By the numbers: Which Indiana Pacers should get more playing time under Nate Bjorkgren?

Aaron Holiday also deserves more minutes

Don’t think Aaron Holiday has been forgotten, unlike what happened to him for most of the 2018-19 season. Though he ended the season averaging 12.9 minutes per game, Aaron averaged 3.2 minutes and had 10 DNPs in his first 15 games after being drafted 23rd overall.

There were a couple of 10-game stretches of about 17 minutes per game, one of which occurred after Oladipo went down for the season, and I thought the only silver lining to another Pacer star suffering a catastrophic injury was seeing what Aaron would do with the opportunity in an all but lost season.

But then the Pacers signed Wes Matthews, and Aaron’s chance at a significant boost in playing time was gone.

The blame for this doesn’t fall solely on Coach McMillan, though I do think there could have been more of a balance than playing Matthews 32 minutes per game to Aaron’s 17. Matthews was signed to continue trying to compete for the season, and I’m sure at the time this was a decision likely supported by most everyone involved.

Was Aaron playing so well that he should have gotten 25+ minutes? Not really. But when Oladipo’s quad ruptured, so did the Pacers’ realistic chances at playoff success. It would have been a perfectly understandable opportunity for Nate and the Pacers to give Aaron more of a bump than the slight uptick he ended up getting, and who knows what that may have done for his development.

Ultimately Holiday ended his 2018-19 regular season averaging 12.9 minutes per game with 32 DNPs. This got even worse in the playoffs, with Aaron only playing 4 minutes per game with a DNP while Matthews maintained his 32mpg in a sweep to Boston.

Thankfully, the 2019-20 season was a much different story for Holiday. He averaged 24.5 minutes and even started in 33 of the Pacers’ 66 regular-season games as the Pacers dealt with more backcourt injuries to Brogdon and Lamb while Oladipo was still on the mend. He played much better, which may have had something to do with his increase in minutes, but it also could have come from being more comfortable and confident in his role.

All together, Aaron absolutely earned the increased opportunity he got this year, and some might argue that he earned an even bigger role moving forward to the point of being a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. I’m hopeful that Goga gets a similar boost in minutes and overall play from rookie to sophomore year, even if Turner and Sabonis are both still on the roster.

It may seem ignorant to write about what is best for an NBA team or an NBA player having never been in those roles, I get that. A coach’s job is to win games, and watching a rookie play through mistakes when you have vets on the bench is probably frustrating for everyone involved.

But having your 18th and 23rd overall selections play such few minutes in consecutive years is a waste of a valuable developmental opportunity and should be something Coach Nate looks into making a priority. Rookies who can contribute to a playoff team are so valuable because they’re getting paid so little relative to the league that it allows teams to spend money in other places. But rookies aren’t likely to contribute in the postseason if they aren’t allowed some growing pains in the regular season.

As I mentioned before there are teams in the last two years with more rookies (some drafted later than our selections), playing more minutes, winning more games, and going further in the playoffs. Boston and Miami made it to the Eastern Conference Finals while leading the league in rookie minutes played, and Denver made it to the Western Conference Finals having played Michael Porter Jr. significant minutes throughout the season.

This goes to show you can develop rookies and still have a successful season, and while we may not have a first-round pick at the moment, I am hopeful that our new coaching staff will prove we can develop players while still playing winning basketball.