The Indiana Pacers ... just, all of it
Ladies and gentleman, the most average and aggressively boring team in the NBA! The Pacers are 17th on offense, and 14th on defense. They would be closer to .500 if they didn't dissolve into nothingness in crunch time. They rank between 12th and 19th in frequency of shot attempts from every location.
They just have no identity. What is the organizing principle here? What are they trying to be? Perhaps this amorphousness is the result of starting four guys -- Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, Caris LeVert, Myles Turner -- who all might believe they are the team's most important player.
Three of them -- all but Turner -- need the ball. Only Sabonis could be more than a fourth option on a great team, but the Pacers don't seem eager to recognize Sabonis as their best player.
(They really need T.J. Warren, who does not need the ball as much -- even if he'd like it -- and would both start on the wing and play backup power forward.)
LeVert leads the team in shots and usage rate, and he hasn't been good. He's shooting 41%, including an ugly 26% on 3s, and forcing it when easy passes stare him in the face. LeVert deserves patience given what he is coming back from.
Sabonis is averaging five post touches per 100 possessions, down from about eight over the past three seasons, per Second Spectrum. As Caitlin Cooper -- who does a brilliant job covering the Pacers -- has written, Indiana has some weird, minor allergy to hitting their big men rolling to the rim; they average only three plays per 100 possessions on which someone screens, rolls, and shoots -- 22nd overall.
There is talent here, and depth, even if most of Indy's top-line guys are fourth-option types with overlapping skill sets. It just isn't leading anywhere cohesive. If this keeps up, I'd expect a lot of trade chatter around the Pacers.
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