Power ranking all five starters for the Indiana Pacers
By Luke Parrish
No. 2: T.J. Warren
The most important player for Indiana this season has to be T.J. Warren. His absence was a major blow to the squad last season after coming in with sky-high expectations. The Pacers need their best wing defender and arguably best scorer to return to the floor.
Warren is the most consistent scoring threat on this roster right now thanks to his ability to knock down shots from deep and in the mid-range. Caris is a similar scorer but Warren shoots the rock at a much higher clip from beyond the arc. Since 2018, Warren has hit 40.7 percent of his three-point attempts.
Perimeter defense was a disaster for the Pacers under Nate Bjorkgren and a lot of the issues fell on the bigs who were forced to clean them up. Domantas Sabonis was used as a runner which does not fit him at all and Turner was dealing with a ton of shots at the rim (which he defended well).
Getting Warren back will improve their perimeter defense and give the Pacers their best scorer all in one. I would argue that Warren is the most important Pacer this season as he either makes or breaks their season. But he is not the best right now.