On a surface level, Johnny Furphy is the run of the mill second round pick. At this point, a few years down the line, he will be overseas or out of the league – a trivia quiz question for particularly overinvolved Indiana Pacers fans.
That could still well be true, but the inverse could also end up happening.
Instead of falling out of the NBA entirely, Furphy could rise through the Pacers organization and become the perfect player for Indiana's bench unit to round into place. Overnight, he could return from an ACL tear and take the final rotation spot that so many players are clamoring for.
Furphy may just be exactly the athletic, bigger forward Indiana has been looking for. He has the measurables to move at an elite rate on and off the ball, both on offense and defense, and is a shooting leap away from becoming the ideal three-and-D role player to maximize Rick Carlisle's flexibility.
It seems far-fetched for an unheralded late-round pick who has played in only 85 career games and has only 283 points to his Basketball Reference page to earn real minutes on a team that plans to contend for a title, but it has a precedent.
In lost seasons, players prove themselves. Before his fateful knee injury, Furphy was making the most of his opportunities to fit into the team.
That fit starts, and ends, with his value in minutes alongside Pascal Siakam.
Playing with Pascal, Succeeding with Siakam
Johnny Furphy fits one massive needed role for the Pacers.
While Obi Toppin has historically filled the need for an archetypal backup power forward, his fit alongside Pascal Siakam in small-ball minutes is dreadfully lacking.
Meanwhile, Furphy offers the inverse. Defensively, he is big enough to help offer some rim deterrence and rebounding to prevent the Pacers from getting dominated inside. Additionally, his ability to swipe at loose balls to create turnovers and push Indiana into the open court, where they excel.
It's that very ability to insulate Siakam from taking an undue toll in the minutes when the Pacers go small. Siakam will be seeing nearly 40 minutes per contest. Most of that time will be shared with star center Ivica Zubac.
The question then becomes who is more valuable in those non-Siakam-Zubac minutes: center Jay Huff, who would keep the status quo, or Furphy, who would allow Indiana to access a Siakam-at-center lineup that has historically been excellent.
If there's one thing good teams don't do, it's play bad players simply to reach a roster quota. Huff is certainly not bad, but slotting him into the rotation arbitrarily would be a mistake.
If the choice is between throwing a slower fastball (hear out the metaphor, please) or learning an off-speed pitch, it seems obvious that the latter is the better choice. The Pacers will have enough minutes with a traditional five on the floor. Minutes without Zubac are an opportunity, not a curse.
Pascal Siakam and his versatility are at the core of the identity Indiana has been able to build since he was brought in from the Toronto Raptors. Offering Johnny Furphy more minutes would be an opportunity to showcase a player who is so often overlooked.
Maybe, just maybe, it would be effective enough to showcase both of them.
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