SR-NBA Bubble Breakdowns: #13 Indiana Pacers

Today we look at a fascinating Indiana Pacers squad that has one of the most unique situation as play returns. A team that had players have to step up this year has put themself in a decent playoff spot. The status of G Victor Oladipo is a situation that could have a huge impact on the Pacers, especially in the playoffs. Oladipo initially reported he would not be playing in the NBA’s return due to concerns over the quadricep tendon he ruptured a season ago. Oladipo only has played in the past 13 games of the Pacers season before the season’s suspension. The Pacers currently are in a tie for 5th place in the Eastern Conference with the Philadephia 76ers. With only 8 games left the Indiana Pacers will need to look to do a lot of things they have done all year long, just at an accelerated rate. Indiana will look to their major rotation guys to produce more and their deep bench to continue to find a way to ultimately just help this team win as many games as possible.

Indiana’s Season In Review (39-26, 5th In East)

The Starters for Indiana have been good but will really need to step up for this team to not only in their fight to hold the 5th seed in the East but come the first round of the playoffs. The Backcourt of Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis has been one of the few places this roster has found a constant this year. Sabonis is a walking double averaging 20 points and 13 rebounds a game and Turner pitches in an additional 13 points and 7 rebounds per game. They are leaders in the backcourt by G Malcolm Brogdon who was averaging 16.2 points 7 assists and 4.6 rebounds a game this season. He has been supported by the play of both TJ Warren who was averaging 20.5 points per contest as well as Jeremy Lamb who contributed 14.4.

The Pacers were a team that was only going to get better as this season went on. Largely due to the absence of Victor Oladipo and that he would only return after the midway point of this season due to his season-ending injury from a year ago. The Pacers competed at a high-level none the less, this year even without him. Winning 26 games, only a game shy of the 27 they won in 2019 when they had Oladipo the year before, the Pacers got production from their deep into their bench. Of the 9 players in this team’s rotation, they combine for 38 missed games in just the first half of the season. The Pacers have had some refreshing players step up in the wake of the injury problems they have had this year. Players such as JaKarr Sampson and Edmond Sumner have been just a few of the guys that have been able to help step up for the Pacer second unit. Sampson has been a pleasant surprise for this team, averging a team-high in field goal percentage and providing strong interior defense in 13 games played. Goga Bitadze, T.J. Leaf, and Naz Mitrou-Long are among some of the others that have also definitely helped this Indiana second unit reach as many wins as they have.

Pacer’s head Coach Nate McMillan has done a great job of playing different rotations all year long for this team to be in a position to win games. He’s found success with whoamever was available but when Oladipo returned it seemed hopeful he would finally be able to find some stability with the roster this year.

Now they are faced with the same type of problems with the teams rotation they have faced all year long with Oladipos status still up in the air. In recent days it has seemed more probable that Oladipo will return in Orlando but the rest of the roster has to improve regardless if they hope to win their first-round playoff series.

Looking into the Bubble:

Hopefully, even with Victor Oladipo, the guys on this roster that will really need to step up are in the backcourt with Brogdon and Lamb. We’ve seen that TJ Warren can successfully create his own shot and get a bucket this year but come playoffs some of these guys are going to have to be able to do the same. It looked hopeful that Oladip was going to come back to fill that void. He was averaging 15 points per game in his 13 games back from injury. He was feeling better physically and it showed statistically as he scored a season-high 27 in the game right before the season was suspended. Brogdon and Lamb specifically need t step up because they are guard who finally possesses the ability they just have not consistently demonstrated it in terms of really scoring the ball this year. If they can find more consistency scoring from this part of the lineup to help the team along with some solid shooting from Doug Mcdermott, and Just and Aaron Holiday off the bench then the team will have the offensive weapons to compete with a first-round playoff series.

The Pacers have the 4th easiest schedule coming back to play but that doesn’t mean too much. They are still technically tied with the 76ers who have underperformed this year and are getting a healthy Ben Simmons after having time to heal a back injury. Pacers have a chance to be competitive in the playoffs depending where they do finish out in the eastern conference standings they will need a favorable matchup, lots of their roster to step up and a little bit of luck to get beyond the first round of the playoff this year.