Indiana Pacers: 15 best scorers in franchise history

9. Rik Smits, 1988-2000

Pacers scoring: 14.8 ppg, FG: 50.7%, 3P: 11.5%, FT: 77.3%

It took a while for Rik Smits to get going. While he made the All-Rookie team in 1989, and scored 15.5 points per game in 1990, his next three seasons failed to live up to the first two’s success, and by-and-large Pacers fans were furious with him.

Then a 27-year old Smits began the 1993-94 season, and never looked back. The Dunking Dutchman never led Indiana in scoring, but he was reliable enough to find himself currently second on the Pacers all-time scoring list, 2,000 points clear of third place.

Smits finished third on the team in scoring in 1993 and 2000, which served as bookends to the six seasons he was Indiana’s second-leading scorer. During that six-year stretch, Smits accounted for 17 percent of the offense.

Rik Smits’ skill-set was impactful during his own day, but arguably would’ve been more appropriate for the NBA of 2019.

Unlike most of the centers of his day, Smits was not a back-to-the-basket, grab ten rebounds per game type of player.

Smits could do those things, but he was a deadeye shooter from the top of the key, where his 7-4 frame made his accurate jump shot nearly unblockable.

Smits was one of those rare players who not only played his entire career with one team, but also got to go out on his own terms. He was a well-deserved All-Star in 1998, reached his only NBA Finals in 2000  after five trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and called it a career right when his numbers began to dip and the Pacers began to retool. Smits always had a good sense of timing, even when it wasn’t on everyone else’s schedule.