The Indiana Pacers are getting spacing and shooting contributions from some unexpected sources recently.
Since December 1st, the Indiana Pacers have gone an exceptional 19-6. While things will obviously be changing with Victor Oladipo out for the remainder of the season, there are still some important takeaways that can come from this time period. Indiana shot 37% from 3 over that timeframe, which is fine, but how they got there bears watching closely.
The forward combination of Bojan Bogdanovic and Doug McDermott would be enough to buoy the shooting of most any team. The Pacers relied on the duo for much of the early season, especially when Oladipo missed his (almost) 12 games earlier on.
Since December 1, the two have combined to shoot only 35.7% on 182 attempts, which is okay, though a little below what might typically be expected of them. McDermott is typically closer to 40%, and Bogdanovic was leading the NBA from deep for a pretty long period of time.
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In the backcourt (outside of the aforementioned Oladipo), the combination of Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, and Tyreke Evans has done a bit better at 37.1% on 194 attempts. Darren Collison is the main push behind this, as he’s shot almost 45% on 69 attempts himself. DC might regress a bit, but he shot well north of 40% last year. He should be fine. CoJo and Tyreke have struggled much more (32.8% each), and both figure to improve over the 2nd half of the season.
The Pacers bigs did almost nothing from 3 point range the first 2 months of the season, and things looked depressing early on. Since 12/1, the combination of Myles Turner and Thaddeus Young (with just a bit of Domantas Sabonis mixed in) are shooting an insane 47.5% from deep on 101 attempts.
Turner (50% on 2.6 attempts per game) has turned his 3 point shooting around massively after righteously struggling early on. Thad Young is under 33% for his career but had shown some life from range before injuring his wrist during his first campaign with the Pacers. He looks to be fully healed now, and his confidence appears to be sky high.
Young won’t continue to 43% from range, but it’s not inconceivable for him to hover around the 35% mark, which would be more than acceptable. Sabonis, with his glacially slow release, is 2 of 3 in that timeframe, and an impeccable 77.8% on the season, though with a measly 9 attempts. Sabonis could (and should) aim to shoot just a bit more when opposing defenses just leave him be.
All of this adds up to a big positive for the Pacers: their bigs are stretching the floor more effectively than at any point prior with this group. While Thaddeus Young and Myles Turner will almost certainly regress at least some, all of Bojan, McDermott, CoJo, and Tyreke should improve over the 2nd half of the season.
If Young and Turner can just remain good (Turner is a likely bet to continue to shoot very well at least) while the rest of the rotation can progress to the mean, the Pacers should field a surprisingly effective attack from deep. Life without Oladipo will be rough, but if the Pacers field a rotation entirely composed of acceptable or better 3 point shooters, the offense should still be able to hum along. Things are dark as the Indiana Pacers approach life without Vic, but not all is bad.