The Indiana Pacers quietly had one of the most sound offseasons among any NBA team.
They didn’t land a high-profile free agent. There were no LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard rumors. A string of minute moves has propelled the Pacers from an average Eastern Conference team to one that will enter the regular season as a candidate to finish among the top four.
They were one of the few teams that had a reasonable amount of cap space entering the summer and put every dollar to good use. Instead of chasing superstars, they opted for solidarity and depth. They achieved both of those in every sense.
They passed on re-signing Lance Stephenson and Glenn Robinson III, and waived Al Jefferson and Alex Poythress to clear up even more cap space. These moves set up the additions of Doug McDermott, Tyreke Evans (much to the dismay of Memphis Grizzlies fans) and Kyle O’Quinn. The McDermott contract (3 years, $22 million) is the only one deal that should be questioned, but every other deal has been team-friendly (and I personally like the McDermott contract in the long run). When adding in Aaron Holiday, the 23rd pick in June’s NBA Draft, the Pacers successfully constructed a 10-player deep rotation with legitimate talent that goes two-deep at every position. They’ll even have a good chunk of cap room available next summer when several of their current players will come off the books.
Here’s how their roster shapes up as of right now:
Point guard: Darren Collison/Cory Joseph/Aaron Holiday
Shooting guard: Victor Oladipo/Tyreke Evans
Small forward: Bojan Bogdanovic/Doug McDermott
Power forward: Thaddeus Young/Domantas Sabonis
Center: Myles Turner/Kyle O’Quinn
On paper, they are one of the two or three deepest teams in the East. Overall, they realistically only fall behind the Boston Celtics, the Kawhi Leonard-led Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers in still-way-too-early season predictions. The Pacers didn’t need to land a big-time free agent to move up the leaderboard; they just needed those superstars to go out West.
Well, honestly, they just needed LeBron James out of the East.
With James in Los Angeles, there is finally hope for the top half of the East. A healthy Leonard is probably the best player in the conference, along with the likes of Giannis Anteotkounmpo, Kyle Lowry, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. However, it’s Victor Oladipo who the conference should be taking note of.
Oladipo proved himself last season. Not just to himself, but to the entire NBA and the nagging critics of the Paul George trade. He was an All-Star, All-NBA player, All-Defensive First Team member and the Most Improved Player by a sizable margin. It took three rocky, developmental seasons in Orlando and a backseat role in Oklahoma City for Oladipo to get there but the 26-year old is a bonafide superstar in the making. Now, it’s time to prove everything wasn’t just a fluke.
Oladipo will go into the season as the undisputed leader of the team and face of the franchise. That title once belonged to Paul George and later appeared to be Myles Turner’s to lose but Oladipo swooped in and snatched it from everyone.
Last season, the Pacers finished fifth in the East at 48-34 and were in the top half of the league in both offensive and defensive rating. They posed a much bigger challenge to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs than the Raptors infamously did in round two, as the Pacers took the LeBron-led Cavs to seven games. They ultimately lost but injected fear into the rest of the NBA. The result wasn’t what the team had hoped for but it was a coming out party for both the team and Oladipo that screamed: “We don’t need Paul George; we’re better off without him.”
This coming season, they’ll have pressuring expectations. Oladpio is the one expected to not only meet them but exceed them.
Oladipo’s unexpected leap doesn’t happen often in the NBA, especially in the one-and-done era, where most of the top prospects are already in the league by age 20. Oladipo is an outlier. At 25 years old, his fifth season in the NBA was leaps and bounds more impressive than the four combined seasons before that.
*Oladipo’s averages in year five: 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and a league-leading 2.4 steals on .477/.371/.799 shooting splits.
*Oladipo in years one through four: 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.5 steals per game on .434/.346/.800 shooting splits
In NBA history, only five players have ever finished a season averaging at least 23.0 points and 2.3 steals per game with a true shooting percentage of 55-plus percent: Michael Jordan (who did it seven times), Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler (twice) and, of course, Mr. Oladipo.
Oladipo wants to be an all-time great. He has the tools to be great. He’s expressed time and time again how desperate he craves to be great.
“I want to be great. I’ve been saying that since I walked into this facility,” Oladipo said shortly after being named the NBA’s Most Improved Player. “I want to be one of the best players to ever play this game.”
He’s going to have more than enough opportunities to prove those desires are genuine. It starts with next season and taking advantage of a wide-open Eastern Conference.
The Pacers were a plus-4.5 net rating with Oladipo on the court and a minus-2.7 with him off. All but two Pacers — Al Jefferson and T.J Leaf, who both averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game — posted positive net ratings when Oladipo was off the court. The Pacers’ top-five lineups last season, sorted by net rating, all included Oladpio. Of the Pacers’ top-20 five-man lineups, there were eight that recorded at least 30 total minutes AND posted a negative net rating. Oladpio was a member of only three of them.
In short, Oladpio is the mesmerizing fire that spreads to everything surrounding him. It’s not often a player can be both the star and the X Factor but that’s exactly what he is.
Trading a superstar such as Paul George typically indicates a rebuild is in the works. The Pacers didn’t even contemplate it. They didn’t even need to “retool.” Oladpio stepped in immediately and erased any frustration or helplessness Indiana fans might have been feeling.
The Pacers have a certified All-Star, young talent, flexibility for the future and a terrific head coach. It may not be long before we’re talking about this team as a premier destination for another All-Star counterpart to Oladipo.
