As International Left-handers Day passes us by, let’s take a quick look at some of the best left-handed players in Indiana Pacers history.
Was Jalen Rose the best lefty to play for the Indiana Pacers?
These are the type of questions you ask yourself at the exact mid-point of the NBA offseason and you need to come up with something to write. In case you missed it, Monday was apparently the very real holiday of International Left-Handers Day.
So now that we’ve established the flimsy premise for this post, let’s go to work and find out who exactly was (or is) the best left-handed shooter to play for the Indiana Pacers.
Thanks to the wonderful powers of Basketball-Reference, we can quickly look at just how many left-handed players suited up for the Pacers.
There were three lefties on last year’s roster — Trevor Booker, Domantas Sabonis, and Thaddeus Young — but it’s hard to say they are better than some of the left-handed brethren that came before them.
| Per | Per | Per | Per | Per | Per | Per | Per | Per | Shoo | Shoo | Shoo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | From | To | MP | FG | FGA | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS ▼ | FG% | 3P% | eFG% |
| 1 | Wayman Tisdale | 1986 | 1989 | 28.2 | 6.1 | 12.0 | 6.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 15.2 | .512 | .000 | .512 |
| 2 | Jalen Rose | 1997 | 2002 | 29.8 | 5.4 | 11.9 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 14.2 | .455 | .346 | .481 |
| 3 | Troy Murphy | 2007 | 2010 | 31.0 | 4.8 | 10.2 | 9.2 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 13.3 | .467 | .413 | .545 |
| 4 | C.J. Miles | 2015 | 2017 | 24.2 | 4.1 | 10.0 | 2.9 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 12.0 | .412 | .374 | .523 |
| 5 | Domantas Sabonis | 2018 | 2018 | 24.5 | 4.6 | 8.9 | 7.7 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 11.6 | .514 | .351 | .524 |
| 6 | Thaddeus Young | 2017 | 2018 | 31.3 | 5.1 | 10.0 | 6.2 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 11.4 | .505 | .344 | .538 |
| 7 | Dave Robisch | 1977 | 1978 | 24.9 | 4.3 | 9.6 | 7.1 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 11.1 | .446 | .446 | |
| 8 | Chris Mullin | 1998 | 2000 | 22.0 | 3.3 | 7.0 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 9.4 | .472 | .441 | .562 |
| 9 | Kareem Rush | 2008 | 2008 | 21.2 | 3.2 | 8.0 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 8.3 | .401 | .389 | .490 |
| 10 | Travis Best | 1996 | 2002 | 22.0 | 3.0 | 6.8 | 1.8 | 3.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 8.1 | .442 | .362 | .472 |
| 11 | Erick Strickland | 2003 | 2003 | 18.0 | 2.3 | 5.4 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 6.5 | .429 | .388 | .511 |
| 12 | Kenny Anderson | 2004 | 2004 | 20.6 | 2.6 | 5.8 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 6.0 | .441 | .250 | .443 |
| 13 | Josh McRoberts | 2009 | 2011 | 16.3 | 2.2 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 5.4 | .524 | .333 | .549 |
| 14 | Trevor Booker | 2018 | 2018 | 15.8 | 2.3 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 5.4 | .464 | .214 | .482 |
| 15 | Sam Perkins | 1999 | 2001 | 17.7 | 1.8 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 5.3 | .404 | .388 | .497 |
| 16 | Adrian Caldwell | 1996 | 1996 | 6.4 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 2.2 | .554 | .554 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
In particular, Jalen Rose and Wayman Tisdale stand out thanks to their scoring and overall production.
Looking at the stats, I’m inclined to give Wayman the nod over Jalen. More points on effectively the same about of shots, and while Rose gets the advantage in assists, Tisdale averaged 6.4 rebounds a game. And while Jalen had the Fab 5, did he ever send you to McDonald’s for breakfast like Wayman did?
While Tisdale is the better Pacer on paper, it’s easy to forget he only played with Indiana for 3 and a half seasons before he was shipped out with a second round pick for Randy Whittman and LaSalle Thompson in a deal with the Sacramento Kings. It’s much easier to argue the best days of his career weren’t in Indiana.
But Jalen’s best days were in Indiana, and more importantly than the stats, he was on the only Pacers team to reach an NBA Finals.
He didn’t slack off in that Finals against the Lakers, either. Rose averaged 23 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3 assists in the six-game series. He shot 46.7 percent from the field while making half of his 3-point attempts. He scored over 30 points in two games, just barely missing a third with 29 points in Game 6. Rose gave it all, even if Indiana came up short.
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Rose has a special place in many Pacers fans hearts as one of Reggie Miller’s sidekicks during that era. His six seasons in Indiana were some of the Pacers more successful ones.
Though his first few seasons were somewhat pedestrian in Indiana, he was the leading scorer on that 2000 Finals team in the regular season with 20.5 points, beating out Reggie by just 13 points overall.
He led the Pacers by a larger margin the next season with 20.4 and might have kept that spot had Jermaine O’Neal came along in 2002. He ended up being traded at the All-Star break that season for a deal that ultimately brought Ron Artest/Metta World Peace to Indiana.
Not only were Jalen Rose’s best days in Indiana, but those were the best days the Pacers have seen since the ABA seasons. When you factor in those accomplishments, that’s why Rose is the best left-handed shooter in Pacers history.
Wayman Tisdale was a great young player for the Indiana Pacers, but Jalen Rose played a crucial role on a number of playoff teams. Tisdale made great music, but Rose was the better Pacer.