by Matt Phairas
My personal Pacers pre-season preview!
CURRENT ROSTER
PG - Brogdon, Holiday
SG - Oladipo, Lamb, Sumner
C - Turner, Bitadze
PF - Sabonis, Leaf
SF - Warren, McDermott
Point guard looks to be one of our strongest positions. Getting Brogdon was huge. He's young, he's big, he plays D and hits threes! And he's coming off the best year of his career. Chances are he still has some improvement left to add on to his 15.6 ppg. Holiday showed some flashes last year of what his game could be. He should only get better.
Shooting guard would obviously be a strong point as well if not for the Oladipo injury. However, there is some quality depth there that should be able to fill in admirably until Oladipo can return. Lamb isn't the explosive scorer Oladipo is, but he does lots of things well. He's solid and when you pair him with an improving Sumner, the Pacers should be able to keep themselves in the playoff hunt until Dipo returns.
Center is solid. Turner is an elite rim protector and can stretch the floor. He hasn't made "the jump" we keep hoping for, but even so, he can score and can stretch the floor. His rebounding is still weak and needs to show improvement and he needs to be more physical. If Turner can improve in those areas and if Bitadze is as good as the hype we've heard, the center position could move from "solid" to "strong".
Power Forward will be better than last year if the Pacers let Sabonis start, which seems likely now that Thad Young is gone. Sabonis will be a double double machine and is physical and tough and should thrive playing starter's minutes. Leaf has shown some good moments, and I've got high hopes for him, but it remains to be seen if he can be a consistent contributor. If Leaf shows improvement and consistency, the future of the PF position is bright.
Shooting Forward is the biggest question mark. Losing Bogs was tough because you knew what you had with him. Warren is a total unknown to most Pacer fans, but his stats are almost identical to Bogdanovich's (both averaged 18ppg, 4rebs and 42% from 3) and should add a little more versatility and athleticism to the position. McDermott seemed like he started coming on strong towards the end of last season. If he can settle into a more defined role he'll be instant offense off the bench.
In summary, there are, of course, lots of questions. Can Turner improve? Will Sabonis be as effective as a starter? Is TJ Warren an upgrade at SF? Will Brogdon be the player he was with the Bucks? And will Oladipo come back and eventually reach 100%? If the answers to those questions are "Yes", the Pacers should be able to stay in the playoff hunt around the #6 or 7 seed until Oladipo returns. If Victor comes back healthy, has no set-backs and gets stronger as the season progresses, the Pacers could move up a couple playoff seeds and be an incredibly dangerous #5-ish seed and could easily make some serious noise in the playoffs.
Prediction: 45 wins - #6 playoff seed
