8p9s Roundtable: Looking back at what the Pacers did; looking forward to what’s next
By Ryan Eggers
Outside of Victor Oladipo, who has been the second best player on the team *this year*?
Matthes: Sabonis. Especially considering his relatively “light” workload. He’s not playing starter minutes, but he’s the team’s leading rebounder, a tremendous passer, and a reliable scorer. The answer should be Turner but he’s been too inconsistent.
Myles needs to be consistently great and he seems to either be great or irrelevant. Domas has been consistently very good all season. When he finally begins to get calls from the referees and make those perimeter shots, with consistency, he’ll be an animal.
Furr: That’s a much harder question that I would’ve guessed pre-season. Bojan Bogdanovic is the Pacers 2nd leading scorer (barely), but is an absolute sieve defensively. Darren Collison has been sublime on offense, but only slightly better than sieve like on defense.
Myles Turner is averaging more than double as many blocks as anyone else and is 3rd on the team in scoring, but has been noticeably worse than last year. Domas Sabonis even deserves consideration; he’s manned the 5 position admirably in Turner’s absence, and is a double-double monster when he starts.
On the whole though, I’m going to go with Thad Young. He had a chunk of games where he struggled after being injured, but I think he’s been the Pacers 2nd best player overall. Thad always seems to contribute something. He’s come up with 5 steals one game, 10 rebounds another, 13-8 the next. Thad Young is awesome.
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Lane: To me it’s Darren Collison. Last season Jeff Teague was seen as the guy who was going to come in and lead this offense, and unfortunately you never really saw that at a high level. This season on a “prove-it deal” DC was tasked with the same duty, and he has succeeded mightily.
While 13 points, 5 assists, and almost 3 rebounds per game don’t sound like a lot, his ability to take care of the ball (1.3 per game – the lowest in his career) while leading the offense to the 4th most points per game in the league, has been nothing short of spectacular. Collison & Oladipo are a threat to combine for 45+ on any given night, and it’s been a huge reason for the Pacers surprise start.
Gibson: I can’t pick between Darren Collison and Domantas Sabonis. You could really throw Thaddeus Young in there, but I’m going to exclude him because we already know how much I love him.
Collison is having the best year of his career as far as shooting goes. He hits 49.5% of his shots, and 43.2% of his 3-point attempts. But more important than his shooting efficiency is his assists to turnover ratio. Again, another career-high. He gives out 4 assists for every turnover. Collison keeps the offense running smoothly and is the perfect partner for Oladipo.
Domantas is already a double-double level talent, as we see that when he starts. The injuries to Myles Turner opened the door for him to prove that, and he already defied the modest expectations set for him.
The question now is just how good he can be. His basketball IQ gives me plenty of hope for his potential. He created a scenario where you can argue he should start, which no one expected when the trade happened.
Eggers: I’m gonna give this team a lot of credit for having such evenly impactful role players around Oladipo. But if I had to pick one, I’m going with Darren Collison. He’s been extremely efficient and is the type of point guard that Oladipo needs alongside him to excel.
He’s the only player on the team who hasn’t had their 3P% crash back to earth after the hot start to the season, and he’s extremely close to what would be the most out-of-the-blue 50-40-90 season ever. As a human who is obsessed with round numbers,
I’ll be closely following Collison once he’s back from injury to see if he can pull off the accomplishment. Anyway, he’s been great, and the second-best player on the team this year.