Indiana Pacers offense remains steady with no Oladipo

The Indiana Pacers offense has held up decently recently despite the absence of Victor Oladipo.

The idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is evident as the Indiana Pacers attack the second half of the season without Victor Oladipo. As is true in all professional sports, when a team loses its star, there is a dramatic instance of change. That has reigned true as the Pacers have had to identify their offensive approach in response to the absence of the team’s star.

It has been exactly twenty games for the Pacers since the devastating loss of Oladipo. Since his injury on January 23rd against the Toronto Raptors, the Pacers and their coaching staff have had to adjust to the sudden change. A change that could alter any team’s trajectory.

Oladipo hasn’t been the only Pacer that has faced injury. Being without a full cast of characters is a familiar space for the Pacers this season. In fact, the Pacers have competed in 66 of their 67 games with a player on the injury report. They have been constantly banged up for essentially all of 2018-19.

That absence of contributors in the lineup throughout the season has caused the Pacers to orchestrate an offense that is collaborative and evenly distributed on a night-to-night basis. Here, I will detail how the Pacers offense has structured itself since the absence of Oladipo, and who have been the beneficiaries in the offense.

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Prior to Oladipo’s injury, the Pacers averaged 109 points per game. The Pacers have been without key offensive contributors Tyreke Evans and Domantas Sabonis on several occasions since January 23rd, in addition to the loss of Oladipo. As a pair, Evans and Sabonis have averaged 25 PPG for the Pacers this season.

However, Evans and Sabonis have missed seventeen games at different points throughout the season due to injury or illness. Despite the loss of that offensive production, the Pacers have averaged 106.5 PPG with a depleted lineup since the Oladipo injury, only a slight downtick, but enough to keep the team in contention for the third seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers currently hold the same record as the Philadelphia 76ers after a loss to the team Sunday afternoon in the Wells Fargo Center.

The play of the Pacers offensively despite losing Oladipo has turned heads around the NBA. “Even without Victor (Oladipo), that’s a great team they’ve got there. That’s a great team with and without,” said Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen, who has praised the Pacers many times.

From an efficiency standpoint, the Pacers have remained even-keeled on offense since the Oladipo injury. The field-goal percentage has hardly changed. Prior to the injury, the Pacers shot 48-percent from the field, now they stand at 47-percent.

With the Pacers remaining poised without their all-star, it is important to note where the offensive production is coming from with the absence of Oladipo’s 20-points a night.

In his second season with the Pacers, Bojan Bogdanovic has molded himself into one of the most consistent players in the NBA. Prior to Oladipo’s injury, Bogdanovic averaged 16 PPG while shooting 49-percent from the field.

Bogdanovic’s sense of urgency since the loss of his teammate has translated to a recent surge in scoring. Bogdanovic now averages 21 PPG since January 23rd and is shooting 51-percent from the field, while averaging the same number minutes on the floor. “He’s playing incredible right now. We need him to keep doing it…want to keep his momentum going,” said Pacers center Myles Turner after their March 5th win against the Bulls.

Nine-year veteran Darren Collison has continued to thrive as a Pacer, and in the presence of adversity. The point guard has been the floor general and has kept the Pacers afloat in the midst of retooling the offense. Collinson has averaged 14 PPG in the second half of the season since the Oladipo injury, an uptick from 10 PPG before. Collectively, the Indiana Pacers starting cast has improved their production in an attempt to thwart any decline offensively.

Another key to the Pacers offense in life without Oladipo is the addition of Wesley Matthews to the roster in February. Matthews came to Indiana after agreeing to a contract buyout with the New York Knicks. As a shooting guard, Matthews was plugged right into the starting lineup by Coach Nate McMillan. The presence of Matthews on the floor has allowed the Pacers to operate at the same pace as an Oladipo led offense. The arrival of Matthews placed Tyreke Evans back in a sixth-man role, where he is most comfortable.

Matthews arrived as a scoring threat and has lived up to that expectation. Matthews has averaged 12.5 PPG while leading the blue and gold in minutes played since his arrival. Matthews has severed as a nice compliment to the rest of the starting lineup and brought a ball-handler who can score and defend back to their lineup.

Outside of the numbers, digging deeper into how the Pacers have structured their offense without Oladipo will paint a picture as to how they have remained successful. Without Oladipo, the Pacers offense has seen more motion. The Pacers have had success not looking for the first shot, but the best one. This has resulted in a pass-heavy, dynamic offense initiated by Coach McMillan and his staff.

This has allowed offseason addition Doug McDermott more opportunities to score and be more involved in the offense. McDermott has seen an increase in minutes off the bench, which has allowed the four-year veteran to find a rhythm despite a lackluster start to the season. McDermott has done a nice job coming off of screens to find open opportunities from distance and mid-range. As the Pacers approach the playoffs, it will important for the team to give their depth confidence. A well-developed bench is imperative for success in the postseason. With the loss of Oladipo, it gives the Pacers bench a unique opportunity to learn on the fly before the league’s “second” season starts in April.

The active offense by the Indiana Pacers has allowed for all five of the starters to average double-digits in scoring with Sabonis doing the same off the bench. With the fluid production from top to bottom, it should be no surprise that the Pacers are sustaining this level of success without Oladipo. The roster structured by President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard and General Manager Chad Buchanan was founded on depth and is proving its worth in the twenty games without one of the NBA’s best.

The offense of the Pacers is run on experience. With the recent change in the landscape of the NBA, it can be difficult to find starting lineups across the league that have the wealth of experience. Many teams are constructed with players who haven’t had the experience of some the Pacers on the roster. With the constant change in the NBA, having veterans that are professionals on and off the floor can benefit an offense by having the maturity to adjust to change.

As the playoffs near, the Indiana Pacers will look to build on what has already been cemented. As the health of the team improves, it looks as if the Pacers are trending in the right direction. It hasn’t been an easy road for the Pacers post-Oladipo injury, but with a potential Coach of the Year candidate, and six players averaging double-digits in scoring per game, the offense will continue to thrive.