Ladies and gentlemen, place you bets.

As of midnight on September 30th VegasInsider.com has the Indiana Pacers at 60/1 odds to win the NBA title, or roughly 1.64%. They also have Indiana with 20/1 or a 3.85% chance to win the Eastern Conference.

Needless to say, Indiana’s shot at a title isn’t looking good for the 2015-16 season.

Paul George may have his sights on MVP and Myles Tuner is gunning for Rookie of the Year, but let’s be clear: This is a transition year.

When David West and Roy Hibbert left it changed how the Pacers could operate. Gone was their rim defender. Gone was the veteran leader and mid-range threat. Unless they were going to land a league leading rim-defender they weren’t going to be the same team as they where in the previous three season. With or without Hibbert it looks like West wanted a championship so despite how well things had went since he got to Indiana, he knew it was time to go.

That’s not to say the Pacers won’t make the playoff or be interesting, which they most certainly will. If the small-ball ideas work then we’ll get to see a high-octane brand of offense that feels foreign to Indiana or at least a relic of a by-gone time. If it fails it won’t be the understandable disaster that last season’s injury plagued season was. No, it will be a season where Frank Vogel’s and maybe even Larry Bird’s jobs are on the line and we see mid-season trades to indicate surrender.

Save your betting money for another season but don’t turn away from this experiment.