Larry Nance Jr. might just be the least consequential player on the Indiana Pacers roster.
That seems mean, but it is no less true about a player who will only play if the season has gone terribly wrong and who was only signed to be a locker room presence for a team that may struggle this year.
He has aged out of being a small ball five option as his athleticism has waned, and he has become increasingly injury-prone over the past few years. Now, early in training camp, Nance has a hamstring injury. No one particularly knows how bad it is, and reports justifiably do not pay a lot of attention to the swingman on a minimum contract.
After the season the Pacers just had – a 19-win campaign in which star, replacement, and replacement's replacement all got hurt regularly – it is at least a silver lining that the end of the rotation is facing injuries while the starters stay healthy.
Still, it is a little worrying that the Pacers' deep bench options are A) not expected to play, and B) already unable to play at this point in the season. It may already be fair to say that the Pacers have a depth problem.
Is it time to worry about the Pacers' ninth to 15th players?
Nance is functionally the third-string center behind Star Ivica Zubac and role player Jay Huff. That's a fine rotation there, although it would be nice if Nance were ever worth playing.
But the problems extend deeper into the rotation.
If T.J. McConnell has aged out of being a quality bench player, then the Pacers do not have a backup point guard. They have Andrew Nembhard, who is better used as a scorer than as a playmaker and still has questions about whether he can be the only ball handler on a court.
If McConnell takes a step back, the Pacers will be forced to rely on Quinton Jackson, who has the same flaws as Nembhard, without any of the talent, or they will need to look to make a trade for a sufficiently capable backup point guard with the same identity-setting work ethic at a fraction of the price.
While the wing rotation is quite strong on the surface, with the aforementioned Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, and free agent priority Kelly Oubre Jr., injuries could quickly deplete that strength. Both Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, who are assumed to be the fourth and fifth forwards, respectively, have not shown enough to be real rotation pieces.
What this means is that the Pacers have their eight locked-in rotation pieces, and a bunch of lesser peieces that they will only play in case of emergency.
They have no specialists. They only have "break glass in case of emergency" reserves.
That is not the way that great teams are built, and while it may seem dramatic to come to that conclusion over an injury to Larry Nance Jr. of all people, time has proven again and again that caution is a necessity in the NBA.
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