Are Joe Harris and Doug McDermott potential free agency targets for the Pacers?

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski hinted that the Indiana Pacers might look at Joe Harris and Doug McDermott in free agency now that Will Barton is off the market.

The Indiana Pacers were reportedly interested in signing Denver Nuggets guard Will Barton in free agency, but it appears the six-year veteran won’t be going anywhere.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski once again pulled out his thesaurus and hinted that by the time free agency officially starts, Barton and the Nuggets will make a deal.

However, Woj soon pivoted to other possibilities for the Pacers: Joe Harris and Doug McDermott.

While Indiana’s fans are in no hurry to replace Lance Stephenson, in the cold-blooded world of the NBA, the Pacers need to do just that.

So what do either have to offer over Born Ready? Let’s take every NBA bloggers first shortcut and go to Basketball-Reference and compare their stats. We’ll use Lance as a bit of a baseline for comparing stats.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Of the group, Harris got the most minutes as well as the point points. More importantly, his eFG% was the highest as he willingly took and made 3-pointers. Stephenson stuffed the most stats with his rebounds, assists, and steals, but we all know he is guilty of stat-hunting.

While I’m not interested in sealing away the memories of Stephenson just yet, Harris is the most intriguing of the three if we take away our Lance-bias.

All three players came off the bench last season, but Harris has the most potential to start in the near future. His 3-point shooting is the is not only accurate but comes at the highest rate of the bunch with 4.5 attempts a game.

His defense isn’t perfect but he knows where to be, which means a lot more than you might think it does. He can handle both speed and size as a defender, prompting Mark Deeks to write this about him in his Manifesto. (Go look over it now, it’s great).

"Harris has also made the best of his defensive limitations, too. Not especially quick by NBA standards, Harris has countered by very much bulking up and playing more physically on the wings, by competing, and rotating well. He does his best to stay in front, even against speedsters, and rates out at a pretty average defender on the wings overall. And that is plenty good enough of a defender to be."

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McDermott is the poor man’s version of Harris. He doesn’t shoot as much from deep but is slightly more accurate. While Harris has limits, McDermott just isn’t a defender. He is the biggest player of the three, he is the least interest in the physical play needed on the defensive end.

In Nate McMillan’s defensive system, he would be the easiest player on the court to exploit for opposing offenses. His role with the Pacers would be dependent on his offense as he is excellent off the ball shooter, but one could hope that’s T.J. Leaf’s role to fill going forward.

While our hearts clearly say “BRING BACK LANCE!”, Harris could replace much of what Stephenson brought to the court and frankly improve on it. McDermott would likely be fine as a backup for Indiana but doesn’t have the versatility of Lance or Harris.

Next: Patience is key to offseason success for Pacers

Cold-heartedly, Harris is the best possibility of the three, while Lance’s spark and attitude makes him my second choice. McDermott is a fine player if the Pacers sign him as well, but he’s last on my wishlist among the three.