Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

One magic trick after another, Larry Bird is remaking the Indiana Pacers. His first trick came Wednesday when he threw a cloak over George Hill, removed it with a flourish, and poof: It’s Jeff Teague!

Then on Thursday, hours before the NBA draft started, Bird put the Pacers’ No. 20 overall pick on the table, sawed it in half and put it back together in the shape of Thaddeus Young.

Just like that – voila! – Bird has improved the Pacers from a middle-of-the-road Eastern Conference team, one that has struggled to keep up with elite opponents in these boomtown days of NBA offense, into a team that will be able to score with anybody.

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And he hasn’t spent a penny yet on free agency.

Larry Bird is a bad, bad man. If it works, what he’s done in the 24 hours leading up to the draft is Executive of the Year stuff. And I can’t think of a reason why it won’t work. Since Tuesday afternoon he has acquired a pair of established, 28-year-old NBA starters, each of whom has averaged 74 games per year since entering the NBA.

Born 11 days apart in June 1988, Teague and Young fill the Pacers’ two biggest needs entering the offseason, and they fill those needs without the need for projection or crossed fingers.

Pacers acquire Thad Young from Brooklyn for 20th pick and future 2nd round pick

Teague is a no-brainer NBA point guard, a 16-and-6 guy who attacks the rim at a higher rate than anyone in the league and shot 40 percent from 3-point range last season. He scores close to the rim, he scores 23 feet from the rim, and he creates for others. He might not be the best point guard in the NBA, but he’s the best point guard the Pacers could have added – and at $8 million, he’s an absolute bargain.

Young is a no-brainer NBA power forward, a 15-and-9 guy who ranks among league leaders in defensive rebounding and low-post offense, according to advanced statistics available at NBA.com. He also is a tremendous athlete and willing defender, ranking among the league’s top 10 in steals twice in the past four years.

But enough about the newest Pacers. The story here is the Pacers’ president, Larry Bird, who is on a rampage. He has turned an uncertain draft pick (20th overall) and an undersized, 30-year-old shooting guard (Hill) into a pair of big-time starters. Neither Teague nor Young figures to be an all-star – though Teague did play in the 2015 All-Star Game – but if they are the team’s third- and fourth-best players, well, damn. That’s a really good team.

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And if Monta Ellis is your fifth-best player? Holy moly. Ellis was signed a year ago to be the Robin to Paul George’s Batman, and while that was a miscalculation by Bird, Monta Ellis is unbelievably good for the fifth-best guy in an NBA starting lineup.

Numbers don’t lie, and this is what the numbers are saying about the team Larry Bird has put together: The Pacers could be an offensive juggernaut.

The five players in the starting lineup as it looks today – Myles Turner (10.3 ppg), Thaddeus Young (15.1), Paul George (23.1), Monta Ellis (13.8) and Jeff Teague (15.7) – combined to average 78 points per game last season.

The first three players off the bench, as the bench looks today – C.J. Miles (11.9 ppg), Rodney Stuckey (8.9) and Lavoy Allen (5.4) – combined to average 26.2 ppg.

Add that up. Those eight players combined to score 104.2 ppg last season.

And, um, Larry Bird hasn’t signed a free agent yet.

Now, there is a smidgen of bad news to go along with all of this good news. The Pacers have clearly taken a step back on defense. Center Ian Mahinmi, unlikely to return as a free agent, and George Hill were two of the team’s better defenders last season. Neither Young nor Teague is a bad defender, but they’re probably not at the level of Mahinmi and Hill. And the new coach, Nate McMillan, doesn’t have the defensive reputation of the man he replaced, Frank Vogel.

Then again, as Larry Bird was happy to point out after moving on from Vogel – a little too happy, frankly – the Pacers’ defense over the past several years wasn’t masterminded by Frank Vogel. It was masterminded by assistant Dan Burke, who will return next season. If Burke’s as good as Bird says he is, the Pacers’ defense will find a way to be excellent, again, next year.

Doyel: Jeff Teague for George Hill? A steal for Pacers

And the offense will be a whole lot better. You saw those scoring totals for each starter, right? The lowest average belonged to Myles Turner at 10.3 ppg, and he’s going to get a lot better. For upper-level players, the biggest improvement comes between their first and second seasons. Paul George’s scoring rose 4.3 ppg from his first year to his second. Thaddeus Young’s went up 7.1 ppg. Monta Ellis’ scoring rose 9.7 ppg.

This will be Myles Turner’s second year. With more minutes, confidence and strength, his scoring will improve noticeably.

Same for the Pacers. They are better than they were this past season, they are noticeably better, and Larry Bird hasn’t spent a penny yet on the free agent market. He has enough money to sign a max-contract guy, and he can sell such a player on a roster that can compete – right now – with everyone in the Eastern Conference but the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Add a max-contract guy, and the sky’s the limit. Can you believe what is happening here? Can you believe how far the Pacers have come since Tuesday?

Abracadabra, says Larry Bird. And for his next trick ...

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.