The Indiana Pacers have yet to flirt with a breakthrough this season, sitting at 13th in a jampacked Eastern Conference with a 8-12 win-loss card at the quarter point of the campaign. Given how the team has essentially trekked in a rollercoaster ride, it’s hard to predict how the rest of the season will pan out for the Blue and Gold.
Still, with Thanksgiving just a blink past its end, Pacers fans have some things to be thankful for in this season. Indy is still on the losing column for the most part, but the team has seen no shortage of silver linings for the past month or so.
True to the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are four things that Pacers fans should be thankful for despite their middling start to the season.
What Pacers fans should be thankful for: Super Rookie Chris Duarte
I was one of the many (foolish) people who clamored that the Indiana Pacers should’ve gunned for a higher upside prospect than the 24-year-old Chris Duarte. More than a month in, I couldn’t be any more wrong, and I’m loving every bit of my miscalculation.
Duarte has been one of the brightest spots for the Pacers in their rather stale start to the season. Already one of the best pure scorers in his draft class, he easily ranks as Indiana’s best rookie since Myles Turner, snapping a relatively long streak of unimpressive drafting years for the Blue and Gold.
As a perimeter creator, his sheer skill with the ball is uncanny. Inarguably the best three-point shooter of his draft class, his scoring profile is predicated on finesse and marksmanship, and doesn’t rely on his sneaky athleticism to score. He has hit a rough patch recently after stellar early showings, but he’s been an above-average producer considering that he’s far from the Pacers’ primary or even secondary option offensively.
In time, Duarte could be among the best scorers in the league overall, a sentiment shared by some of the league’s superstars like Kevin Durant, and recently, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. Without heed to iffy age-related ceiling caps, one thing’s for sure: the Pacers got a stud in Duarte.
I asked LeBron about #Pacers rookie/No. 13 pick Chris Duarte, who sent it to OT with a 3.
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) November 25, 2021
“We had the (No.) 22 pick this year in the draft and we worked him out at our facility, and he didn’t miss a shot. I was like, ‘Ain’t no way in hell we getting this kid.’
“He’s big time.” pic.twitter.com/yWnvl9H3Pu
What Pacers fans should be thankful for: Those sleek City Edition Uniforms
The Flo-Jo’s will always be good.
After attempting to stick with the Circle City’s pace cars and racing industry in recent years, albeit on varying degrees of success and aesthetic value (those gray ones are far from good), the Pacers rocked some throwback fits starting with last season’s City Edition uniforms which saw the franchise hark back to the iconic pinstripes. This year, however, Indiana takes the homage up a notch, mixing two elements from their most glorious years.
The Blue and Gold has one of the best colorways in the NBA when done right, and this is arguably one of the ways to kill it. These refreshed Flo-Jo’s, inspired from the late 80s designs, include a tribute to the Pacers’ ABA championships and icon Slick Leonard, who passed away recently. The subtle “Boom Baby” was a nice touch, too.
With the NBA celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Indiana Pacers City Edition jerseys truly live up to the franchise’s history while keeping it sleek and modern, unlike some teams out there which decided to trot out a Russian roulette garment.
What Pacers fans should be thankful for: Malcolm Brogdon’s All-Star play
Not a lot of fans were thrilled when news about the Indiana Pacers inking Malcolm Brogdon to a premature two-year extension broke. I was a bit skeptical too, but the heady floor general has been playing the best basketball of his career so far in year number three donning the Blue and Gold.
Averaging a career-high 21.3 points per game, including 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists on the nightly, Brogdon has emerged as Indiana’s top option on offense, even ahead of two-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis. His shooting splits have not been stellar with his sky-high usage rate, but to say that he has been the Pacers’ best player so far veers on reason than exaggeration.
While the Pacers have had more success this season with an egalitarian finish on offense, Brogdon’s presence alone has kept the team afloat. He may be better off with a bit more streamlined load offensively, but given the team’s litany of problems, advocating for him to trim his burden would probably be dangerous.
If Brogdon keeps this level of play up and the Pacers eventually climb back into the winning circle, then the Circle City should be represented once again in the All-Star game, but this time, with Malcolm Brogdon carrying the city’s name.
What Pacers fans should be thankful for: The Turbonis combo’s effectiveness
Over the last few years, the Indiana Pacers were firm on testing out the Myles Turner–Domantas Sabonis frontcourt combination, a bold aversion from today’s small-ball revolution. The pairing has been a largely neutral presence in their first three full seasons operating as a duo in the starting lineup, but the jury may now look at this pairing as an operational, and not just tolerable, marriage.
This season, however, the Turbonis has been more than just an experimental staple—the Turner-Sabonis duo has been the Pacers’ third-best two-man combination this season, yielding a +8.9 rating. Last season? That number was -3.1. Rick Carlisle is not without his faults, but this is the best that the zagging frontcourt has looked in all their years together.
Turner has not been as trigger-shy from three-point land and has adapted to being a full-time floor spacer and occasional rim runner while maintaining his elite defensive numbers. Sabonis has been tallying modest numbers compared to his All-Star campaigns, but his defensive activity, while still negligible at the rim, has surprisingly been more than tenable covering the perimeter. If he can be more assertive on offense, this combo should still be on deck for much better outputs.
The Turbonis frontcourt will still be the probable target when the Pacers gun for a retooling, but if they stick to their guns, a more likely proposition anyway, fans should be more than optimistic than ever about the effectivity of the big man pairing with their more seamless coordination this season.