Short Shooters Are Nothing New for the Indiana Pacers
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers are lacking in size at the guard positions, but there have been some decent shooters and scorers under 6’5″ in team history.
If you throw out Rodney Stuckey at 6’5″, the quartet of the guards left — Aaron Brooks, Joe Young, Monta Ellis, and Jeff Teague — gives the Indiana Pacers back court players an average height of just under 6’2″.
Needless to say, that’s short in the NBA — and this assumes Aaron Brooks is actually 6’0″, as listed, which seems dubious.
More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds
- 2 Studs, 1 dud from gut-wrenching Indiana Pacers loss to Charlotte Hornets
- Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
- 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
- Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?
Adam Lukach of Today’s Fastbreak pointed this out a few days ago and what effect that might have on the team.
"The two of them will join Jeff Teague, Monta Ellis, and Rodney Stuckey in a backcourt that has to be one of the smallest in the NBA. Stuckey is listed as the tallest member of the group at 6-5, but that seems like a real stretch when you see how he looks next to other players on the court.He’s closer to where the rest of the group is, at about 6-2, and Brooks will become the smallest member at 6-0. The Pacers have been gearing up to push the tempo and emphasize a “space-and-pace” style; their backcourt makeup suggests they’re ready to run, run, and then run some more."
This got me wondering about how many short scorers and sharpshooters have played for Indiana, and what their best seasons looked like.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 seasons for short Pacers, in terms of true shooting percentage, according to Basketball-Reference.
For the Pacers, they’ve seen some exceptional seasons from shorter players.
Michael Williams
In the 1990-91 season, Michael Williams had the best of any of these short Pacers with a 60.8 true shooting percentage. He was more of a scorer than a shooter, as the 6’2″ Williams had a 49.9% field goal percentage while shooting 50.4% on 2-pointers and 14.3% on 3-pointers.
In the 1991-92 season, he continued the hot streak with 49% from the field, 50.1% from 2-point range, and 24.2% from beyond the arc. All that was good for a 58.7 TS% — third on this list — and he also averaged 15 points and 8.2 assists per game that season, the best of this top 10.
In both seasons in Indiana, he shot better than 87% from the free throw line. While he wasn’t a Pacer when he accomplished the feat, Williams also hold the record for the most consecutive free throws made in NBA history, hitting 97 straight, when he played with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Byron Scott
At 6’3″ (or 6’4″, depending on who you ask), Byron Scott tied Williams’ second best true shooting percentage in the 1994-95 season with a stat line of 45.5% from the field, 48.9% from 2-point range, and 38.9% from deep. He averaged 10 points a game.
It seems funny Scott seemed hesitant for the Lakers to shoot 3-pointers considering his own ability from there.
Jerry Sichting
The 6’1″, Purdue alumnus Jerry Sichting is next on the list in fourth place with a 56.9 TS%, thanks to a 53.2% FG%, the best out of anyone in this top 10. He shot 53.9% from 2-point range and 30% from downtown. He averaged 11.5 points a game in this 1983-84 season.
Sichting also showed up again with the 7th best true shooting season in the 1984-85 season with a 52.1% FG%. His 2-point shooting was similar at 53.8% but he hit at 24.3% from deep.
It is no wonder he loved shooting jump shots — or Js, as the cool kids call them — as, according to Wikipedia, everyone in his immediate family has names starting with that letter.
After leaving the NBA in 1990, Sichting has served as an assistant coach with the Timberwolves, Marquette, the Golden State Warriors, the Washington Wizards, and the Phoenix Suns.
Travis Best
The shortest and only player under 6-foot on this list is Travis Best with a 56.9 TS% that is good enough for fifth.
Standing at 5’11” didn’t stop Best from averaging 8.9 points a game in the 1999-2000 season. The dribble-happy Best shot 48.3% from the field, splitting it between 50.4% from inside the arc and 37.6% outside of it. Best averaged the same amount of points in the playoffs, as the Indiana Pacers went to the NBA Finals while he averaged 43% from the field.
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson comes up next on our list in sixth while standing a 6’1″ ( or 6’3″, whatever), and shooting more impressively from 3-point range than anyone in this group.
His shooting from deep gave him a 56.8 TS% due to Jackson shooting 43% from beyond the arc, and 48.6% inside it, for a 47.3% FG% in the 1995-96 season.
George Hill
George Hill shows up next with a 56.3 TS% while standing 6’3″ during the 2013-14 season, good for eighth place.
The Hometown Hero shot 44.2% from the field while making 49.7% of his 2-pointers and 36.5% on 3-pointers. It was his inside shooting that made him more of a scorer than a shooter at this point in his career. We saw in the 2015-16 season where those roles reversed — he shot 40.8% from deep and 46.6% from inside — but that performance wasn’t within the top 10, as last season was only good for 12th all-time in TS% at 55.5.
Where Hill does show up again in the top 10 is in the final spot, sandwiching in Sarunas Jasikevicius at No. 9, which we’ll get to in a second.
Hill’s other top TS% season (55.8) came in 2012-13 when he shot 44.3% from the field, 49.4% on 2-pointers, and 36.8% on 3-pointers.
Sarunas Jasikevicius | PointAfter
Sarunas Jasikevicius
The tallest of this group stands at 6’4″, and Sarunas Jaskikevicius’ 2005-06 campaign saw a 56.1 TS%, putting the Lithuanian in the No. 10 spot.
Jaskikevicius had a 39.6 FG% while making 43.5% of his 2-pointers and 36.4% on 3-pointers while averaging 7.3 points.
After leaving the NBA in 2007 and playing internationally, Jasikevicius ended his career with Žalgiris Kaunas in 2014, before going on to be an assistant, and now the head coach, of the Euroleague team.
Best, Jackson, and Hill appear again in the top 25 TS% seasons in Pacers’ history, along with C.J. Watson, Jarrett Jack, Fred Jones, Erick Strickland, Darrell Armstrong, Ricky Pierce, Scott Skiles, Don Buse, Darren Collison, Jim Thomas, T.J. Ford, and D.J. Augustin.
Height matters in the NBA, and being tall certainly makes things easier. But as these players have shown, it isn’t impossible for short guys to be successful.
While these were the best 10 seasons, all but Young of the current group have a TS% of 52% or better, which would put them in good company of the Pacers all-time short shooters.
Next: ESPN Predicts 45 Wins for the Indiana Pacers
There is still reason to be nervous about how this all works out, but being short doesn’t mean there will be a problem for these guards as far as shooting goes.