walker at the three. Jarus Walker. Uh Obi Toppin at the four. At the five you’ve got Huff Jackson Bradley. You got guys and you’re going to need guys if the injury history of the Indiana Pacers is any standard by which to measure the future because that’s what’s happened to them. I think that’s a good and Jones as a third string point guard, third string shooting guard. I think that’s fine. And he’s a guy if there’s an injury that guy can go get you minutes and he can help you be good. I like where this team’s at. But Kevin Pritchard, I think, is going to make moves and I think the uh Pacers are going to get better as a result. Let’s talk about the Indiana Fever. They got a game tomorrow night at Gambridge Fieldhouse against Golden State. Caitlyn Clark says her plan is to be back tomorrow night. Don’t hurry. Tap the brakes on that groin. If you feel anything, screwy. Don’t put it at risk because groins can be nagging. You could set yourself back. See, you got to sit for another two weeks. Make sure you’re solid before you go out there and play. If we’ve learned nothing over our lifetimes of watching sports and seeing people deal with a groin issue, man, do they flare up again. So, Caitlyn, if you feel great tomorrow night, excellent. Absolutely. Go get them. Uh John Rothstein, I didn’t mention this as as we open. John Rothstein out of ignorance, his self-aclaimed ignorance, he’s picking Indiana to finish 15th in the Big 10. Out of my ignorance, I’m picking them to finish sixth. We don’t know what this team’s going to be. Nobody does. Darren Dere doesn’t know what this team’s going to be at this point. Maybe as we get to the non-conference part of the season, that’s really kind of interesting with games against Marquette and Louisville and Kansas State and Kentucky, we find out what this team is and where the trinks in the armor are and what they need to do to get better and get better in a hurry. I’ll tell you what they’re going to be good at. They’re going to be good at shooting and they’re going to be good at running. They don’t have a lot of size and so running up and down the court quickly and getting up threes. This is going to be a different Indiana basketball. For years now with Archie Miller and with Mike Woodson, eight years combined, what have we been saying? Let’s go pick up the pace. Can we go? Can we go faster? Let’s go faster. We seem to be good when we’re fast. And the code, no. No, no. Stomping feet and clapping. No, no, no, no. Hit the brakes. move the ball, pass it 16 times before we take a shot. Those days are over, people. And Indiana, as a result, is going to be a much better team. Um, let’s take a look. I I think as we look ahead Oh, Cubs. I’m going to get to the Cubs at the end. Cubs and the Twins tonight. I’m going to get to um Colts. Do you know what Jonathan Taylor did the final four games of the regular season? Not that they played any games in the postseason because they didn’t. But the last four games of the 2024 season, Jonathan Taylor in uh weeks 1 through 13 ran for 100 or more yards, four total times, ran for 804 yards and five total touchdowns, uh a yards per carry average of 4.3. the last four games, as opposed to those 13, I think three of which he sat and was inactive with with that ankle, tweaked that ankle, the last four games of the season, he ran for better than 100 yards, each and every one of those games, he ran for 627 yards total. That is my math. I’m doing the chisenbop. 155.4 yards per game. and a 5.4 yard per carry average. If you run for 627 yards every four games like he did to end that season last year, he’s going to have almost 2600 yards rushing. I don’t think he’s capable of that. I don’t think he can carry the ball as often as Jonathan Taylor did over the qu I mean, he’d be up around 500 carries for the season. That’s a daunting amount of carries. Like, you’re never going to get that. I don’t know that anybody’s ever gotten there in the history of the NFL. Jonathan Taylor, though, if he can keep running, I at 150 a game. Holy hell. I What are you talking even a game at? That’s 1,700 yards for the year. Jonathan Taylor is poised for a humongous year if he can stay healthy. By the way, the Indianapolis Colts, their weapons, including Taylor, Warren, Pitman, Pierce, and DS, they’re ranked 16th in the NFL. I think that’s where they start. I think that’s where these lists begin. Like Barnwell and these guys who rank all the stuff, they just plop the Colts in at 16 and then build up and down from the Colts because they know the Colts are in the middle of every stinking list. I think that that’s the case with the Colts. things you need to worry about with the Indianapolis Colts. Samson Ebocon being 100% and being back to the Samson Ebacom he was in 2023. I think for the Colts to have a real pass rush, they need a better secondary. We’ll get to that in a minute. And they’re going to need Ebicom at full strength because Pay isn’t going to get it done. Lot two now in year two. I want year two for an edge is a big year and I think lot two might have a big year. Uh, another thing to worry about the linebacker spot opposite Zire Franklin. You think uh Jaylen Carile is ready? I don’t know. You know, I don’t think anybody knows with with the Colts. I don’t think Ballard knows. I don’t think Stiken knows. I don’t think Adamo knows. I don’t think any of those guys know. I I think they look at each other and say, “Well, knock wood. We’re going to hope for it.” Right? Because what they don’t want, they don’t want Saguna Lubby out there starting. I don’t think even though I love nice guy. Here we go. Sports says, “What would you do?” AR taken out. uh and and Jones just is no good, you know. Uh I don’t know. I I got to tell you the truth, and this is no shade, I don’t think, to Daniel Jones, and I could be wrong. And and we haven’t seen him really throw against pressure. We haven’t seen anything resembling football in the offseason, but watching Jones and Riley Leonard throw next to each other, I can’t tell who’s who. I know that Jones is wearing 17. I know that Leonard’s wearing 15, but if they weren’t wearing numbers, I couldn’t tell you which was which. They look like very much the same guy. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Uh the worry about this the quarterback opposite Mooney Ward, you got the Jays, you got Justin, you got Jaylen, you got Ju Guu. Who’s going to start? Who’s going to play? I don’t know. If you got three starting quarterbacks for one slot, do you have any? That’s kind of the question. We’ll see. Maybe somebody and maybe Guju finally gets on the field and stays there. I’d love that for him. He is a really good human being. Nice guy. Went to Warren Central. We love Juju Brent. He’s got to find a way to stay on the field. And some guys just aren’t built to in the NFL. But Ju Guu’s injuries have just been weird. Like he got hit in the nose the one time, right? I mean, what are you going to do about that? Uh Anthony Richardson, his health, that’s what you worry about with Anthony Richardson. Undesigned runs, that guy gets hurt a lot. When he drops back, scrambles, not so much. When he drops back, throws, never. Anthony Richardson needs to be more drop back passer. And then if things break down, go out, run, slide, do not take direct hits. Those are an insult to your physique. And those insults land you on the IR. So, let’s not do that anymore, Anthony. What you don’t sweat, Anthony Richardson’s accuracy. Don’t sweat that. He’s not going to be less accurate than he was last year because it’s hard to be less accurate than he was last year. You’re going to see an uptick in his accuracy. I think he understands what’s at stake here. Don’t sweat Tanner Bordellini at center instead of Ryan Kelly. Tanner Bordellini is fine. Tanner Bordellini, when Kelly was out last year, did you notice anything different in the way the offensive line blocked? I did not. I think Tony Spirano Jr. is going to have Tanner Bordellini in a position where he can really do some good. The Wisconsin product is going to have a hell of a year, too. Uh Warren living up to the hype. Tyler Warren is going to be good right out the crate. I’m tell when you watch a Colts, your eyes go right to him. There is no one else on the field. When he’s on the field, your eyes go immediately to Tyler Warren. He is going to be really, really good. Again, knockwood for his help. Um, Gonalves at right guard. I’m cool with Gonzalz at right guard. I think he’s going to be awesome. Will Fry was terrific. And people are like, “Well, you lose Will Fry.” Will Fry was a seventh round pick. Really good guy and turned out to be a hell of a good right guard. Gonalves, was he a third round pick? I got no problem with Gonzalz playing guard or being a swing tackle for God’s sake. I thought he did a good job last year under duress playing like everywhere on the line but right tackle and I don’t think he played any snaps at center but other than that he was all over the place really good athlete very very strong and a a very smart guy as well of course from pit and then don’t worry about uh Shane Schrader in place of Matt Gay Shrader was a better kicker last year than Matt Gay was they kept the wrong guy because you can’t go out sign a guy to a big giant ass highest paid kicker in the league type contract as a free agent free agent contract biggest for a kicker ever and you know you cut him after a year because of a guy from Notre Dame who used to play soccer and is from Westfield and you say man he looks pretty good out here that’d take balls like you’d have to have big balls big giant balls and and that’s not what they did. So Shrader went off played for other teams last year. The Colts, they knew they made a mistake. They let Gay go and they signed Shrader. Um Cubs tonight against the Minnesota Twins. I was talking about this with Dan Doitch yesterday on the power hour during a show. That’s Mondays every week from 2 to 3. Dan and I talk about sports. And of course, we talked about baseball a little bit because we’re both native Chicagoans originally and uh I’ve lived here for a long time. This is my home now, but I grew up in Chicago watching Cubs baseball every single day. People in Chicago talk about, “Hey, I always ran home to go watch Cubs baseball.” That’s abject nonsense. They didn’t cuz if they did, I didn’t see them. I passed them all when I was running home to watch Cubs baseball. A great day was when you got home. We got off school at 3:15. If I got home at like 3:23, eight minutes home, eight minutes to run that mile home as a third grader, hauling ass or ride my bike to get home, getting in. And the Cubs game was prior to the six inning start uh ending. I was like, “Wow, this is the greatest thing ever.” I got to watch three full innings of Cubs baseball with Jack Brick House, Lloyd Pettit, Jim West. Let’s go. That was a great day. loved it. Why did I love it? I knew everybody. I knew everybody on the Cubs. I knew everybody on the Phillies, the Mets, the Reds, the Braves, the Dodgers, the Giants. Knew them all. All right. Pirates. I I all of them. Every team in the league in the National League. I could tell you all the starting eights. Now, I got no chance. I’m going to watch the Cubs and the Twins tonight. And I I’ll be looking at the Twins saying, “Who the hell are these guys? I have no idea who these people are. Get rid of Inner League play because I don’t know what the hell I’m watching.” For God’s sake, I want the Cubs to play the Mets. I want the Cubs to play the Pirates, the Phillies, the Reds, uh, Cardinals, for God’s sake. Why do I want to watch the Cubs play the Twins? Inner League baseball sucks. And the DH in the National League sucks. Get rid of that crap. Rob Manfred is the worst commissioner in any major league sport all time. He was elevated to that position as commissioner because he’s a pretty good guy at crafting an agreement between the players union and baseball. Getting a new CBA is more important to the owners than protecting the game. That sucks. I don’t like it. So, what did we learn today? We learned that the uh the Pacers are going to go to the playoffs as they are comprised right now. Now, injuries injuries could cost, right? If they craft a trade, if Pritchard gets busy, goes out and gets somebody who’s going to help them in the short term. I’m not going to be angry about that. The Colts, there are things to worry about, there are things not to worry about. Jonathan Taylor is one of those things you do not worry about. and Caitlyn Clark likely coming back to the fever tomorrow. I’m wearing and I know, look, I people complain and and they complain about the letters being backwards. All right, I know the letters are backwards. You can’t set the iPhone to do anything but what it does. You can set it to flip, but YouTube, the interface with YouTube flips it automatically when you use the front-facing camera. So, I’ve got this choice. My choice is either to have the letters in the right direction or not read any comments as we go through the show. Now, they didn’t used to have this problem. This this was a problem created right around the first of the year by the YouTube folks. It used to be you could maneuver the iPhone and the front camera in order to have things read correctly behind you. Not anymore. What this says is stash dashers. This was the uh walk for Tom Severino. Tom Severino at the time of the walk in 2009 was suffering from lung cancer, a lung cancer that took him from us on July 5th, 2009. So it’s been 16 years and 3 days. And there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Tom Severino. He was a really good boss at MS Communications, really good general manager. Uh absolutely loved every minute of working for him for 15 years. But more than that, he was a really good man and a really smart man, a really wise man who could communicate wisdom very succinctly. I’ll give you an example. All right. My son was a ninth grade or a 9-year-old little league baseball player and I was the coach. And I knew that Tom had coached his kids in youth sports. And so I went to Tom and I said, “Tom, how do I know if I’m doing a good job?” And Tom said, “It’s easy. how many kids come back next year? And I said, “Okay, what what does that tell you?” It tells you if they’re having a good time. Your only job as a youth baseball coach is to make it so much fun that the kids want to play next year. That’s it. The only measuring stick for a youth sports coach is how many kids come back and play because that’s all that matters. So, make it fun. Kids come back, did a great job. Make it a pain in the ass. Kids, don’t come back. You’re terrible. Okay, that was it. It took like 15 seconds for him to communicate that thought and it was perfect. I was like, “Oh, I totally get it now. That’s awesome.” I knew it wasn’t about winning games, but it is about having fun playing the game. Whatever the game is, it’s got to be fun. Tom Tom was very very uh wise in the way he communicated somewhat uh complicated thoughts. An absolute gem of a human being. I used to tell him, I’d say, Tom, look, you ever f I know that you got two brains. One’s professional and pragmatic. The other’s personal and warm. And I’ll tell you, you ever fire me, I’m going to know it’s because of the professional part. And at the end of the day, we’re going to go out and get a drink because I really really like that personal part. And I I don’t want to not be around that guy. So, fire me. We go out and have a cocktail. And I met it 100%. And And I wish that we could go do that again someday. That’d be awesome. Uh, tomorrow morning, Breakfast with Kent, another historic shirt. That is a great Tom Severino right there.

Pacers roster today is good enough to make playoffs – and Pritchard is not done!
Caitlin Clark to return tomorrow for Fever!
Colts need Jonathan Taylor to start 2025 like he ended 2024!
Cubs @ Twins tonight, which is just dumb!

Here is the link for the only autobiography ever published without praise for its author: https://www.amazon.com/Oops-Art-Learning-Mistakes-Adventures/dp/173420740X

https://kentsterling.com/2025/07/03/rule-for-kent-sterling-conest/