Indiana Pacers Prospects: Corey Kispert, an absolute shooting flamethrower

With his skill-set analyzed, how would Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert fit with the Indiana Pacers?

Offense: General Sabonis’ new sniper

Offensively, I invite each and every person reading this to name a team in the entire league that this Gonzaga Bulldog wouldn’t fit on seamlessly. I’ll wait. Many fans of the Pacers alike describe Domantas Sabonis and his buddy Doug McDermott playing on the floor together as basketball purity.

The two-man game between these two bearded bucket getters is just beautiful to watch thanks to Sabonis’s next level playmaking and Dougie’s ability to cut, drive, or flare off the aforementioned big man to score at all three levels effortlessly.

With this future Gonzaga Alumni, we’d see the exact same dynamic that Doug and Domas share, only better. While McDermott is admittedly another three-point specialist with some serious driving chops, Kispert in my opinion may already be better than Doug thanks to an even more advanced shot profile.

It’d be common to see this Gonzaga connection resulting in Domas kick-outs to Kispert 25 footers and this would drive even the best defenses mad with the amount of attention you’d have to pay to this action.

Although he’ll be 22 before any NBA action, he could seriously clock in a 12+ year NBA career with his shooting alone, and he and Domantas would age seamlessly together.

He obviously wouldn’t just benefit Sabonis though, as his gravity would create a constant lane for the teams driving threats like Caris LeVert, Malcolm Brogdon, and the two T.Js.

Defense: Put him on their worst guy

While the offensive fit would be easy, it’s difficult seeing Kispert guarding anyone other than the most lacking offensive player on the opposing team. He could find solid value as a weakside help-man when Turner or Sabonis is out thanks to his strength and IQ, but it’s going to take some fundamental development to make him a real defender for this team.

We’ve covered his defense enough, and his shooting is good enough to mitigate any leaked value his defense might bring, which in theory may not be all that awful anyway in the right lineup.