What is the best defensive lineup for the new-look Indiana Pacers?
By Ryan Eggers
Brogdon, Oladipo, Holiday, Turner, Bitadze
The land of length. The wilderness of wingspan. Whatever bad nickname you have for it, the Pacers do have the option of rolling this behemoth of a lineup out this year. The average wingspan of this lineup exceeds 7′, and utilizes what should be the best defensive talent on the roster.
Oladipo and Brogdon are able to sit comfortably at their natural positions, Holiday feels much more at home guarding wings than fours … wait a minute, Turner is playing the four?!
Don’t freak out. Remember, this is the exact situation that got him into the Pacers’ starting lineup in the first place. Let me take you back to 2016, where a Turner-Ian Mahinmi frontcourt led Indiana to serious defensive prosperity.
Turner’s lateral quickness and recovery time are just fast enough for him to consistently guard whoever he’s up against at the four spot. With Mahinmi, a skilled interior defender, the duo posted the two best defensive ratings on a team that finished third defensively in 2015-16. They both put up over a block a game and were a shining example that two bigs can play together in today’s NBA.
Sabonis is not the interior defender Mahinmi is, unfortunately. But the Pacers drafted someone who is.
Bitadze, like Mahinmi, lacks the quickness to reasonably guard the four spot, but if given the opportunity to be a drop big, his elite rim protection could put the Pacers defense on another level. Him and Turner were both the top shot blocker in their respective league last season, and putting them together could be a recipe for serious success.
Besides, the team is running a whole offense around two seven-footers starting together, why not bring another one in for some defensive sets?
Overall, this exercise proved that the Pacers are probably in need of another defensive wing or power forward, and that the backcourt will probably suffer the early-season loss of Oladipo greatly. There are some intriguing options that could fill the gaps, but a lot of question marks left to be answered from those players. Bitadze and Turner working together probably puts the defense at its highest ceiling, but that’s asking a lot from both the rookie and the young veteran.
Burke and McMillan have their work cut out for them. But, as a team that almost always finds themselves in the top half of the league defensively (third last season), it’s a decent enough bet that they’ll find a lineup that thrives.