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What a luxury it is to have Kyle O’Quinn

By Tony East

BROOKLYN, NY - DECEMBER 21: Kyle O'Quinn #10 of the Indiana Pacers warms up before the game against the Brooklyn Nets on December 21, 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. 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 Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
BROOKLYN, NY - DECEMBER 21: Kyle O'Quinn #10 of the Indiana Pacers warms up before the game against the Brooklyn Nets on December 21, 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. 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 Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Kyle O’Quinn is a good basketball player who rarely even plays for the Indiana Pacers. Having him on the roster is a luxury for the team.

Kyle O’Quinn is on pace to only suit up for approximately 350 minutes this season. The Indiana Pacers are only a little bit past the halfway point of their season and KOQ has only amassed 183 minutes of playing time so far. He’s on pace to receive fewer minutes than Al Jefferson did last year, the man whose role he was allegedly replacing.

And yet, he is still an incredibly important and valuable basketball player for the Pacers.

Let’s just take a cursory glance at Kyle O’Quinn’s per-36 minute numbers. 15 points (career high), 11.7 rebounds, 6 assists (career high) and 2.7 blocks. Obviously, he can’t actually replicate that stat line if he played 36 minutes because if he could he would be an all-star, but in the short bursts that O’Quinn in able to play, he terrorizes fools on the floor.

He is actually the only player in the entire NBA to eclipse those particular per-36 stats. The blocks separate him from some great interior offensive players, and the assists separate O’Quinn from high usage play finishers. He is capable of doing a lot of things on the basketball court, and that makes him a supremely useful player.

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That supremely useful player is the Indiana Pacers third-string center.

O’Quinn has never been more than a backup in the league. He has 60 starts in his 7 seasons and has never eclipsed the 20 minutes per game mark in any of them. He is a high energy big, though, and as was just laid out, he can do a ton of productive things on the floor. He’s a really solid backup, and the Pacers have him on the roster as injury assurance. What a luxury.

We recently saw what a grandeur he is to have. Myles Turner recently missed four games with a shoulder injury he suffered at the end of 2018. Domantas Sabonis was elevated to the starter role; he and Turner have similar total impacts. No problem there.

The trouble in injury situations usually arises in the form of a third-stringer having to play in the rotation. Not a problem for the Pacers. Kyle O’Quinn seamlessly hopped into the second unit and kept things harmonious.

The crazy part is that O’Quinn didn’t even play that well for his standards during this time. In 16.5 minutes per night, he posted averages of 7.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. Those are just fine numbers for your backup center! Yet for O’Quinn, they felt disappointing. That’s how useful he has been on the court for the Pacers this year.

Domantas Sabonis has missed some time this season, too. In the third game of the season, Domas was injured and O’Quinn played as Turner’s backup. In 18:30 of playing time, he had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Sabonis missed another game in Orlando with food poisoning. O’Quinn filled in with 12 points and 10 rebounds. When he gets the opportunity, he just produces.

Throw in the other game that Turner missed against the Spurs, in which O’Quinn was a +4 in an 11 point loss, and you can see that he ensures the second unit doesn’t miss a beat. In the 7 games in which the Pacers were missing one of Turner or Sabonis, the Indiana Pacers were a +17 with Kyle O’Quinn on the floor. When the team is faced with an injury obstacle in the frontcourt, KOQ pushes them right through it.

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The Pacers tried to execute the idea of having a productive third big man during the Al Jefferson years, but it didn’t quite work out. This time, with O’Quinn, it is panning out just as the front office imagined it would. The Pacers have the best third-string center in the NBA, and it allows them to keep rolling in the face of health-related adversity. What a luxury.

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