Indiana Pacers Profile: Malcolm Brogdon’s consistent two-way brilliance

Weaknesses

Ball-handling: Vastly improved, but at times still sloppy.

The main reason Brogdon hasn’t become an elite slasher that his height gives him the ceiling for is that he tends to have a sloppy handle when he touches the paint. He isn’t much of a turnover machine on the wing or when initiating pick and rolls, but he has a tendency of being ripped on drives to the middle of the lane by shorter players. It’s much better than it was as a Buck, but it’s still a part of his game that I think will improve with more opportunity.

Volume shooting: Will he become a more aggressive pull-up 3-point shooter?

I’ve mentioned before that I think Brogdon is an accurate shooter, but I’d love to see him shoot more than four per game in 2021. It seems like for a lot of McMillan’s tenure he wasn’t as confident with his three-point shot and only went to it when spotting up or wide open in situations where his defender went under on a screen.

A more obvious reason for the lack of an aggressively used go-to pull-up three-point shot is the fact that his shot seems at times to be a little bit slower than when he shoots from the mid-range. Perhaps this is due to a mental calibration he is used to making when shooting from range, as his shot seems to be short more often than long on misses thanks to less of a jump in his shot than most, but I’d just love to see more confidence and volume as it’d add even more layers to an already nasty pick and roll attack.

I think part of this was on McMillan, how do you not let a former 50/40/90 member not shoot more?

With all of this said, none of the skills really matter if they aren’t used correctly, and now it’s time to discuss his role and projected stats in the 2020-21 season.