The Indiana Pacers frontcourt is above average and only getting better.
When the 2015-16 season began, the idea of an Indiana Pacers front court that featured Ian Mahinmi sounded like a recipe for disaster, especially on the offensive end.
But now going into the 2016-17 season, it seems strange to think of a front court without him after he averaged 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds and looked like an NBA starting center.
It isn’t as if he’s the key to the front court, but with him guarding the rim and Myles Turner providing backup, it allows Paul George to play in his natural position of small forward and take the opponents best player on as his assignment.
According to the PointAfter, Paul George did the heavy lifting in the group, but Mahinmi and Turner played important roles as well. They ranked them the 11th best frontcourt in the league.
"Basketball remains a team sport, but Paul George was a one-man wrecking crew for Indiana. He finished the season with 9.2 win shares (three more than any of his teammates) and a BPM of 4.5 (next-closest was Ian Mahinmi at 2.4).That shouldn’t take away from contributions from Mahinmi — who should see a big pay raise this summer as a free agent — or Turner. Nevertheless, PG13 was the man once again."
Again, the fit of all three players together is what made it work so well for the Pacers last season on both ends of the floor. George and Turner supplied the offense, but Mahinmi started to have double-digit scoring games more often as the season came to a close.
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As they head into this offseason, they need to seriously consider how much they want to pay for the Frenchman’s services. Mahinmi will garner some interest from other teams in the NBA, but his comments have indicated a desire to stay with the Pacers. Unless someone wants to overpay him, Indiana will likely re-sign him.
Of course, there are drawbacks to signing Mahinmi as well. In the playoffs, Jonas Valanciunas turned Mahinmi into a non-factor in Game 1, and it wasn’t until Game 4 that Mahinmi had a positive plus-minus. Sure he scored 22 points in a playoff game (against Bismack Biyombo even), but in the 7 game series he averaged 8.1 points and 5.1 rebounds and was a slight negative according to several of the advanced metrics. Mahinmi’s value comes on the defensive end, but Turner and George can make up for the Big Baguette’s offensive inefficiencies. His floor his pretty high, but at 29, his ceiling has already been found.
If the Pacers can’t keep Mahinmi, they’ll have to look to free agency to replace him. The top centers likely available include Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond, Hassan Whiteside, Joakim Noah, and Biyombo. But if the Pacers aren’t willing to pay Mahinmi, it doesn’t seem likely they could afford any of those players. They’d likely have to settle for someone like Zaza Pachulia, Nenê… or Roy Hibbert.
The Pacers were successful with Mahinmi playing the center position in 2015-16, which also allowed Myles and PG to play in their more natural positions. Turner can player center if needed, but then the Pacers would have to find upgrades at both forward positions in free agency and recalibrate their offense once more.
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Unless the Pacers are going to make a big splash in free agency, using their cap room to retain Mahinmi’s services might be their best bet.