Newest Indiana Pacer: Get ready for Tyreke Evans

The Indiana Pacers’ replacement for Lance Stephenson has arrived. Tyreke Evans, East beware.

The Indiana Pacers certainly have their type, don’t they?

A thrice-discarded player, who entered the NBA with wide acclaim only to see that acclaim evaporate and is now looking to valid himself on a basketball team regularly overlooked nationwide.

In various ways that could describe over half of the roster. From Victor Oladipo to Doug McDermott the roster is full of players who had to earn adulation. In other words: welcome to the club, Tyreke Evans. Adrian Wojnarowski announced today that the Pacers are bringing in Evans on a one year, $12 million deal:

While a physically comparable, Evans is better than Lance Stephenson at most everything. He shoots 20% better from the field. Evans flirted with 40% from three last year while Stephenson flirted with 30%. Their respective assist to turnover ratios are, well, not close (Evans +2.9, Stephenson +1.3). If the popular question was why did Indiana let Lance go, there’s the answer: to replace him with a better player.

On offense, it’s difficult to find a better engine for a second unit than Evans. He’s the full package. He can score both close and far. Tyreke is at his best when working off of a good screener. Someone like Domantas Sabonis. He’s not a one-trick pony. While he likes to use the screens to create space for an open three, he has no issue with driving to, and finishing at, the basket. Not that he needs screens, Evans can create for himself or be a one-man fast break. While he’s at his best with the ball in his hand, he’s doesn’t space out much when he’s off-ball. Evans stays engaged, moves well off-ball, and is an excellent scorer off the catch.

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He dominates offensive possessions, but the ball doesn’t just stop when it finds him. He was fourth in the league in assists among NBA players who started at least 20 games on the bench (Spencer Dinwiddie, JJ Barea, and Lou Williams, were the three above him). He has a quiver full of passing options. He can hit bullseyes from 40 feet. Draw double teams and find open players. Find cutters on drives. And just do the old-fashioned set the teammate up and let him work.

All of this should be encouraging in light of the Pacers seven-game defeat at the hand of the Cavaliers. Cleveland’s main defense was to force the ball out of Oladipo’s hands by hurling double (and sometimes triple) teams at him not long as he crossed half court. The Pacers didn’t have a consistent option to punish Cleveland. It worked then. With Evans, that trick won’t work now.

Evans in the Lance role (second unit orchestrater) would be a tall task for opposing defenses to combat. Evans on his own is more dangerous than Lance was, but then pair him with a versatile post player like Sabonis, plus a couple 40% three-point shooters (McDermott and Leaf), along with the steady Cory Joseph and Indiana will likely have one of the better second units in the league.

The flip side is that Tyreke Evans and this unit won’t be conducting a defensive clinic. While Leaf is spending the summer focusing on defensive drills and positioning, he’s got a long way to go. McDermott needs to transform too, but transformations are possible. Bogdanovic was one of the worst defenders in the NBA a year before he came to Indiana, he was competent by playoff-time. That’s no guarantee that such a development will happen for McDermott, but it’s a reason to hope.

Evans is no Andre Iguodala defensively. By some measures, he was actually one of the better perimeter defenders in the league. Under those same standards, it could be argued that Lance, in spite of his gusto, was one of the worst. In analytical minds, Evans would be an improvement over Stephenson, which admittedly doesn’t pass the eye test, but sometimes the numbers and eyes relay different information. Evans doesn’t look impressive on defense. He embodies whatever notch is just above “meh”. Normally Memphis would stash him on the least dangerous opposing player, hiding him on someone who couldn’t do that much damage.

In a straight five-on-five lineup change that would be tough for Indiana to do. Joseph can hold his own, Sabonis is fine but was already overwhelmed last year when opposing wings slipped through the porous Pacer reserve backcourt. Evans will have to guard somebody. At the same time, there will be less dangerous players to guard since he’ll be playing against reserves. So it might not be that big of a problem. His liabilities will be further mitigated if Indy goes with mixed lineups, playing him with Oladipo, Joseph and Thad Young (or even Bogdanovic) will allow Indy to hide better.

There are a few other areas of potential concern. Tyreke Evans has had two outstanding seasons in his career, his first and his last. In between were frustration and inconsistency. Likewise, long-term investments in players who had a career-year nine seasons in his career can come back to haunt teams. Will he be able to replicate his strong 2017-18 now that he’s playing on a competitive team? That’s an issue for him in the past, as have been injures. Only twice has he played more than 70 games in a season, and he averages less than 60 games played per season. Although, for most of his career, he’s played on losing teams who are invested on making sure he’s 110% before he (and other good players) comes back from injury, wink wink.

A final currently unanswered question would be to his fit with Oladipo. Tyreke Evans is best when orchestrating, but the Pacers will be much better with Oladipo orchestrating in clutch moments than Evans. Will Evans be a good soldier and modify his game to play with Oladipo? No matter what, the second unit will be his to control, but can Indiana maximize Evans’ signing by figuring out how he plays with Indy’s all-star? That question will be left up to the coaching staff, Oladipo and most importantly Evans.

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It would be hard to look at this signing and not recognize that the Pacers have improved. Indiana now has two separate units that surround a dynamic attacking guard with shooters that with punishing any team that tries to double. Indiana has improved the depth behind its steady starting five. The eight and nine-man rotation has improved, as well. Is it enough to advance further in the playoffs? Time will tell.