Through the first two weeks of the season, there’s been no team more impressive than the Indiana Pacers, who have the best record (8-0) and point differential (+10.4) in the NBA. After losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Miami, Indiana came back with the goal of a No. 1 overall seed and homecourt advantage in the playoffs. The Pacers look like a team on a mission; they already have a three-game lead on the Heat.

Before their current run began, Indiana seemed trapped in the dreaded “mediocrity treadmill” -- not good enough to contend or bad enough to rack up high lottery picks. From 2007-2010, they won an average of 35 games and never picked higher than No. 10. Nevertheless, despite picking behind almost half the NBA in that span, they were able to build a title contender through the draft.

The first piece was gargantuan center Roy Hibbert. As a senior at Georgetown, Hibbert averaged 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks on 60 percent shooting. However, those numbers weren’t a huge improvement from his junior season, when he and Jeff Green lead the Hoyas to the Final Four. With his development stalled, he didn’t seem to have the upside of some of the younger big men in the draft.

Hibbert was the No. 17 pick in 2008. Anthony Randolph, Robin Lopez and Marreese Speights were the three picks before him; JaVale McGee, J.J. Hickson and Alexis Ajinca went directly after. At 7’2 270, there were questions about Hibbert’s conditioning and foot-speed. A product of John Thompson III’s Princeton-inspired offense, he seemed like a relic in the modern NBA, a low-post dinosaur born a generation too late.

The Princeton offense, with its emphasis on off-ball movement, post play and controlling tempo, is the antithesis of the spread pick-and-roll attacks that have taken over the sport. Instead of mindlessly cutting to the front of the rim, the center is the hub of the offense, hitting cutters and reading the defense from the high post. Hibbert isn’t the only one of Thompson’s big men to be undervalued at the next level; Greg Monroe slipped to No. 7 in 2010.

Hibbert played only 14 minutes a game as a rookie, averaging 7 points and 3.5 rebounds. The big concern was getting him adjusted to the speed of the NBA game; he picked up fouls at a prodigious rate of 7.7 per-36 minutes. In his second season, when he moved into the starting lineup, it came down to 5.0, a number which has decreased to 2.9 in 2013. Like many late-blooming big men, Hibbert didn’t fully grow into his body until his mid 20’s.

For Indiana, 2010 was the draft that changed everything. Instead of making safe picks, they swung for the fences and took two high upside 19-year olds -- Paul George at No. 10 and Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson at No. 40. George was the ultimate sleeper, a sophomore on a 15-18 Fresno State team that finished in 5th place in the WAC. Stephenson, in contrast, had too much of a profile, thanks to a checkered history as a prep star in New York City.

What they shared was an intriguing combination of size, speed and skill. At 6’9 215 with a 6’11 wingspan, George had dunk-contest athleticism and a well-rounded game. As a sophomore, he averaged 17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists on 42 percent shooting. Stephenson, at 6’5 230 with a 6’10 wingspan, was an NBA SG with the body of an NFL TE. In his only season at Cincinnati, he averaged 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 44 percent shooting.

As you would expect for two teenagers, neither came into the NBA anywhere close to a finished product. The primary concern for George was ball-handling; he averaged over 3 turnovers per game at Fresno State. Stephenson had the broken shot of a guard who had been able to bully his way to the front of the rim his whole life. He shot 22 percent from the three-point line in college, playing like a poor man’s Tyreke Evans.

By the end of their rookie season, George was in a complementary role in the starting lineup. Stephenson, on the other hand, was lucky to even be on the roster after picking up an assault charge (which was later dismissed). If he had been selected by a franchise not committed to his development, his career could have gone the other way. He could have been Willie Warren, an uber-talented guard who didn’t stick in the NBA after being taken at No. 54 in 2011.

In 2011, with George in a starting role and Frank Vogel at the helm, Indiana turned the corner. They won 37 games and lost in the first round. That off-season, rather than making another developmental selection, they turned the No. 15 pick into George Hill, a 3-and-D point guard. They also took advantage of their core being on rookie contracts to gamble on David West, signing him to a 2-year $20 million deal coming off an ACL injury.

By 2012, all the pieces were in place. While there had been missteps and false starts along the way, the Pacers had completed a five-year rebuilding project with a quality starter at each position. Hill, George, Danny Granger and Hibbert had excellent size for their positions, allowing Indiana to become a suffocating defensive team. They won 42 games in the lockout-shortened season and pushed Miami to six games in the second round.

Ironically enough, though Granger had been the Pacers franchise player for over half-a-decade, his injury in 2013 accelerated their development. Without him, George became the primary option and Stephenson moved into the starting lineup. Get Granger back into the fold this season and they will be as talented as any team in the NBA. Either way, after adding Luis Scola, CJ Watson and Chris Copeland to their bench, Indiana is making a run at it in 2014.  

Forget whether or not tanking is morally acceptable or whether the top of the 2014 draft is “worth it”. Most NBA franchises are so bad at identifying young talent (and even worse at developing it) that draft position almost doesn’t matter. A team that knows what it’s doing can always find players, no matter where they pick. The Pacers didn’t have to lose a bunch of games to build a championship-caliber team. They just scouted well and developed their draft picks.