Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player at season's end
By Mueez Azfar
Doug McDermott
Stats with IND: 18 Games, 11.3 MPG, 4.2 PPG, 0.6 RPG, 0.7 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.2 TOV, 0.9 FPG 40.6/32.1/50 Splits on 53.7% TS
Yeah, this one wasn't pretty.
After an inconsistent half-season with Indiana, Buddy Hield was finally dealt at the trade deadline to the Philadelphia 76ers. After some additional moves, Indiana swung another deal with San Antonio to land Doug McDermott as Hield's 'replacement.'
A former fan-favorite in Indiana back in the Oladipo years, the idea was that McDermott could slide in and provide that shooting Hield left behind while giving some extra consistency, as he shot lights out in San Antonio in the first half of the season.
This was anything but the case, and McDermott's reunion with Indiana quickly turned into a nightmare. In his first six games back in a Pacers uniform, McDermott couldn't get anything to fall, averaging 3.2 points on 29% from the field and an abysmal 20% from deep on 3.3 attempts per game. Suddenly, the sharpshooter Pacers fans remembered was gone and replaced by someone who made fans long for Buddy Hield back
Luckily, Rick Carlisle quickly noticed this and took McDermott out of the rotation, with the next 10 games being DNPs. However, this did not continue, and McDermott was back in the rotation for 18 of Indiana's final 19 games, only slightly improving his shooting to 40% from the field and 32% from deep.
All in all, Doug McDermott recorded only three double-figure games for the Pacers, with one of them being 15 garbage time points in the final game against Atlanta. McDermott brought nothing to the table on offense, suddenly turning into an awful shooter despite increased spacing in Indiana, and was even worse on defense, allowing every player to score on him, no matter the skill level.
After 18 games, the only positive thing that can be said about Doug McDermott's second Indiana tenure is that it's finally over. McDermott's contract runs out this offseason and Indiana most likely has no intention to bring him back. As such, he will be the only Pacer to receive a completely bad grade, as I cannot give him a good grade in good faith.