The Indiana Pacers addressed many of their bench issues with a mixture of playmakers, shooters, and underappreciated players.
The fans will miss Lance Stephenson, but once they see the new Indiana Pacers bench on the floor, they’re going to love the new guys.
Thanks to several internal and external dynamics, there wasn’t an opportunity for the Pacers to make a splash in free agency if they wanted to. Outside of LeBron James, there hasn’t been a ton of big player movement in free agency or the trade market.
Other writers, like SB Nation’s Paul Flannery, noticed the Pacers got better in free agency while most teams were busy chasing the biggest names. Indiana simply addressed their needs with a number of advantageous signings that improved the bench.
The Pacers bench wasn’t overly lacking last season — just slightly below the league average last season — but like many NBA benches, it gave up more points than it scored.
With the additions of Tyreke Evans, Doug McDermott, and Kyle O’Quinn to support Cory Joseph and Domantas Sabonis, Indiana’s bench has a real shot to be one of the best units in the NBA.
Indiana’s second unit was led by Lance Stephenson last season, a one-man wrecking ball who’s momentum wasn’t always in control. It’s a chicken and the egg sort of question as two whether his teammates needed him to play the way he did or if his style minimized their impact at times.
Stephenson led the way while Cory Joseph and Domantas Sabonis handled defense and scoring for the most part. A rotating crew of Al Jefferson, T.J. Leaf, and Joe Young took up the rest of those minutes.
This season, however, the bench mob is getting a makeover.
In one form or another, the second unit lineup will be CoJo at the point, Evans as the shooting guard, McBuckets as the small forward, with O’Quinn and Sabonis handling the frontcourt duties.
And they are going to make you miss Lance a little less.
Why the Pacers bench will be better
For starters, they upgraded several of their positions. Tyreke Evans is a better shooter, more efficient scorer, and shared the ball better while turning it over less than Stephenson last year.
| Player | Season | G | MP | PER | TS% | FTr | TRB% | AST% | STL% | TOV% | USG% | OBPM | DBPM | BPM | VORP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyreke Evans | 2017-18 | 52 | 1607 | 21.1 | .561 | .258 | 9.5 | 31.2 | 1.8 | 11.5 | 28.4 | 4.4 | -0.8 | 3.6 | 2.3 |
| Lance Stephenson | 2017-18 | 82 | 1850 | 12.4 | .495 | .179 | 12.9 | 18.6 | 1.2 | 14.7 | 21.6 | -2.0 | -0.1 | -2.1 | 0.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Yes, Evans has dealt with injuries the past few seasons, but if he doesn’t miss significant time, it’s hard to see him not being the key to turning Indiana’s bench into a consistently positive force. His 19.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists a game will likely dip as he won’t be starting, but he is set up to be one of the NBA’s best sixth-men next season.
He is an improvement over Stephenson on the court, even if he isn’t in your heart.
If Evans was the only addition, the bench still would be headed in the right direction, but McDermott almost undoubtedly pushed the bench over the hump from negative to positive.
Circling back to Tyreke for a moment, he was one of the Association’s more prolific drivers last season, and he was more likely to score than not when he did. A third of the time he passed the ball off drives and 10% of the time that ended in an assist. In comparison, Lance was less likely to pass into an assist or finish the play himself than Evans.
So when Evans drives and kicks this season, he is going to have McBuckets standing there to knock down 3-pointers. McDermott was in the 84th percentile on spot-up opportunities last season, thanks to making 44.2 percent of his looks.
That’s something the Pacers didn’t have reliably last season. The bench was more or less Joseph and Lance sharing ball-handling opportunities while a rotating cast of characters played with those two and Sabonis.
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It was where possessions went to die. Indiana’s bench was ranked 8th in turnovers and 25th in 3-point percentage. If the pick-and-roll wasn’t working or Stephenson couldn’t create, Indiana often was in trouble. If it weren’t for the bench’s 5th ranked field goal percentage (46.3%), things would have gotten ugly instead of slightly negative.
While the exact role for O’Quinn hasn’t been defined, one can hope he and McDermott find some of the chemistry they shared as New York Knicks last season. KOQ and McBuckets often sliced up defenses with O’Quinn’s scoring, leading to a positive net-rating for the duo as a two-man lineup.
A paring of O’Quinn, Sabonis, and Joseph can make up for Evans and McDermott’s so-so or worse defense, but it is easy to see that opponents may have chances to exploit the team’s 3-point defense as slower bigs often don’t defend the 3-point line well.
That’s why Cory Joseph is so important to the Pacers even if he doesn’t score or assist a ton. He made his opponents shoot worse from beyond the arc last season. Joseph’s defense is needed to keep opposing guards in check, especially since Evans isn’t a strong defender. It should be noted, however, that both Evans and McDermott made 3-point shooting tougher for their opponents as well last season.
As long as a slower, more grinding Pacers defense doesn’t get beat up in the pick and roll by other teams, the new additions should help Indiana’s bench move from the negative to the positive as far as overall impact.
Turning close games into wins
A Pacers pulled out most of their close games last season, posting an 11-2 record in games decided by 3 points or less, but were 20-16 in games decided by 10 points or less.
By addressing their needs — more efficient playmaking, shooting, rebounding — the Pacers hope that the bench can be a force for good this season and not a game of Russian Roulette.
How many of those wider margin games could the Pacers have won with better bench support? With the bench often being less than a neutral force, games often came down to the starters rallying back to save the day.
How many more wins, and better playoff seeding, would Indiana have had with just a few more wins? After all, the gap between third and fifth was just four games. The Pacers were on the edge of grabbing home-court advantage for a round or two in the playoffs.
When Victor Oladipo and Thaddeus Young came out of the game in the playoffs, it often ended with the Pacers losing their lead or finding themselves further behind. That could have been why the Pacers didn’t advance despite outplaying the Cleveland Cavaliers — just not LeBron James.
Next: T.J. Leaf's development crucial for the Pacers
By addressing their needs — more efficient playmaking, shooting, rebounding — the Pacers hope that the bench can be a force for good this season and not a game of Russian Roulette.