The Indiana Pacers made it through most of November without Victor Oladipo and are still in the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.
The Indiana Pacers finished up the first full month of basketball with an 8-6 record in November. Not overly impressive, but at the same time that’s still a winning record. And this did it with Victor Oladipo missing nearly half of those games.
Indiana’s had plenty of fast starts in the past — November always seemed to be Paul George‘s best month — but this year, despite being in the top four in the Eastern Conference, didn’t have the same luster.
Regardless of their record or how it is perceived, the Indiana Pacers are 13-9 and currently sitting in 5th place in the Eastern Conference. 5th place isn’t the goal, with their star player currently out of action, things certainly could be worse.
Speaking of playing without Victor Oladipo…
The Indiana Pacers won without Victor Oladipo for the first time
Not counting the partial game against the Atlanta Hawks, the Pacers went 3-3 without Victor Oladipo. Compared to last season’s combined 0-7 record without their star, this is a major improvement for Indiana.
It helped they faced the Utah Jazz (twice) and the Phoenix Suns in those wins, but at least in the losses, they often had the excuse of road weariness.
But what mattered more than the schedule was Indiana’s depth. Injuries exposed some of the Pacers’ weaknesses, but it also showed how some of the offseason additions could keep things afloat.
While Tyreke Evans overall performance in Oladipo’s absence left much to be desired, he also wasn’t so horrifically bad that he signal-handily sunk the Pacers. A few particularly bad stretches by the starters helped give him (and Darren Collison and Thaddeus Young) negative net ratings, they showed they weren’t entirely incapable of working without Oladipo.
Perhaps avoiding one of those starts in Los Angeles might have resulted in a win, but even without that, it was a much less troubling experience for the Pacers with their franchise player in street clothes.
The Myles Turner-Domantas Sabonis pairing is starting to work
The season started with the idea of a Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis pairing looking like a complete failure. A -17.5 net rating through Nov. 4th certainly gave that impression. It was just 38 minutes together, but they were getting outscored by 14 points and the team was shooting around 40 percent with them from the floor together.
But now? They’re outscoring their opponents and the team is shooting over 50 percent from deep even if they only make 43 percent on the interior. Now they share a positive 9.5 net rating together.
When the duo shares the court they’ve played a significantly faster pace than the team average, which is somewhat surprising considering the bulk that comes with a two-center lineup.
It helps that they’ve worked well with shooters around them are hitting their 3-pointers, a key part of making the duo work. The top five lineups with Sabonis and Turner are shooting 50 percent from deep on 13 of 26 shooting.
They’ve played 11 games since that Nov. 4 marker and made it work. That’s what the Pacers needed to see unless they were ready to ship one out sometime soon. There is plenty of season left for us to gather more evidence that the pairing can work, but November proved that with shooters around them, this town is big enough for both of them.
What an engaged Doug McDermott can do
The tepid response to signing Doug McDermott at the opening of free agency was proving warranted after an ugly start to his November.
After starting off the season with a pair of solid performances, McDermott faded into the oblivion of the deep bench. Without his shot, his imperfect defense was apparent. In the first seven games in the year’s penultimate month, he averaged 2.9 points on 33.3 percent shooting. With only 2.6 field goals attempted, McDermott’s fine deal was looking less and less like a smart signing.
But then, the Pacers made a real effort to pass McDermott the ball.
Over the last seven games, McDermott is averaging 11.9 points on 54.7 percent shooting from the floor and 48 percent from deep. He now makes roughly two 3-pointers a game while making a bigger impact on the team.
McDermott’s +/- and advanced numbers were in the positive before this surge, but now instead of being a glorified escape plan for the offense, they’ve made him matter. Out of Indiana’s regular contributors, only Aaron Holiday has a higher net rating in November.
Just keep passing McBuckets the ball.
Aaron Holiday passes the “Looks like an NBA player” test
Outside of Myles Turner, it certainly feels like it’s been a while — 2010 with Paul George and Lance Stephenson — that the Pacers drafted a player than made a meaningful impact, especially their rookie season.
Aaron Holiday is looking to change that.
Like McDermott and the Sabonis-Turner pairing, the emergence of Holiday didn’t happen until part of the way through November. Before November he had more DNPs than games played. In five appearances (mostly in garbage time), he averaged a point on 33.3 percent shooting.
But with Victor Oladipo going down in the game against the Atlanta Hawks, the door was opened for Holiday.
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Holiday’s averaged 10.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in nearly 19 minutes a game over the last seven contests.
The only real gripe with his play is a 46.6 shooting percentage that drops to 25.9 percent when he steps behind the arc.
But he’s got a confidence to his game that won’t let that number bother him, and it’s one that will likely improve over time. His pedigree is already showing and that confidence is earned.
The only real question for him and McDermott (and to a lesser extent, Turner and Sabonis) is if they can keep these positive numbers when Oladipo returns?
Obviously, Oladipo isn’t the issue, but his return means Tyreke Evans goes back to being a bench player. Can the Indiana Pacers make it work the same way? We’ll just have to wait for Oladipo’s return.
November had its ups and downs without Victor Oladipo, but if the Pacers can take some of these positives they’ve discovered in his absence, then there was a silver lining on him missing so many games.