What’s wrong with the Indiana Pacers’ Cory Joseph?

The Indiana Pacers have been shorthanded recently while facing a daunting series of games in the home stretch of the season. These circumstances have forced some players, such as Cory Joseph, into unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable roles.

Already without Victor Oladipo for the season (you might’ve heard about that), the Indiana Pacers have also been without Tyreke Evans for 8 of the last 22 games with an injury and a (publicly) unexplained personal absence. All of this has meant much more of the backcourt burden has fallen on Darren Collison and Cory Joseph, and they’ve responded very differently.

Over the last 7 games, DC has been absolutely fire, shooting 54% from the field and 41% from 3 while putting up 17 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals. Collison has been fantastic, but DC deserving more respect is neither here nor there.

We’re here to talk about Cory Joseph.

CoJo has struggled mightily since March began. Over the last 6 games, Joseph is shooting an anemic 22% from the field and 33% from 3. His best shooting game in that stretch is only 37.5%; every other game has been 33% or worse. Gross.

While his defense and his intangibles are always on point, the Pacers need him to at the very least be competent offensively, particularly shooting the ball. He hasn’t been anywhere near that since the All-Star break, unfortunately.

Joseph’s struggles have mirrored those of the 2nd unit of late. With the intermittent absences of Tyreke Evans and Domantas Sabonis, too much of the creation has fallen on Joseph’s shoulders while playing alongside dependent scorers like T.J. Leaf and Doug McDermott.

CoJo is a brilliant defender and brings contagious energy, but offensive creation isn’t his forte. He needs time and space to get his 3 balls off and is in love with a midrange floater that is only moderately effective. His offensive pallet isn’t refined.

None of this is necessarily Cory Joseph’s fault, by any means. He’s a very effective player in the correct role, but the Pacers 2nd unit has needed his role to expand far more than he’s suited for during this period where the team is banged up.

So: What’s wrong with Cory Joseph? The answer is most likely nothing.

The Pacers need Domas Sabonis and Tyreke Evans healthy and on the floor. When healthy, Sabonis and Evans take care of the vast majority of the 2nd unit creation. When the Pacers are missing either, it’s likely we’ll see more of this type of play from CoJo. Luckily, both were back in uniform against the Denver Nuggets Saturday night.

Moving forward, I believe we’ll see the old Cory Joseph back for the Indiana Pacers, wreaking havoc on defense and playing the secondary creator effectively on offense. The team needs it.