My first inclination is to say Isiah Thomas is using his team's youth as an excuse as the Indiana Pacers have free fallen in the Eastern Conference. They may well be the youngest team in the league chronologically, but are they in basketball years?

Yeah, Jonathan Bender is still a pup, and Ron Artest has never been in a playoff race before. But Jermaine O'Neal is an All-Star, no matter his age. Brad Miller, Ron Mercer and Jeff Foster are young veterans who have played in important games. Austin Croshere played big in the Finals two years ago. And Reggie Miller has been known to hit a clutch shot or two. That should be more than enough talent to get the Pacers to the postseason, especially in an Eastern Conference that reminds no one of, say, the Western Conference.

	Isiah Thomas is learning on the job, just like his young players.

But two things give me pause.

One, people are making a leap here. This is not the Pacers' team that made the Finals in 2000. That team had Rik Smits at center and Mark Jackson at the point, and say what you want about the Dutchman, he had to be game-planned. I know that Thomas thought Smits would be back, and that that team could beat the Lakers in a seven-game series if it got out and ran. When Smits retired and Jackson signed with Toronto, Indiana became a very different team. It lost its halfcourt presence and had to adjust to becoming a perimeter team pretty much on the fly.

Excuse? Or reality?

Second, the Pacers are young, especially at the one position you can't be inexperienced -- point guard. They made a decision to give the ball to Jamaal Tinsley, much like the Spurs did with Tony Parker.

The difference is the Spurs have the indestructible Tim Duncan to lean on, night in and out. The result is wildly inconsistent play from Indiana's rookie floor general, which you cannot have on a contending team. Now, the Pacers didn't have to go that route. They had a solid guard in Travis Best who they found wanting, for whatever reason. They pulled the trigger.

Excuse? Or reality?

Is Reggie Miller still capable of winning games on his skinny shoulders? Or is he a solid, aging role player? A hard question, but the answer makes a big difference in a team's abilities to perform down the stretch.

It seems to me that this all goes back to Jalen Rose, and whatever happened between he and Thomas. It seems to me that talented people figure out a way to make things work with other talented people. Rose may well have not taken them to the promised land; they've been a .500 team for the better part of two years now. But I think they may have won some games here down the stretch that they would've lost if J Rose had been on the floor. And Thomas has to take the heat for not figuring out how to best utilize him. But remember, Thomas is learning on the job, too. He had never been a coach anywhere before sitting on the Indiana bench, and I think he'd admit he made some mistakes his first two seasons, especially where playing time and rotations were concerned.

Is Thomas getting held to a different standard than, say, Alvin Gentry? They both have very precocious, very talented squads that were supposed to make the postseason. I said at the start of the season that if the Clippers finish .500 in the West, they should throw a parade for Gentry.

I don't know that Isiah should get a parade if the Pacers ended up 41-41. Maybe a really well-catered dinner.

I don't think the Pacers should, or will, fire Thomas if they don't make the playoffs. I think they do have to demand better next season. They'll probably have Al Harrington back from his knee injury, Tinsley won't be a rookie anymore and the three guys they got from Chicago will all have the benefit of a full training camp. O'Neal will be the best center in the East and no one should be able to score on Harrington and Artest. The East will remain, well, the East.

No excuses. That's the reality.

ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS

THE TOP 10 1. Sacramento 2. Dallas 3. San Antonio 4. L.A. Lakers 5. New Jersey 6. Detroit 7. Boston 8. Minnesota 9. Portland 10. Orlando THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Houston 26. Memphis 27. Denver 28. Golden State 29. Chicago THE MIDDLE FOURTEEN 11. Charlotte 12. Philadelphia 13. Toronto 14. Seattle 15. Milwaukee 16. Utah 17. Indiana 18. L.A. Clippers 19. Miami 20. Washington 21. Phoenix 22. Atlanta 23. Cleveland 24. New York

Concerns grow over Shaq's health
The Lakers will look at Shaquille O'Neal closely this summer. He may be under stricter orders to watch his weight. While there's little belief that Shaq won't honor the remaining four years of his contract, the reality is a guy that big is going to have more pronounced joint issues as he ages than a smaller man. Tendinitis won't go away as quickly. The chance of bone-on-bone grinding in Shaq's knees will be larger. To that end, the Lakers will be very hands-off when it comes to his pain medication, as they've been this season. If he wants to take the anti-inflammatories for his toe, he can. If he doesn't, they won't push him.

Hornets' ticket to New Orleans
The league was not pleased to read the Charlotte Observer's story chronicalling underreporting of the gate at Hornets games this season. But that in and of itself will not have a whole lot of influence on whether the relocation committee approves the Hornets' move to New Orleans. Forget everything else you see and hear: The only issue is ticket sales -- individual seats and club seats. Those are the numbers that New Orleans has to shore up in the next 10 days. Everything else is in place and passes league muster. And the sense is that New Orleans will get that done.

Around the League
Mark Cuban's instant replay proposal was passed along to the Competition Committee for further review. Under Cuban's proposal, end-of-quarter plays involving a clock would be allowed to be reviewed by officials -- which would have, presumably, changed the refs' call on Lamond Murray's controversial game-winner over the Nets on March 19 and upheld the refs' waving of Kobe Bryant's game-winner against the Celtics a month earlier. ... Qyntel Woods, the juco player that's now a likely top-10 pick, was in Washington last week interviewing agents. ... Sidney Lowe makes his case for Pau Gasol as Rookie of the Year: "He's so talented. He can score the ball, he can pass the ball, he runs the floor, rebounds. If we had a go-to guy, he's our go-to guy. We try to start everything off and run it through him. Most of the time, the first play is for him. Down the stretch, it's him or Jason (Williams). At times, he's carried us. I don't think there should be any question that this guy should be Rookie of the Year. ... He's got a great feel for the game, especially angles. He's a great passer. And his endurance (is surprising). I was shocked. I thought he was going to hit that wall soon, and at one point it looked like he did. But it lasted only two games maybe, and he was right back at it." ... The Portsmouth Tournament didn't work out as advertised, as almost all the top talent stayed home. One GM went back and chronicled the 2001 version, and found that just one of the tournament's 64 players -- Golden State reserve guard Dean Oliver -- made an NBA roster this season.

David Aldridge is an NBA reporter for ESPN.