Five reasons to feel positive about the Indiana Pacers

3. Roy Hibbert was re-signed

The Pacers were put on the spot during the summer with restricted free agent Roy Hibbert finding a suitor in Portland willing to sign him to a four-year, $58 million offer sheet. After a couple of stressful weeks, the Pacers made sure the All-Star center didn’t sign that offer sheet and instead agreed to match the deal and bring him back to Indy.

The big salary for Hibbert is hard to swallow, but the Pacers had to bring him back on several levels. Most importantly, Hibbert provides a big presence in the paint which gives Indiana a matchup advantage against teams without a true center. The idea that teams are trending smaller with the emergence of Miami and Oklahoma City is overstated. Those teams have the personnel to play minus a big man. But looking around at the East now, you see Philadelphia adding Andrew Bynum, the New York Knicks adding a couple of bigs and the Brooklyn Nets bringing back Brook Lopez. Even Boston added a 7-footer in the draft with Fab Melo.

The Pacers don’t have the superstar talent to primarily play small. Allowing Hibbert to leave would have provided extra cap space but no one to fill the space around the bucket. Also, Hibbert is a major fan favorite with his Area 55 fan section and all of the interactions he has with fans off the court. His PR value is off the charts for a team reconnecting with the local community.

4. Backup bigs

Not only did the Pacers bring back Hibbert to give the team a legitimate center in the starting lineup, they also added frontcourt depth with size.

Last season, the Pacers were forced to cobble together their frontcourt rotations after losing Jeff Foster for the season with chronic back problems. That meant Amundson, a medium-sized power forward, was forced to play a vastly undersized backup center role behind Hibbert. With West and Tyler Hansbrough stretching to get measured at 6-9, the Pacers were pretty small even when they were trying to play big.

That won’t be a problem this season as the Pacers traded for and signed backup center Ian Mahinmi from Dallas. Mahinmi brings legit center size at 6-11 to back up Hibbert. In a pinch, rookie Miles Plumlee offers a strong 6-10 frame as an option to mix things up in the post.

5. Continuity on the bench as well as on the court

As mentioned earlier, the Pacers spent part of the offseason making sure their starting unit returned in full. But the Pacers were also fortunate to keep their coaching staff intact with no changes.

Associate head coach Brian Shaw was in the mix for a few top jobs around the NBA but none of the opportunities worked out for Shaw, which really worked out for the Pacers. Shaw returns with heaps of respect from his players as Vogel’s right-hand man along with assistant Jim Boylen.

The same coaches will be working with many of the same players on the same system and handling the same duties. The familiarity makes it easier to implement new wrinkles and allow the team to pick up right where they left off after losing to the Heat in the conference semifinals.

The Pacers won’t be sneaking up on anyone in the East this season. But by returning all of their key players and improving problem areas, the team expects to repeat a deep playoff run. Now that is a positive thought to ponder while waiting for the season to start.

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Tom Lewis is the manager of Indy Cornrows, an SB Nation blog covering the Indiana Pacers since 2008. You can follow him on Twitter.