Four ways the Indiana Pacers can reach their ceiling this season

3. Reliable volume scoring from T.J. Warren, Jeremy Lamb

When Oladipo went down last season, Bojan Bogdanovic stepped up — averaging 18 points per game on .497/.425/.807 shooting splits. With Bogdanovic now in Utah, there is quite a large scoring hole left open in the starting lineup.

As of now, Warren looks to be Bogey’s successor. Warren is coming off quite the scoring season of his own — 18 points per game on .486/.428/.815 splits.

Those numbers are incredibly close to the ones Bogdanovic put up last season, but the two players got to those places in very different ways.

Last season was a career-year for Bogdanovic, but he had been building up to that point. Since entering the league in 2014, Bogey has been a dead-eye shooter and efficient scorer across the board. With the increased opportunity due to Oladipo’s absence, Bogdanovic turned more shots into more points.

Indiana was swept in the first round of the playoffs, but they played valiantly without Oladipo and Bogdanovic played a large role in that.

Warren, on the other hand, put up his numbers in just 43 games for the worst team in the West. While he has been efficient from the field in his career, Warren was a terrible three-point shooter up until last season.

There is reason to believe Warren can continue to be a good long-range shooter — he has good touch, is an above-average free throw shooter, and adjusted his form before last season. Warren will probably settle a few percentage points below where he was last season in Phoenix, but anything close to 40 percent on a decent volume could be huge for the Pacers’ offense.

Even without a reliable deep ball, Warren has tremendous scoring tools. He averaged 19.6 points per game in 2017-18 — mostly relying on at-rim attempts and drawing fouls. With defenders playing up on Warren, he’ll have plenty of space to get a good look.

Warren is quite good in transition, too, scoring 1.28 points per possession last season — 82nd percentile. The year before, he also scored 1.28 PPP in transition.

Whether it be off long rebounds or steals, Warren should get a fair amount of shots to create in transition with the Pacers as well.

Before Oladipo returns, former Charlotte Hornet Jeremy Lamb should be starting in his place. Lamb isn’t the flashy scorer that Warren is but he’s coming off a career-high 15.3 points per game and offers the ever-important ability to create his own shot.

Like Warren, Lamb is proficient in transition — scoring 1.24 points per possession last season (74th percentile) on 2.2 attempts per game.

He was also quite good coming off screens, which is the something the Pacers can abuse with two traditional bigs on the floor.

Lamb has the tools to continue his ascent as a scorer. Playing alongside creators such as Sabonis and (eventually) Oladipo, along with efficient off-ball players in Brogdon, Warren, and Turner should help put Lamb in better positions to succeed than he was seeing in Charlotte.

The scoring prowess of Warren and Lamb could end up being very important for the Pacers this season. Before Oladipo’s return, Indiana will need reliable bucket-getters to power the offense. When Oladipo returns, he will need help from others to create shots — something he hasn’t had much of the past two seasons.

If Warren can prove to not be a “good player, bad team” scorer and Lamb builds onto what he became in Charlotte, the Pacers’ offense may end up being better than middle-of-the-road — as Indiana has gotten used to over the years.