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Q. How does this Pacers team compare to the back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals teams?
-Joe
A. I'm going to assume you mean the back-to-back conference finalists of 2013 and '14, as opposed to those of 1998, '99 and 2000, or 1994 and '95.
I don't see the upcoming team being as good as any of those teams, actually. Not yet, anyway. The teams that Larry Brown and Bird coached to the conference finals were pieced together patiently, and slow-cooked to near-perfection.