May 3, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward David West (21) steals the ball from Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) who dives to recover it during the second quarter of game seven of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

Indiana Pacers fans already had enough reasons to be pessimistic about Indiana’s upcoming season, but it got worse. David West will have an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the injury but it is undoubtly another blow to a team that had taken a step back already. The 17-foot Assassin is the Pacers leading scorer left from last year with Paul George and Lance Stephenson gone, but now the Pacers have to look at what life may look like without the NBA’s 60th best player, at least for a few weeks. West’s injury came in the Pacers preseason victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The Pacers lost earlier in the week to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but did show it was possible to stop the Flying Death Machine. Small adjustments like covering those outlet passes showed how Frank Vogel is an excellent defensive coach and gives hope that the Pacers’ defense will still be formidable this season. Vogel opened up this week about The Struggle that Indiana went through last season and how it was the “perfect storm” of events needed to derail the Pacers season.

Even if Indiana wasn’t facing a comical cavalcade of bad news this season, the Pacers offense will need to improve as it was a weakness a year ago. Indiana’s fate this year is nothing but question marks right now as it will need to see growth from a number of younger players, as well as veterans like Roy Hibbert and George Hill finding the spark to reignite them into the players people expected them to be. It will be hard enough to convince Indiana Pacers fans this is still a team worth seeing, and they are teetering on the edge of having a mediocre season or a disastrous one.

The Pacers play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday before closing out the preseason with a visit to Charlotte.

Worth a listen: Miller Time Podcast #80. In the first of two conference preview episodes, Jon and Flava Dave predict how things will shape up in the Eastern Conference this season. Can the new Big Three in Cleveland play together? Will D-Rose ever be the same? Which NBA team is like Katy Perry? All that and more.

Ebay Find of the Week: Either of these 1973 ABA Championship programs.

Ebay Find of the Week if Your Name is Lindsey: Sarunas Jasikevicius jersey signed “For Lindsey.”