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10 Observations About The Indiana Pacers At The Season’s Halfway Point

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  • #1

    10 Observations About The Indiana Pacers At The Season’s Halfway Point

    1. Domantas Sabonis is an All-Star.

    Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard made one thing very clear at his end-of-season press conference last year: he wanted to get Domantas Sabonis more playing time. “We’ve got to figure out how to get him a bigger role," he said of the Lithuanian big.

    Now it’s clear why Pritchard made it a point to get Sabonis more minutes. He is tearing up the league this season, posting averages of 18.1 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. He is the only player in the entire association eclipsing the 18 point and 13 rebound barrier, his production has been unmatched.

    Sabonis is inside the top-10 in All-Star votes for frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference. He almost certainly won’t be named a starter, but when the players, media, and coaches get involved in the voting process, the Pacers stud man in the middle should be on an All-Star roster.
    6. Victor Oladipo’s return is going to create a tough decision about the rotation.

    Victor Oladipo coming back and playing in games is undoubtedly a good thing for the Pacers, but it does create a logjam in Head Coach Nate McMillan’s rotation.

    Oladipo will play north of 25 minutes per game eventually, which means someone else is going to lose playing time, and perhaps their entire spot in the rotation, upon his return.

    At this moment in time, the Pacers coaching staff has given no hints about which player it will be. Jeremy Lamb will move to the bench when the All-Star returns, and Doug McDermott’s shooting will keep him in the rotation no matter what. The other three non-starting components of the nine-man rotation, T.J. McConnell, Aaron Holiday, and Justin Holiday, are all candidates to see their minutes greatly reduced.

    Because Aaron Holiday and McConnell both play similar positions, it seems more likely that it will be one of those two players that is forced to sit and watch once Oladipo is back. But nobody will know for sure until January 29th.
    9. The Pacers’ double-center lineups have worked... so far.

    Indiana is experimenting with a heavily-featured lineup that contains two centers in Sabonis and Myles Turner. Before the season, many wondered how well this group would do in a league that is shifting away from massive size and more towards versatile players.

    So far, the two bigs have shown that they contain the versatility to keep up with the smaller players. On offense, they have little trouble scoring; the Pacers have a 111.3 offensive rating when the two centers share the court.

    The team has made things look easy even with two giants roaming the floor. Sabonis has mastered the ability to be a hub with the ball; he fakes dribble-handoffs while twisting and turning his body to create space for guards multiple times every game. Turner is mastering how to play as a power forward on offense; he is more adept at finding open areas on the perimeter and posting up when opponents switch smaller guys on to him. Put together, Indiana has no problem generating points with the two centers on the court.
    On defense, the story of success is similar. The Pacers are only giving up 105 points per 100 possessions with Turbonis lineups on the court, a tidy number. Turner continues to excel corralling pick-and-rolls due to his elite ability to execute drop coverage, and his freakish speed rotating from the weak side to contest shots makes him one of the better defensive bigs in the league. Sabonis, meanwhile, has gotten better defending away from the rim and is brutish when defending other large players. He is versatile and smart enough to be a plus defender.

    The two players have skills that combine well, and they fit with the perimeter players that Indiana has around them. It remains to be seen how effective the duo can be in the postseason, but the first half of this season has been encouraging.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeas.../#27ccd48b64fb
    Last edited by pimpis zajoba; 01-17-2020, 09:11 AM.
    Tags: None
    • 2 likes
  • #2
    For those not just fixated on Domas:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeas.../#27ccd48b64fb

    10 Observations About The Indiana Pacers At The Season’s Halfway Point
    Tony East
    I cover the Indiana Pacers and NBA players from the state of Indiana

    The Indiana Pacers have officially played half of their 82 basketball games after winning on Wednesday in Minnesota. The Pacers sit at 26-15, which is just one win fewer than the 27 wins they had last season at the halfway point.

    Last year, though, the Pacers had star guard Victor Oladipo playing for them in the first half of the season. This year they haven’t had that luxury, with Oladipo missing all 41 games and not returning until later this month. That makes their 26 wins even more impressive.

    The next 41 battles may have even more intrigue as the team regains their star and builds off of the first fifty percent of the year. This Indiana team is good and will spend the second half of the season looking to bank wins and potentially host a playoff series in the first round. If things go as well as they did before the season’s bisection, they will have a shot to grab a top-four seed.

    What did we learn about the blue and gold in the first 41 games that will be relevant for the second 41? Let’s take a look at 10 things that were discovered about this Indiana Pacers team in the first half of the season.

    1. Domantas Sabonis is an All-Star.

    Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard made one thing very clear at his end-of-season press conference last year: he wanted to get Domantas Sabonis more playing time. “We’ve got to figure out how to get him a bigger role," he said of the Lithuanian big.

    Now it’s clear why Pritchard made it a point to get Sabonis more minutes. He is tearing up the league this season, posting averages of 18.1 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. He is the only player in the entire association eclipsing the 18 point and 13 rebound barrier, his production has been unmatched.

    Sabonis is inside the top-10 in All-Star votes for frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference. He almost certainly won’t be named a starter, but when the players, media, and coaches get involved in the voting process, the Pacers stud man in the middle should be on an All-Star roster.

    2. The Pacers have an incredibly deep roster.

    The Pacers have had 14 different players play in over ten games this season. That speaks to both the depth on the roster and the number of injuries the team has had so far.

    When looking at the nine players in the team’s rotation, they have missed a combined 38 games, and that doesn’t even account for Oladipo missing all 41. Because of that, other players have had to step up, and they’ve filled in ably.

    JaKarr Sampson has 13 appearances this year and combines strong defense with a team-leading field goal percentage. Edmond Sumner frequently provides a spark to the second unit. Goga Bitadze, T.J. Leaf, and Naz Mitrou-Long have all contributed to key wins throughout the season. Were it not for these players and their intermittent contributions, the Pacers would have a smaller number of wins. That speaks to the depth on Indiana’s roster, and that depth has kept them in the thick of the battle for a top-four seed.

    3. The Pacers can’t get to the free throw line.

    I wrote about this back in November, and since then, not much has changed. The blue and gold struggle to get to the charity stripe.

    The team is currently taking 19.3 free throws per game, the lowest figure in the league. This is in spite of the fact that the Pacers have hit 79.5 percent of their free throws, the seventh best percentage in the NBA.

    Free throws are the best possible ending to a possession, they have the highest expected value of any trip down the court. The Pacers offense would be better off it could generate a few more free throw attempts every game. Oladipo’s return will help, but the first 41 games weren’t promising in terms of getting to the line.

    4. Justin Holiday can shoot the ball from deep.

    Justin Holiday has been a decent scorer for most of his career. But he’s never been known for his outside shooting. In fact, it was almost seen as a limitation in his skill set prior to this season; his career high shooting percentage before coming to Indiana was just 35.9% from the outside.

    So far in the 2019-20 campaign, Holiday has shown major improvement with his three-pointer. He’s hitting over 40 percent from deep on the year, and many of those shots have come off the dribble, shots that have an increased degree of difficulty. He’s been a needed perimeter threat for this Pacers team.

    What’s more is that Holiday has canned 42.2 percent of his corner threes this season, a fantastic figure that comes in as the third-best of his career. His outside shooting is not something the Pacers thought they could rely on, but Holiday has increased the spacing on the court and has been efficient this season. His offensive output has been great, and the Pacers bench has been better for it.

    5. The Pacers rarely turn the ball over.

    The Pacers have multiple high-IQ playmakers on the roster, which allows them to effectively move the ball to create good shots.

    In addition to that, the cerebral ball-handlers on the squad have been great keeping the ball in Indiana’s hands. T.J. McConnell, Malcolm Brogdon, and Aaron Holiday have all shown brilliant flashes running Indiana’s offense and setting the tempo for the team, and part of that is not turning the ball over.

    So far in the 2019-20 campaign, the Pacers have only turned the ball over 12.9 times per game, tied for the best figure in the league. That has value, all the extra possessions have been huge for Indiana’s success; the blue and gold have won seven of the ten games in which they turned the ball over fewer than ten times. Taking care of the ball gets the Pacers wins, and most players on the roster are smart and careful with the rock.

    6. Victor Oladipo’s return is going to create a tough decision about the rotation.

    Victor Oladipo coming back and playing in games is undoubtedly a good thing for the Pacers, but it does create a logjam in Head Coach Nate McMillan’s rotation.

    Oladipo will play north of 25 minutes per game eventually, which means someone else is going to lose playing time, and perhaps their entire spot in the rotation, upon his return.

    At this moment in time, the Pacers coaching staff has given no hints about which player it will be. Jeremy Lamb will move to the bench when the All-Star returns, and Doug McDermott’s shooting will keep him in the rotation no matter what. The other three non-starting components of the nine-man rotation, T.J. McConnell, Aaron Holiday, and Justin Holiday, are all candidates to see their minutes greatly reduced.

    Because Aaron Holiday and McConnell both play similar positions, it seems more likely that it will be one of those two players that is forced to sit and watch once Oladipo is back. But nobody will know for sure until January 29th.

    7. The Pacers can beat any team in the league.

    In just the first 41 games of the season, the Pacers scrapped 14 times with teams that have won more than 60% of their games. They won six of them, with wins over the 76ers, Jazz, Lakers, Celtics, and Raptors.

    Indiana has shown that they can beat almost anyone, especially at home. That will be valuable come playoff time, especially if the blue and gold are able to host a series in the first round of the postseason. They should be able to compete with any non-Bucks team in series, and they have proven that in the first half of this season.

    8. T.J. Warren is a well-rounded player.

    Everyone knew T.J. Warren could score before he came to Indiana. He averaged 18 points per game or more in each of the prior two seasons before being traded in the summer.

    But Warren is showing that he is more than just a scorer. After a surprising uptick in three-point shooting percentage this past season, he has continued the production from deep. He’s hit 36.6% of his over three attempts per game from outside the arc, two numbers that emphasize how useful Warren has been as a shooter when open.

    On defense, the former Phoenix Sun has grown from one of the worst defenders in the NBA to a capable one who has made some highlight plays:


    Warren’s scoring is what defines him as a player. He is a master of floaters and finishes seemingly every shot he takes around the rim. Puny defenders are no match for him; he’s a tremendous scorer.

    But his development in other key areas of basketball have transformed him from an empty stats guys to an impactful wing. He can fit with almost any other four players around him. The Pacers have to be thrilled with his development, especially when considering they only had to trade cash to get him.

    9. The Pacers’ double-center lineups have worked... so far.

    Indiana is experimenting with a heavily-featured lineup that contains two centers in Sabonis and Myles Turner. Before the season, many wondered how well this group would do in a league that is shifting away from massive size and more towards versatile players.

    So far, the two bigs have shown that they contain the versatility to keep up with the smaller players. On offense, they have little trouble scoring; the Pacers have a 111.3 offensive rating when the two centers share the court.

    The team has made things look easy even with two giants roaming the floor. Sabonis has mastered the ability to be a hub with the ball; he fakes dribble-handoffs while twisting and turning his body to create space for guards multiple times every game. Turner is mastering how to play as a power forward on offense; he is more adept at finding open areas on the perimeter and posting up when opponents switch smaller guys on to him. Put together, Indiana has no problem generating points with the two centers on the court.

    On defense, the story of success is similar. The Pacers are only giving up 105 points per 100 possessions with Turbonis lineups on the court, a tidy number. Turner continues to excel corralling pick-and-rolls due to his elite ability to execute drop coverage, and his freakish speed rotating from the weak side to contest shots makes him one of the better defensive bigs in the league. Sabonis, meanwhile, has gotten better defending away from the rim and is brutish when defending other large players. He is versatile and smart enough to be a plus defender.

    The two players have skills that combine well, and they fit with the perimeter players that Indiana has around them. It remains to be seen how effective the duo can be in the postseason, but the first half of this season has been encouraging.

    10. The Pacers are better than almost anyone expected.

    Nobody thought the Pacers would have 26 wins at this point in the season. Some didn’t expect them to make the playoffs at all, and most didn’t think this team would be on pace for 52 wins.

    But here they are. They’re 16-5 at home. They have a top-10 defense and a near top-10 offense. Perhaps the most important thing learned about the Indiana Pacers across the first half of the season is that they are a damn good basketball team. The scary part is that they have room to get better.
    BillS

    A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
    Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...
    • 6 likes

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    • #3
      Originally posted by BillS View Post
      For those not just fixated on Domas:

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyeas.../#27ccd48b64fb
      Hmmm...i did provided link to the article ...so....hmm..

      Comment

      • #4
        Domantas Sabonis says it would be ‘amazing’ to be an All-Star

        http://www.indianasportscoverage.com...e-an-all-star/
        • 1 like

        Comment

        • #5
          When I saw how new guys were playing on a team - big grin lightened my face. Roster is LOADED. Brogdon is big, smart, reliable (except for the injuries), Warren is a silent assassin, Justin and Lamb are tall, long, can defend and score, McCollen is a bad dude and Domas managed to get even better during the summer.
          Myles? I wish Myles would be better but it is what it is. He needs a sports shrink and a boot camp in the jungles to get into shape. Last game in Minnesota everybody was backing down Myles in the paint. Ugly.
          12-12-2018, 09:20 PM


          Myles Turner during Vic's postgame interview: "Tell you what the East is in trouble now boy"

          .

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by bball_nomad View Post
            When I saw how new guys were playing on a team - big grin lightened my face. Roster is LOADED. Brogdon is big, smart, reliable (except for the injuries), Warren is a silent assassin, Justin and Lamb are tall, long, can defend and score, McCollen is a bad dude and Domas managed to get even better during the summer.
            Myles? I wish Myles would be better but it is what it is. He needs a sports shrink and a boot camp in the jungles to get into shape. Last game in Minnesota everybody was backing down Myles in the paint. Ugly.


            ...not you as well...as if Myles dose't have enough haters.One day you realize what a sacrifice Myles made and tattoo his face on your... you have pretty good idea what
            • 2 likes

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            • #7
              Domantas Sabonis believes the Pacers have exceeded expectations so far

              http://www.indianasportscoverage.com...ations-so-far/

              Comment

              • #8
                One thing I'm noticing, and it's not the most glaring flaw, but it does seem to be a trend that rears its head.

                The Pacers are very talented across the board, but they don't excel or dominate in any one area. It's weird and I like them to Miami in that regard. They seem like they shouldn't be this good...but they are, without being exceptional in any particular sense.

                We're solid defensively, but not elite. We have troubling defensive lapses (and that includes rebounding) and don't show much ability to truly "lock down" opponents in key moments. We don't *have* a defensive killer like a Young or an Artest (sorry). I see a strong tram effort to defend effectively. I don't see that attitude kick in, in key moments, where we seek to destroy. This team is Myles in a nutshell: pesky but not threatening. It suggests, come at us with your head lowered and we can be moved.

                We're an excellent 3pt shooting team, but don't shoot enough volume that teams go out of their way to defend our outside shot. We're a high percentage 2pt team, last I looked I think we were top 5 in 2pt FG%, but strangely, just slightly above average when it comes to points in the paint & we're almost dead last in trips to the line.

                What's our calling card, what do we kill our opponents with? Equality, efficiency, taking care of the ball.

                For us to really take the next step, I think we need to locate our identity and home in on that. We need to go from good to great defensively, whether through scheme, player additions, or just determination. Personally, I think we are really missing Young or a bruiser who can come off the bench to be our junkyard dog.

                It's been a long time since I felt like we have the raw talent to compete with anyone. Now we do, and it's less about finding another all-star or shooting specialist, it's now about that final piece who personifies that team identity.
                Last edited by OneMoreYear; 01-17-2020, 10:29 PM.
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                • #9
                  Originally posted by OneMoreYear View Post
                  One thing I'm noticing, and it's not the most glaring flaw, but it does seem to be a trend that rears its head.

                  The Pacers are very talented across the board, but they don't excel or dominate in any one area. It's weird and I like them to Miami in that regard. They seem like they shouldn't be this good...but they are, without being exceptional in any particular sense.

                  We're solid defensively, but not elite. We have troubling defensive lapses (and that includes rebounding) and don't show much ability to truly "lock down" opponents in key moments. We don't *have* a defensive killer like a Young or an Artest (sorry). I see a strong tram effort to defend effectively. I don't see that attitude kick in, in key moments, where we seek to destroy. This team is Myles in a nutshell: pesky but not threatening. It suggests, come at us with your head lowered and we can be moved.

                  We're an excellent 3pt shooting team, but don't shoot enough volume that teams go out of their way to defend our outside shot. We're a high percentage 2pt team, last I looked I think we were top 5 in 2pt FG%, but strangely, just slightly above average when it comes to points in the paint & we're almost dead last in trips to the line.

                  What's our calling card, what do we kill our opponents with? Equality, efficiency, taking care of the ball.

                  For us to really take the next step, I think we need to locate our identity and home in on that. We need to go from good to great defensively, whether through scheme, player additions, or just determination. Personally, I think we are really missing Young or a bruiser who can come off the bench to be our junkyard dog.

                  It's been a long time since I felt like we have the raw talent to compete with anyone. Now we do, and it's less about finding another all-star or shooting specialist, it's now about that final piece who personifies that team identity.
                  They don't excel or dominate in any one area because they have a lot of good solid players. This is unlike when they had guys like Monte Ellis, Tyreke Evans, Rodney Stuckey, etc. Many of the combo guards the Pacers acquired during Bird's reign (he loved that type) weren't good team players. They liked to think they were Allen Iverson or James Harden but none could play that mano mano game with any effectiveness.

                  So now we have a number of good pieces. While the team itself doesn't fit together that well we have a lot of good but not great players. We actually don't have a guy on the active roster who is clearly an all-star level player like we had with JO, Reggie, Artest and PG. Even Granger is better than our best current player (Domas)...IMO.

                  So to your last sentence, no we don't have the raw talent to compete with just anyone. That's actually going to be the problem that surfaces in April. We do have the talent to steam roll 2/3rds of the league so our record will be very good.

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                  • #10
                    [QUOTE=BlueNGold;n3488714]

                    They don't excel or dominate in any one area because they have a lot of good solid players. This is unlike when they had guys like Monte Ellis, Tyreke Evans, Rodney Stuckey, etc. Many of the combo guards the Pacers acquired during Bird's reign (he loved that type) weren't good team players./QUOTE]

                    I think you misunderstand me.

                    I am not taking about the domination of any particular player. I mean to say that the team itself is not dominating in any area, be it offense, defense, rebounding, physicality, pace, etc. We do not have any particular thing we can hang our collective hat on. I think everyone wants to hang that on a defensive identity, but at the moment, I don't think that's good enough to be a source of pride or identity.

                    Even during the middling times, or in the JOB era, we had a strength. It may not have gotten us anywhere, but we knew what that team did well.

                    My point is that we have more overall talent, IMHO, than we've had in a long, long time. We can shoot the lights out. We can play stifling D. We can have guys take over when needed and will us to victory. I've seen all those things happen. For us to improve, and truly compete, we still need to decide what kind of team we are and embrace that. Do we take our Defense as a source of pride & not just a switch to flip when needed? Do we go to war every night making it a point to bloody their noses a bit? I argue that we can & occasionally have, we already have a good team D & may perhaps need to invest in another enforcer type player...but more importantly, commit to that mentality for 48 min a game, as a mantra and an identity. That's not happening yet.

                    Or, perhaps, do we recognize the elite (yes, it IS elite) level of scoring efficiency this team shows, being top 5 of the league in both 2pt and 3pt FG%, & accept that a faster pace and higher 3pt volume will accentuate this advantage & let us outgun most of the teams in this league?

                    Shocking stat: we are as of now the ONLY team in the top 5 for BOTH 2pt and 3pt percentages. That's real, and that is telling. Case in point, we don't capitalize on that as much as we could due to playing at a slower pace.

                    We have the tools to be great...we need only to recognize the things we're showing to be elite at, embrace those advantages,and live (or die) by them. That may mean making hard choices about the fit of our current roster.

                    Miami? Miami is overachieving because they've done that. We're more talented IMO, but they're committed to their identity.
                    Last edited by OneMoreYear; 01-18-2020, 01:26 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Interesting line of reasoning. Thank you for that. Could our identity be that we are very good at almost everything, which keeps us around in games and that our thing that is elite is our execution in clutch situations? Dipo has that in him to an extreme factor. And Malcolm is no slouch either.

                      Of course, I see Nate's end of game tactics or utter lack there of as a problem, but is that not what you mean?
                      Trying to enjoy every Pacers game as if it is the last!

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                      • #12
                        I actually consider Justin Holiday to be an elite level defender that can guard anything from a point guard to a small stretch 4. He's even been tasked with LBJ and did as well as you could expect.


                        Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13
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