[Izulde]

Indiana Pacers receive
PG Pete Bannister

Philadelphia 76ers receive
PF Lance Purnell
Indiana Pacers 2024 2nd round pick

What this means for the Pacers
The 28 year old Bannister, taken 15th overall by the 76ers in the 2015 draft, is one of those players who's very solid all-around, with no real weaknesses but no true strengths either. A great reserve/borderline starter type, he's grossly overpaid at $10 million this year, $11 million the next.

What this means for the 76ers
Purnell can score some and has decent ballhandling skills for a big man, but he's a defensive sieve and is notorious for his laziness. His other talents are mediocre at best as well, though he does represent a reduced salary by $2 million this year, $2.5 million the next for Philadelphia.

Winner: Indiana
The salary difference isn't enough to trump the fact that Bannister improves the Pacers whereas Purnell is going to weaken a Philadelphia team as the 6th man, taking them from a possible playoff team to a lottery participant.

With just one trade, it's the quietest month we've had in at least three or four seasons. My guess is things'll pick up in the next month or so, but you never know.

We do our draft position a favor by muting the Heat 101-86 via Mateen Yeaton's 24 points, Zelipe Gama's 11 points and 10 assists and Tzvetan Kishishev's 11 bench points.

The Magic have no power as we dispel them 112-81. Just two Orlando players reach double-digit scoring and that won't work when Mateen Yeaton's scoring 28, Zelipe Gama's inversing his last game's performance with 10 points and 11 assists and Tzvetan Kishishev is tearing things up with a 13 for 16 night for 27 points off the bench. I still can't believe we've got him on a min-sal deal for the next several seasons. He's the single greatest value on our roster right now.

Mateen Yeaton continues to laugh in Time's face with 28 points and 12 rebounds as we roll up the Wizards 109-86. David Jackson is his sidekick with 15 points and 14 rebounds and I'm thrilled with the production we've been getting out of both players, especially 50 Ninja.

The Raptors haven't forgotten the early-season buttkicking we gave them in Denver, so they turn it around by shredding us 116-84 in Toronto to stop our win streak. Mateen Yeaton piles on 28 points and Zelipe Gama double-doubles for 10 points and 12 assists, but that's all we can muster against an inspired Raptors D.

So that puts us at 1-1 on the annual December road trek and we drop to 1-2 by losing to the Knicks 98-87 despite Jermaine Trask's sudden 23 point outburst and 10 and 11 points a piece from reserves Jason Tackett and Tzvetan Kishishev.

Philadelphia shows us brotherly love on the front end of a doubleheader by losing 117-104 to us and Mateen Yeaton takes advantage of the hospitality to score 34 points. Zelipe Gama garners 21 points and 13 assists and Tzvetan Kishishev continues his strong season with 15 bench points. But the Celtics go on a second half tear to come back and beat us 111-101 the next night in Boston to put us at 2-3 despite 26 points from Mateen Yeaton, 19 points and 12 assists from Zelipe Gama and Tzvetan Kishishev's 11 bench points.

Our last hope for a winning record on the road stretch lies in Florida and the Heat and Magic oblige by bowing to us on back to back nights. Zelipe Gama and Mateen Yeaton conspire to score 26 and 21 points in our 102-79 victory over Miami, Andrew Bynum puts up 15 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks from the starting C spot and Darrell James surprises with 11 points off the bench. Our 103-93 win against Orlando is engineered by Mateen Yeaton's 32 points, Zelipe Gama's 19 points and 14 assists and Andrew Bynum's 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Phoenix can't compete with the combined efforts of Mateen Yeaton (29 points), Zelipe Gama (15 points, 21 assists), Andrew Bynum (22 points) and Tzvetan Kishishev (14 bench points) and so they fall 112-98 in Denver.

The spectre of last season's road woes rises up in the next game, though, as we lose 106-95 to the pathetic Supersonics in Seattle. We struggled to get anything going all night and Tzvetan Kishishev's 11 bench points were our lone, ugly highlight.

But everything's made right and Christmas feels right by sweeping the holiday doubleheader. In our most exciting, white-knuckle game of the year to date, we beat Dallas 108-106 on a buzzer-beater by Mateen Yeaton, who finished with 31 points. Zelipe Gama issues 12 points and 11 assists and Joem Layne scores 12 off the bench. Christmas Day in Oakland gives the present of a wild, zany shootout that sees us prevail 141-134 in OT, Mateen Yeaton the hero with a sensational 46 point game at 35 years old. Andrew Bynum crashes the glass for 14 points and 18 rebounds, Zelipe Gama reels in 15 points and 15 assists and Tzvetan Kishishev and Darrell James rally the reserves with 15 and 14 points a piece.

The injury bug strikes again during the Golden State game as Joem Layne breaks his elbow and is out for two months. So we're forced to call up rookie Justin Cherry after having recalled Layne following Tim Butler's injury. 15 days until Timmy B gets back and I'm not sure how his return is going to affect the balance we've got going. Jermaine Trask's versatility and defensive prowess have been a godsend and he's probably the odd man out when Timmy comes back.

Justin Cherry makes an immediate impact in his first game, scoring 15 points off the bench to help carry us to a 101-98 victory over Philadelphia that needed a fourth quarter comeback to do it. Mateen Yeaton scores 21 and David Jackson double-doubles at the three for 12 points and 11 rebounds, his scoring total the lowest of our five starters.

We draw the two LA teams for the New Year and Justin Cherry puts on a jaw-dropping 29 point performance, including 6 of 10 from 3 point range as we fight past the Lakers 111-104 in Los Angeles. Mateen Yeaton scores 21 for the second game in a row, Jermaine Trask gathers in 10 points and 11 rebounds and Darrell James adds an unsung 12 points off the bench. Mateen Yeaton steals the spotlight back the next night with 42 points in our 105-96 victory over the Clippers, leaving in the dust good showings by Andrew Bynum (12 points, 13 rebounds), Zelipe Gama (11 points, 13 assists) and Justin Cherry (15 bench points).

Our storybook season now stands at 24-7, four games ahead of Portland in the Northwest. The Mavericks have reasserted themselves as the best team in the Southwest at 18-12, 4.5 in front of the Grizzlies, while the Pacific, after enduring years of being one of the worst divisions in the NBA, now has all but one team at .+500. The bad team? The 7-21 Lakers. Sacramento lead the division at 20-8, a mere game and a half over Golden State, as the Warriors do appear to finally be legitimate.

Last year, the Bulls collapses in the second month. This season, they've stayed on fire and are a white-hot 24-4, the league's best record and a full 10 games ahead of the .500 Cavaliers in the Central. Toronto's 22-10, enjoying a four game lead on the Knicks, while the Bobcats are the ones to pick up Chicago's second month bug, falling to 19-9 and 1.5 game edge over the surging Magic.

But to me, the real story of this month has been Justin Cherry's first three games in the NBA. Coming off the bench, he's averaging 19.7 points a game. I know, small sample size, but it's still incredible. He's really living up to the Second Coming of Mateen billing and he's unquestionably going to spend the rest of the season with the Nuggets. He also just might be our future at SG if he can keep it up.

Speaking of Mateen Yeaton...

Paulinho Buboltz
2013 Stats: 82 games/77 starts - 17.0 PPG 9.5 APG 3.0 RPG 0.7 BPG 1.2 SPG
2014 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 19.1 PPG 8.7 APG 2.8 RPG 0.5 BPG 1.4 SPG
2015 Stats: 55 games/48 starts - 14.1 PPG 8.3 APG 2.8 RPG 0.5 BPG 1.2 SPG
2016 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 18.3 PPG 8.1 APG 3.3 RPG 0.7 BPG 1.5 SPG
2017 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 19.1 PPG 8.5 APG 3.0 RPG 0.7 BPG 1.2 SPG
2018 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 20.5 PPG 8.3 APG 3.2 RPG 0.8 BPG 1.5 SPG
2019 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 20.6 PPG 8.1 APG 3.5 RPG 0.8 BPG 1.5 SPG
2020 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 19.8 PPG 7.5 APG 3.3 RPG 0.6 BPG 1.3 SPG
2021 Stats: 44 games/44 starts - 22.3 PPG 7.0 APG 3.6 RPG 0.9 BPG 1.6 SPG (Indiana)
2021 Stats: 36 games/36 starts - 17.8 PPG 8.3 APG 2.9 RPG 0.8 BPG 1.3 SPG (Denver)
2022 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 16.3 PPG 10.2 APG 2.7 RPG 0.5 BPG 1.2 SPG
2023 Stats: 30 games/30 starts - 18.9 PPG 9.3 APG 2.7 RPG 0.8 BPG 1.6 SPG (New York)

Mateen Yeaton
2013 Stats: 82 games/81 starts - 23.3 PPG 2.4 APG 5.2 RPG 1.8 BPG 1.6 SPG
2014 Stats: 82 games/80 starts - 23.2 PPG 3.6 APG 5.2 RPG 1.7 BPG 1.3 SPG
2015 Stats: 82 games/81 starts - 23.6 PPG 2.4 APG 4.5 RPG 1.6 BPG 1.5 SPG
2016 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 25.0 PPG 3.1 APG 4.5 RPG 1.9 BPG 1.8 SPG
2017 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 24.4 PPG 3.2 APG 4.9 RPG 1.9 BPG 1.6 SPG
2018 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 19.8 PPG 2.4 APG 4.2 RPG 1.5 BPG 1.2 SPG
2019 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 23.3 PPG 2.5 APG 4.7 RPG 1.5 BPG 1.6 SPG
2020 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 23.0 PPG 2.7 APG 4.6 RPG 1.8 BPG 1.4 SPG
2021 Stats: 57 games/57 starts - 23.3 PPG 2.8 APG 4.3 RPG 1.9 BPG 1.4 SPG
2022 Stats: 82 games/82 starts - 24.3 PPG 2.0 APG 4.5 RPG 1.6 BPG 1.3 SPG
2023 Stats: 31 games/31 starts - 26.8 PPG 2.0 APG 4.9 RPG 1.2 BPG 1.3 SPG

I'd like to point out that Mateen is 35 years old and he's currently 2nd in the entire league in scoring. He's having an absolutely sick season and it's beyond fantastic to see. By the way, Marcelino Augusto is 6th in scoring at 24.5 points a game to go with 9.9 rebounds and 2.4 blocks as his three most noteworthy averages.

Oh yes, another interesting side note---Winston Smith, our surprise sub from last year who went to New York as part of the Buboltz deal, tore his MCL and is out for the year. It's a real shame too, because he was having an even better season for them than he had with us, which says a lot.