Indiana Pacers: Keeping these young players should be a priority

There are many questions that need answers this upcoming season for the Indiana Pacers. With Just 10 games remaining this season, the Pacers need to focus on a few young players to bring back on next year’s roster.

Some young talent has prevailed in the back end of the season in guys like Terry Taylor and Duane Washington Jr. Who should the Indiana Pacers prioritize for next season? Both.

Terry Taylor has emerged this season on a two-way deal from the Mad Ants. Going undrafted to starting in games this season is a shared trait between him and Washington.

Taylor is a true pro and is as mature as they get for his age. At 22 years old, he has room to grow of course, but the framework he has is intriguing.

In the 23 game sample this season, he is averaging 9.5 points per game, 5.9 rebounds, and shooting 40% from three (.07 attempts) and 64% from the field.

He had his best game to date against the Orlando Magic, where he scored a career-high 24 points (10/15) and 16 rebounds.

As it stands right now, he is the team’s 9th highest in points per game. That is better than a lot of players who played for the Pacers this season.

Oshae Brissett, Isaiah Jackson, T.J. McConnell, Goga Bitadze, Keifer Sykes, Tristan Thompson, Jeremy Lamb, Torrey Craig, Kelan Martin, and Brad Wannamaker all averaged less.

On top of his scoring output, his rebounding is among the best on the team. He’s currently the third-best rebounder the Pacers have, and he is 6’5”. Only Jalen Smith and Myles Turner are ahead of him.

To top it off, he leads all Pacers’ players in field goal percentage with 64%. Jalen Smith is next in the stat column with 56.6%.

Taylor has gone on a similar route to that of Oshae Brissett. Starting with the Mad Ants and playing his way into becoming an impact depth player who is young and promising.

Young and promising is the perfect way to describe Taylor and his abilities. He is like the swiss army knife of the NBA player, with many tools in his bag. The Pacers should keep him going forward as the team looks to retool this roster.

Duane Washington Jr.

Duane Washington Jr. is another undrafted rookie making a name for himself with the opportunity given this season. Also starting his season in Fort Wayne, he has shot his way into a role with Indiana.

On the season he’s averaging 9.7 points per game, 1.9 assists, and is shooting 37.6% from behind the arc. Also, shooting 40.1% from the field with 8.9 attempts per game.

Washington has sneakily made his way into the rookie leaderboards sitting now at 3rd in three-point percentage among rookies. He is nearly 22 years old as well as Taylor.

He’s only played in 40 of the 72 games so far but has consistently seen action since the start of the new calendar year.

I am a fan of Washington’s energy and although he has a streaky shot sometimes, he has been super consistent to end the season. In his last ten games, he is averaging 13.6 points per, 1.8 assists, shooting 46.2% from behind the arc (5.2 att) and 47.6% from the field in 22 minutes.

The Pacers don’t currently have available roster spots, as both Washington and Taylor are on two-way deals, they aren’t counted against Indiana’s cap space.

However, there are three players I think the Pacers won’t keep going into next season in which they could replace.

Those players are Keifer Sykes, Justin Anderson (10-day), and Ricky Rubio. Things are trickier if the team decides to keep Lance Stephenson, who is only signed through the end of this season. Then, there are other factors like T.J. Warren re-signing with the team or not as well that leave the Pacers with options.

The team also has three draft picks as it stands right now, one of them being a lottery pick. This offseason will be a busy one for the front office.

Trades, drafting, and other roster moves could all happen as the Indiana Pacers reshape the team so there’s a lot of uncertainty in how things will shape up for these young players. The potential is there and hopefully, they can showcase that potential in a Pacers uniform.