Matthes’ Manifesto: The Indiana Pacers comprehensive summer preview

The real question for the front court is what to do at power forward, especially if Thad Young opts out. As our Dylan Hughes chronicles, the situation could get tricky. Young wants security, which the Pacers could offer, but at what price?

The Pacers will likely be bidding against themselves if he does opt out, but that might be a bad way to look at it. Young and the Pacers have been good for each other.

A compromise of around $10M per year for three years should be a decent compromise. That is, if Indiana wants to commit to Young.

Kevin Pritchard has spoken of a desire to add more shooting to the power forward position. Of all the many attributes that Young is, a three-point marksman (33% career) is not one of them. So do the Pacers take this opportunity to scour the landscape for other options, while knowing Young’s options are few and far between?

Maybe that’s unnecessary and the added shooting is already on the roster. The easily ridiculed T.J. Leaf did hit 43% of his threes last year, and had double-figure scoring nights on four occasions. And he’s just 20 years old.

Another internal option is Bojan Bogdanovic who might be able to play some minutes as a floor-stretching undersized four. Speaking of Bogdanovic, the Pacers shouldn’t be in too big of a rush to replace him at small forward. Yes, there are more than a couple small forwards than he is, but he’s better than most of the fish in the sea. Bogdanovic spent most of season as Indiana’s only real option at the three, which clearly took it’s toll on him after the Bogey Game. Maybe the Pacers should find him some help.