With how vital the Indiana Pacers big-man duo “Turbonis” can seem to be to the team’s success, who is actually the most impactful?
Put down those pitchforks fellas and fellets, this piece is not at all an indication that the Indiana Pacers should trade the “loser” of this value battle, simply an in-depth look at how each player impacts the team substantially.
To, most likely unsuccessfully, keep score in an effort to determine a “winner” in this inner-team battle, we will be utilizing a ranking system for four different categories: offensive value and impact, defensive value and impact, 2020-21 season performance, and long-term projected value.
Each tally ranges on a 1-5 scale, 5 obviously being the highest (or best, this isn’t golf).
Disclaimers (This is kind of nerdy stuff here, be warned.)
This piece is very statistic-oriented and I attempt to dip my toes in stats like RAPTOR and LEBRON (as well as the semi-reliable old stuff of course) and some of the said stats have been created in the last five years. This doesn’t in any way negate the value or validity of these stats, they may just be foreign to you at first.
Here are two links that break down LEBRON and RAPTOR if you’re interested:
LEBRON:https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-introduction/
RAPTOR:https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-our-raptor-metric-works/
With all of that being said, here is the “Battle of the Bigs”, starting with the Defensive Player of the Year candidate: Myles Turner.