So many of the questions this offseason for the Indiana Pacers were about the fit of Ivica Zubac with the rest of the roster. There were worries about differences in internal pace between the post-dominant Zubac and a Pacers roster that plays faster than anyone else in the NBA.
However, those answers have been found through five preseason games, and the results are pretty darn good. Indiana has watched as returning guard Tyrese Haliburton and the Croatian center have meshed immediately.
Haliburton has found Zubac on dump-offs and on entry passes, and Zubac has created massive vacuums of space on screens to free up Tyrese as he gets used to playing at NBA intensity again after over a year-long absence.
However, this framing of the Zubac answer as one based on just the play of Haliburton also misses something that has clearly been working for Indiana, something that does not pop on the stat sheet but shines through on the screen.
Despite a lackluster preseason campaign, Pascal Siakam is complementing Ivica Zubac through his passing, and it could be the X-Factor for this season – and era – of Pacers basketball.
Big to big pays off big
Value over replacement player is such a wonderful combination of words to explain something that is so difficult to contextualize. Is Karl-Anthony Towns a better shooter than Mikal Bridges? No, not at all, but KAT is far better relative to his position than Bridges is, to the point that one gets billed as one of the best shooters at his position ever, and the other is simply a capable three-point threat.
There's a lot to be said about that in regard to the pairing of Ivica Zubac and Pascal Siakam. Neither is a league-leading playmaker like their teammate and face of the team, Tyrese Haliburton, but they are both well above the average level of power forwards and centers in the league's ecosystem at large.
That makes their play together, and the play with their teammates, half of whom need shots set up for them, far stronger.
Siakam has hit Zubac on a couple of lobs from the perimeter as well as dump-offs on drives, and Zubac has rewarded a few of Pascal's off-ball cuts (it is worth noting that very little was working for Siakam in 3/5 preseason games).
In a similar way, it's always very hard to contextualize what the perfect teammate for any star player would be. Zubac is awesome for Haliburton – he's like a maximized Richaun Holmes, who Hali loved playing with in Sacramento – but he's not a shooter and plays slowly. On paper that should be an issue, but the value of both of their talents makes a replacement option so, so much worse.
The fit of Indiana's team is coming together, and it's coalescing around the roster's three best players.
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