A reduction in Thaddeus Young’s minutes is a sign of flexibility for the Pacers

The Indiana Pacers are planning to cut Thaddeus Young’s minutes this season; a sign of flexibility more than an indictment of their starting power forward.

While Thaddeus Young acquiesced some of his minutes to Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner, that doesn’t mean their starting power forward is ready to be put out to pasture by the Indiana Pacers.

Yes, Young is getting older, and the Pacers are looking towards their future by putting Sabonis and Turner on the floor more together, but fewer minutes for Thad shouldn’t be seen as an indictment of him or where he is in his career.

It’s a sign that Indiana’s rotations are more flexible than they were a year ago.

Once Glenn Robinson III went down with an injury in the preseason last year, head coach Nate McMillan had fewer options in the middle of the starting rotation. While Glenn and Thad don’t play the same position, the issues caused by his absence cascaded up and down the lineup.

Instead of mixing and matching Robinson and Lance Stephenson with the rest of the bench, Stephenson was the only real option as a wing. Cory Joseph and Domantas Sabonis soaked up many of the reserve minutes, but outside of Joe Young, the rest of the bench played 500 minutes or fewer.

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Joe Young, Trevor Booker, Al Jefferson, and Damien Wilkins are all out of the NBA now and the rest of Indiana’s bench are fringe NBA players or in the G-League. When it came to power forward and small forward off the bench, the panty was mostly empty for the Pacers. Because of that, Thad and Oladipo ended up playing more minutes than what the Pacers had planned before the season began.

That makes it little surprise that Indiana’s bench was near Thibodeau-ian as the 24th least used bench in the NBA. In case you were wondering, sadist Tom Thibodeau’s Minnesota Timberwolves had the least used bench in the league, clocking in 200 fewer minutes than the closest team.

The reliance on the starters explains how Young clocked the 26th most minutes in the NBA last year, logging more than even Victor Oladipo. Thad is versatile, yes, but the Pacers only had so many minutes that the rotating cast of characters known as their deep rotation were capable of taking

Thad isn’t getting any younger, but his looming reduction in minutes has more to do with the potential for the Pacers to exploit matchups than a fear that he is trending toward becoming a liability in the lineup.

New additions create flexibility for the Pacers

Sabonis is still the backup center and Cory Joseph the backup point guard. But this season they’ll sandwich other players in the lineup as the Pacers look for advantages instead of merely being Lance Stephenson’s sidekick as they were a year ago.

With Sabonis and Joseph (and maybe Aaron Holiday on occasion) bookending the lineup, the Pacers can choose their battles. Just looking at the bench — and not any of the blended lineups (starters and bench players) there a number of obvious ways they could seek out favorable matchups.

Want more shooting? Get Doug McDermott, Tyreke Evans, and T.J. Leaf out there. Want to go big? Shift Sabonis to power forward and let Kyle O’Quinn grab some rebounds. Need defenders? Alize Johnson can motor around for a while along with Joseph and Sabonis watch.

Then with the starters, they can blend in Evans and Oladipo for two ball-handlers. Throw Bojan Bogdanovic out there with some of the bench shooters and make it rain. There’s plenty of matchups they can try to find now that they’ve added depth to the bench.

If that means fewer minutes so Thaddeus Young can rest, then that’s likely a win for the team. And with Young not playing so many minutes, he can focus on his efficiency instead of being a workhorse like he was a season ago.

Thaddeus Young could still hold down the fort if he had to, but with a deeper bench this season, the Indiana Pacers should let him get some rest.