The Good, The Bad, and The Bottom Line (Week 1)

Here’s a new series I’ll be bringing to you. The title is pretty self-explanatory, it’s a quick recap of the week prior in Pacers basketball, coming to you every Monday!

Since this is the first one, I will be recapping everything to this point through the first six games. The Pacers currently sport a 4–2 record to start the 2020–2021 season, yet it feels as though they should be 6–0.

A couple of bad losses in there definitely hurt the spirit a bit, but they press on tonight against Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Good

Efficiency

A huge focus going into the season for the Pacers was to focus on getting better shots. With this new offensive system that Nate Bjorkgren has implemented, there has been intentionality behind avoiding taking the long two-point shots that plagued this offense in years past.

Last season under Nate McMillan, the rotation players for the Blue and Gold took 11.6 percent of their shots from longer than 16 feet out, but not a three-pointer.

This season that number has been slashed to 6.1 percent. Myles Turner and Doug McDermott have both taken exactly zero of such shots.

Because of this sharp u-turn, the Pacers are currently second in the NBA in overall field goal percentage at 49.4 percent. The Lakers are first at 49.6 percent. Guys are getting to the rim and finding shooters when there is no play. Turner is putting the ball on the floor effectively.

The three-pointers are coming along as well. After a nauseating preseason and first few games, the Pacers have posted two straight games above 38 percent from deep. Also, if this Domantas Sabonis three-point game is legit, it’s over for the rest of the Eastern Conference.

Passing and Protecting the Rock

Sabonis is starting to attract attention in all corners of the NBA world. For better or worse, there are more eyes on the multi-faceted big man. With him running the Nikola Jokic-patented “point forward” position, Sabonis has been a spark plug for the team passing game.

Make no mistake, this pace and space system cannot function without an elite passing big man. With that, the Pacers are currently fourth in the NBA with 27 assists per game. This number is up over four percent from last year. Any given night, Sabonis, Malcolm Brogdon, Victor Oladipo, or TJ McConnell are capable of putting up 7+ assists.

This next part actually shocked me personally as it seems that the Pacers have been a little careless with the ball at times. Surprisingly, they also rank seventh in the league in the least amount of turnovers per game at 13.2 per game.

Something is changing in this group…

The Bad

Defending the Three

If you have this random part of your brain that tells you some random 17 percent shooter is going to nail eight three-pointers against the Pacers, you are probably right.

The Pacers are currently surrendering three-pointers at a clip close to Steph Curry’s career percentage. They are dead last with an opponent three percentage at 43.2. That can’t happen.

This is a simple fix really. Close-out to shooters faster, increase off-ball defensive awareness, and put more on-ball pressure on ball-handlers early in the shot clock.

Water will find its level, but the Pacers can’t afford to wait until it evaporates on its own.

Health

Ok, but seriously, what the heck is going on with injuries and the Pacers? I get that every team goes through injuries, but at some point there needs to be some questions answered. I’m getting to my boiling point with this and I know that I am not alone.

Losing TJ Warren sucks, no way around it. I do feel some relief knowing that the Pacers have real depth, can play small ball, and Jeremy Lamb is on the mend.

The number one enemy of this Pacers core is not Boston, Philly, or Milwaukee…it’s their own durability.

Bottom Line

There is a lot to like about the Pacers early on in the season. Their offense has seemingly jumped into a new stratosphere with no signs of slowing down. The perimeter defense needs to clean up in a hurry or teams will continue to exploit and attack the three. And for the love of all that is good in this world, they have to stay healthy.

Upcoming Games:

1/4 @8 pm ET- @ Pelicans (4–2)

1/6 @7 pm ET- Houston

1/9 @7pm ET- Phoenix

*All stats via Basketball-Reference and ESPN*