Analyzing the Indiana Pacers’ depth chart post-free agency

The Big-Men

Power Forward: Domantas Sabonis, T.J. Leaf

Center: Myles Turner, Goga Bitadze

The frontcourt is  paired together in this discussion because things will get complex with the starting duo of Sabonis and Turner. The transition of putting Sabonis at the four could literally make or break the Pacers’ season.

The reason things get complicated is that Turner will mostly play the power forward on offense as a stretch four and then he will play center on defense due to his elite rim protecting. Vise Versa with Sabonis.

There will be situations where Turner will have to play perimeter defense on other stretch fours due to the fact that Sabonis most likely will not magically spring into a capable perimeter defender. This is a big issue, because that means Turner won’t be in the paint to protect the rim. With the other guys in the rotation, you cannot count on them to be reliable help defenders.

Offensively, Turner is a good shooter but he needs to be able to space the offense. Many times last season, the plays Indiana would run, such as pick and roll/pop, caused the paint to clog up and made scoring hard to come by.

Indiana is going to need to heavily use Sabonis’ playmaking in order to make the pairing work on the offensive end. It would also help if Sabonis developed a more consistent jumper.

As for the bench, the Indiana Pacers will have rookie Goga Bitadze fill the backup five position. He will be vital on defense as he is a little bit like Turner with the capabilities of protecting the rim. He will also be important for guys like Aaron Holiday in pick and roll situations as he is good at rolling to the basket and has great hands.

He shot 40 percent from three on just 1.7 attempts last season with KK Mega Bemax and Buducnost. Yes, that is a small sample size, but it is worth noting he can shoot the ball.

T.J. Leaf could be an important piece to the bench as well due to his much-improved rebounding ability on the offensive end. He averaged 2.5 offensive rebounds last season, cleaning up 11.7 percent of Indiana’s misses which ranked 13th in the league.

He may not have much of a role for the Pacers next season, but when he is on the court, his offensive rebounding will be much needed.

The Indiana Pacers have many questions coming into the 2019-2020 season, but through trial and error, the team could be much better than last year’s squad.