Oshae Brissett’s reassertion has stiffened his case as part of the Pacers core

The Indiana Pacers are in the middle of their worst campaign in recent memory. While the franchise now has the solid backing of a brighter future, it’s no secret that the team has had more lows than highs this season, as their record indicates.

One player who has had a rough patch, for the most part, is third-year forward Oshae Brissett. After breaking out in the latter portion of the previous campaign, the versatile tweener has vacillated between undefined roles in the early going, racking up DNPs and meager minutes with Torrey Craig, who has a similar skill set but with more experience, soaking up more court time.

Oshae Brissett’s recent upsurge gives the Indiana Pacers renewed hope on his viability as a part of the future core

Since February, Brissett has gotten more minutes, which was amplified further by the Craig trade. After starting just one game all season long, he was thrust into the opening group in seven out of 10 games, averaging 12.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in 28.9 minutes per game.

Following a slow start, a more defined role has given Brissett some much-needed spark, allowing him to be more cemented as a part of the Indiana Pacers’ core for the foreseeable future after months of fans wondering if he was only a one-time wonder.

Tabbing Brissett as a foundational piece is an overblown proposition, but despite his three-year league experience, he has only really played a total of 90 games, which equates to only a tad more than a full season. This is certainly an asterisk to those who are doubting his ceiling without taking heed of the context.

The reason why Brissett could be pictured as a part of the future core is because of his tremendous fit with the current cogs. While undersized to play full-time power forward, his lack of a definite position is more telling of his versatility than anything.

His offense verges on being streaky, but he has a valuable three-point stroke which manifests with more mileage on the court (38.3 percent when playing north of 30 minutes). His skills on other scoring departments are too supplementary to serve as anchors of any degree, but this is a result of being exclusively relegated as a catch-and-shoot threat. Other than that, he possesses great maturity; moving very well without the ball, and limiting his turnovers as much as possible.

On defense, Brissett has not been the one-on-one savant that fans had hoped he would be in year three (or really, two), but he remains a tremendous help defender whose natural instincts drive him to be very effective in reading situations. His smarts as a team defender has gone largely unnoticed with the Pacers struggling so much as a point-preventing unit, but his succinct awareness on when to help and not to remains a prominent feature of his game and value.

Oh, and we cannot forget about his rebounding. Brissett is a functional small-ball big man in large part due to his affinity with knowing how to angle himself inside to be in the position to grab boards, even in the offensive glass.

Some fans may still have reasonable doubts on Oshae Brissett and how much of a factor he really is in the Indiana Pacers’ future, but with more opportunities now, he is certainly striking the iron while still hot.

Better yet, he’s now in control of his destiny. And if all holds up well, book Brissett in as part of the Blue and Gold for years to come.