Indiana Pacers: 5 most productive duos on the roster

Justin Holiday and Domantas Sabonis

Net rating: 6.0 (904 minutes)

Surprisingly, the two-man duo of Domantas Sabonis and Doug McDermott doesn’t make it into the top five. The best duo for Sabonis of players in the second unit is with Justin Holiday, a strong and versatile wing that has vastly outproduced expectations for the Pacers this year.

Playing in over 900 minutes together, this pairing has produced a positive net rating of 6.0.

They have an offensive rating north of 110 and a defensive rating south of 105. Sabonis, while not ready to be a true defensive anchor and rim protector like his starting frontcourt partner Myles Turner, is a servicable defender and when paired with Holiday who makes some great reads, they can certainly shake things up on that end.

Holiday isn’t the best offensive player, but can make a few buckets per game.

The true benefit of these players is helped in large part by a third member of the bench unit, mentioned as a part of the next duo here.

Justin Holiday and Doug McDermott

Net rating: 6.0 (922 minutes)

This duo has quite a bit of overlap with the previous duo mentioned in Holiday and Sabonis, one of the reasons they are exactly the same in terms of net rating.

While Justin Holiday and Doug McDermott have seen more overall minutes than Holiday/Sabonis as a pairing, they’ve posted a slightly worse offensive rating and slightly better defensive rating, which is surprising given that Sabonis is a better defender than McDermott.

McDermott’s ability to light it up beyond the arc as the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter is complemented on the other end by Holiday’s ability to make great defensive reads and force turnovers.