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The Fort Wayne Mad Ants were an important tool for the Pacers

By Tony East

FORT WAYNE, IN Äì FEBRUARY 1: Glenn Robinson III #25 of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants pushes the ball up court against the Wisconsin Herd on February 1, 2018 at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
FORT WAYNE, IN Äì FEBRUARY 1: Glenn Robinson III #25 of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants pushes the ball up court against the Wisconsin Herd on February 1, 2018 at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Indiana Pacers are known for being solid at player development. The way they use the Fort Wayne Mad Ants is a justification for that.

The evidence is damning: since the turn of the century, five of the 18 most improved player award recipients have been Indiana Pacers. From Jalen Rose to Victor Oladipo, Pacers players seem to show more improvement than guys in other organizations. They are one of the best teams at developing useful players, and recently, the way they use the Fort Wayne Mad Ants is part of the reason why.

The G League is interesting. Some players spend their time in the minors trying to prove they can be the best player in the world. They chuck too many bad shots. They don’t try on defense. It is hard to assess players talents in the G League. But it’s easy to see how it helps players improve and develop.

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The Mad Ants are somewhat different. They have a fair share of minor leaguers who bomb a bit too often, but in comparison to other G League teams, they share the ball fairly well. They were 11th in the minors in assist percentage, and they had eight guys average nine or more shots per game. They ensured multiple players got a chance to hone their skills.

That is what allows the Pacers to use the Mad Ants constructively. The Pacers send their pros down for an overarching reason: to get reps. And Fort Wayne is the perfect place for that.

Let’s start the examination of this phenomenon by looking at Glenn Robinson III. In early February, Robinson III returned from a devastating ankle injury that kept him out for months. GR3 was healthy, but he wasn’t pro-game fit yet.

Insert the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

The Pacers wanted GR3 to return with his shot looking as crisp as it was during the 2016-17 season. They also wanted him to be in proper shape before firing him into the rotation. The best way to accomplish those goals? Put him in Fort Wayne!

Robinson suited up for the Mad Ants twice, and he chucked 26 shots across two games. His usage rate was nearly 25 percent (22.5), meaning that Fort Wayne put the ball in his hands on almost one out of every four possessions and just said “do your thing”:

That’s not a move that GR3 breaks out very often in the pros. It isn’t encouraged by the coaching staff since he is such a lethal spot-up shooter. But in Fort Wayne, coach Steve Gansey let him do his thing. That has two-fold benefits, it both gets the rust off of GR3 while he rehabs from his injury and it develops his skills.

Later in the season, for Pacers this time, he did this:

Oh, a step back floater over a big man. I wonder where he learned that?

In Fort Wayne.

That time was valuable for GR3. In just two games, he regained his confidence, refined his skills, and was ready to go for the Indiana Pacers stretch run. That period was beneficial for Fort Wayne, Robinson, and the Pacers. A win-win-win.

But that situation was unique in that it was mostly rehab. For other guys, like 2017 draft selections TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu, it was all about skill development and getting in the reps.

Ike Anigbogu Fort Wayne Mad Ants Indiana Pacers
MISSISSAUGA, ON – JANUARY 11: Ike Anigbogu #13 of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants shoots the ball against the Oklahoma City Blue during the NBA G-League Showcase on January 11, 2018, at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario Canada. (Photo by Randy Belice/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Anigbogu actually played more minutes in Fort Wayne than he did for the Pacers. By a lot too – he accrued only 30 minutes with Indiana despite logging 491 with the Mad Ants. That alone speaks volumes about how the Pacers use Fort Wayne.

There just wasn’t room for Ike to get minutes on the Indiana Pacers. Domantas Sabonis, Al Jefferson, Myles Turner, Thaddeus Young, Trevor Booker, and even TJ Leaf made for an incredibly crowded big man rotation. It would have been impossible for Anigbogu to get any minutes, or reps, in the pros. The closest game he played in all season was a 14 point loss to the Blazers in January. Saying he only played in garbage time was generous. He played in landfill time.

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants are a perfect place for a guy in Anigbogu’s situation. Ike showed off his mastery of protecting the basket (1.7 blocks per game) and his efficient play finishing ways (55 percent true shooting) in the G League. When he hopped in for the Pacers, he showed what he learned – accumulating an absurd 8.9 percent block rate in the NBA and a nearly identical true shooting percentage. Those reps brought him along as a player, it was just hard to see since he played so little.

Perhaps the best use of the Mad Ants came via TJ Leaf. Leaf started off the Pacers season playing between 10 and 20 minutes per game every night. But he was a rookie, and an overwhelming majority of those minutes were… bad. His minutes waned throughout November, and in early December he was getting five or fewer minutes each and every game.

That is basically useless for development. You can’t get a rhythm or learn patterns if you barely play. If the Indiana Pacers wanted their first-round pick to improve, they needed him to get reps. So, they did what they did so deftly all last season: they sent him to Fort Wayne.

Leaf’s stint in the G League went about as well as you could want it to. In three games, he poured in 23.3 points per game, including a 31 point masterpiece in which he hit a game-clinching three-pointer:

Even if Leaf developed absolutely no skills while playing in the G League (which would be a ridiculous assumption) you could argue the confidence he garnered from showing he is better than minor league players is invaluable. He also showed that he can be somewhat of a play initiator creating his own shot, and that is huge for his evolution.

We wouldn’t know he could do that if it weren’t for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

Next. Here’s your chance to become a Fort Wayne Mad Ant. dark

This list goes on and on. Trey McKinney-Jones, Edmond Sumner, Alex Poythress, and Ben Moore all spent time developing for the Indiana Pacers in the minors. Poythress ended up being a useful contributor in mid-December for the pro squad thanks to his time in Fort Wayne, which spanned across two seasons. The other guys showed obvious signs of improvement across the season.

The Pacers show year after year that they are a cut above the rest of the league in developing players. The way they use the Fort Wayne Mad Ants – for injury rehab, reps, and skill development – is an underrated reason why.

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