The Indiana Pacers frontcourt is the center of discussion this offseason
The Indiana Pacers frontcourt pairing of Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner has only played one season together in the starting lineup and it wasn’t even a full one. Many are critical of the Turbonis pairing so I’m going to talk a little bit about the pairing then look at some options if the Indiana Pacers were to move on.
While we have not seen a ton from the two in the lineup together, they have shown some promise. At the same time, there are problems that arise when two bigs are on the floor for long stretches.
What the Indiana Pacers have in Turbonis
The pairing of Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis is an unusual pairing in the league’s current state but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In my opinion, the pairing actually worked pretty well this year with Domantas Sabonis making the All-Star team, but that lead to Myles taking a back seat with his role on the team. With Nate McMillan not being a great offensive coach, it led to Myles Turner mostly standing on the perimeter on the offensive end. That’s not a bad strategy but it is when it’s not in the coach’s mind to shoot threes at all.
The defensive end was where you could say the pairing got a little tricky. Two centers on the floor at the same time created the question of what to do with them. The Pacers were lucky that one of the two centers happened to be Myles Turner. Myles doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his defensive prowess from anyone besides the true Pacer fans.
Myles has the ability to guard many positions on the perimeter with great success and sending back their shot if they somehow get past him. I’d say Domantas Sabonis throws off the defense a little bit at times, but he isn’t actually a terrible defender like people think.
On defense, Myles guards the PF and Sabonis guards the C. Sabonis struggles if being switched onto the faster power forward because he struggles to move laterally, but if he is guarding the Center in the post he uses his big body to be able to mostly contain them. However, a knock on Sabonis is that he actually has pretty short arms for his size. I’ll be honest I could go into some full-on analytics about the pairing on the defensive end, but I truly don’t understand every advanced stat.
Let’s take a look at what could happen if the Pacers decide to move on from one of them.
What if the Indiana Pacers move on from Myles Turner?
If the Indiana Pacers decide to move on from Myles there are some places that would honestly be great fits and I’d love to see him succeed anywhere he goes. Some goods fits for Myles would include Dallas, Houston, or Golden State but his playstyle would fit on pretty much any team with a competent coach.
I have nothing but praise for Myles Turner, he fits the mold of a prototypical big man and any team would be lucky to have him. I really hope the Pacers don’t move on from him, I want to see what he can do with a different coach, I think he can shine. If they make a trade I don’t know his value on the open market but it would make the most sense to get a forward in return for him that can play the 3 or 4 depending on what T.J. Warren wants to do.
Adding wing depth and allowing Sabonis to split his time with Goga Bitadze might give the Pacers more flexibility with their current roster.
Now let’s take a look at moving on from Domantas Sabonis.
What if the Indiana Pacers move on from Domantas Sabonis?
I think it is very unlikely that the Pacers move on from Domantas Sabonis unless his playstyle is just completely incompatible with the new coach. Domantas Sabonis is an All-Star and I think he is going to keep improving, hopefully adding a capable three-point shot to his arsenal.
It’s hard to think of many places that wouldn’t want a player like Sabonis on their roster, much like Myles Turner. For Sabonis, there is not a list of two or three teams that I could just instantly see him on like Myles, but if we were to trade him I’d want a forward in return, someone that can play the 3 or 4 to hopefully keep a small-ball scheme going in the organization.
In conclusion, I am a fan of running back the Turbonis duo to see if it can function even more smoothly under a new head coach. My thoughts are that hopefully, we don’t sign Mike D’Antoni because it would probably result in a trade of one of the two young big men. Let’s run it back!