Indiana Pacers lineups we’re excited about: Shooters gonna shoot
If the Indiana Pacers want to, they’ve got players available to form a lineup of 5 guys that can all knock down shots from long range. Let’s take a look.
As we work our way up to the 2019-2020 NBA season, we’re going to continue taking a look at certain lineups the Indiana Pacers could start using in order to help them climb the ranks in the Eastern Conference. Yesterday, we examined what a lineup of three guards and two bigs could accomplish. Today, let’s take a different route: Shooters. Lots of shooters.
The Indiana Pacers have shot the long-ball very well the last couple of seasons. In fact, they’ve been top 10 in the league the last three years in 3-point percentage (5th last year, 9th two years ago, 4th three years ago). So why don’t more people associate the Pacers with 3-point shooting?
Well, despite their great shooting percentages recently, the Indiana Pacers have also ranked bottom 6 in the league each of the last three seasons in attempted 3-point shots per game. It’s a bit confusing. However, being selective with their shots from range surely goes hand-in-hand with their good percentages, but the team has to know they need to at least try to capitalize more often from behind the arc.
Earlier in the offseason, the Pacers did lose two of their best 3-point shooters in Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison. However, some of the new guys that have come aboard this summer should allow Indiana to roll out a lineup that’s full of shooters opposing defenses will need to worry about. Something like:
- Malcolm Brogdon (43%)
- Victor Oladipo (34%)
- Doug McDermott (41%)
- T.J. Warren (43%)
- Myles Turner (39%)
The “weakest” 3-point shooter in this scenario is Victor Oladipo, but he still gets the nod at the 2-guard here simply for his uncanny ability to knock down daggers when he needs to. When he’s on, he’ll drill a triple with a hand directly in his face any given night.
Outside of Vic, we have 4 other players that are all pretty deadly from long range, and they’re all in positions that should feel pretty natural to them. T.J. Warren will flip between the 3 and 4 positions this season, and Malcolm Brogdon can play anywhere 1-3.
Percentage-wise, Pacers’ newcomers Brogdon and Warren are the best three point shooters in this lineup. Both had the best percentages of their careers last season, so if their trajectories continue, they’ll be just as good, if not better in 2019-2020.
Doug McDermott had a sightly underwhelming debut season with the Blue and Gold, but he still shot over 40% from 3-point range for the 3rd time in his 5 seasons. He had a weird issue where he shot much better on the road than at home, but if he’s more balanced in this area moving forward, he’s still a great fit for this rotation.
The x-factor in this lineup is Myles Turner, who is steadily molding into one of the most promising stretch-fives in the entire NBA. Not only is Turner now the reigning league leader in blocks, but his shooting has been getting better and better as he ages too. His 3-point percentage has improved every year, which should put him over 40% in 2019-2020 if the trend continues, an awesome mark for a center (or anyone else, really).
Even with all the potential offensive firepower here, this group would still hopefully be at least decent defensively. McDermott and Warren would need tons of coverage in this area, but Brogdon, Oladipo, and Turner are all good to great on defense, so they would be able to make up for a lot of the other two’s shortcomings in this regard.
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Whether or not this is actually a lineup the Indiana Pacers ever roll out remains to be seen. However, if they want to keep shooting a good percentage from 3-point range and want to capitalize on more attempts, this could be the way to go in certain situations.