After a short ninety-seven day offseason, the Indiana Pacers are now weeks away from returning to the court.
The Indiana Pacers will be back in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in just nineteen days, although without fans, I wanted to share my predictions for this upcoming season.
Breaking this into three different awards, who I believe will be the Pacers sixth man of the year, the leader in scoring, and most valuable player.
Sixth man of the year: Justin Holiday
Justin Holiday just recently signed a three-year extension with the Pacers and was a top priority for the front office for good reason. During his first season with the Pacers, he was asked to do a lot, mainly because of injuries the team faced, but he stepped up.
Although his scoring totals don’t stand out in the box score (he averages only 8.3 points per game last season) he was fantastic at spacing the floor and giving the second unit a consistent shooter from deep as well as a reliable defender.
Now it is hard to tell what the future holds for Jeremy Lamb because he never really got to play with the second unit as intended with Oladipo out most of the season, followed by his own season-ending injury. Lamb will be my honorable mention.
According to Kevin Pritchard during his offseason press conference, Lamb will be able to practice to start the season, but most likely won’t be playing games until mid to late January. For this reason, I say Justin Holiday will be the Pacers’ Sixth Man this season.