Now that the 2016-17 NBA season is over, it’s time to evaluate Jeff Teague’s contributions to the Indiana Pacers.
The Indiana Pacers made the move to acquire Jeff Teague approximately one year ago, as Larry Bird wanted his team to have an offensive-minded point guard running the show.
The deal was a three-team transaction that sent point guard George Hill to the Utah Jazz. Teague’s former employer, the Atlanta Hawks, obtained rookie Taurean Prince from Utah.
Now that Jeff Teague has completed his first season with the Pacers, we can look back at his year and see what kind of dividends Indiana received by bringing in the 6’2″ hometown product.
Teague brought some things to the Pacers that they had lacked for quite some time — his quickness, speed and ability to facilitate an offense (7.8 assists per game) were chief among those traits.
Most of what Teague contributed was not a surprise given his history, but one area where he did exceed expectations was in the rebounding category, where he posted a career-best 4.0 boards per contest.
Teague is also an accomplished shooter/scorer, combining shots off drives with a solid outside shooting stroke to average 15.3 points per game in 2016-17.
One could argue that Jeff Teague had a better year statistically in 2016-17 than he did the season he made the NBA All-Star team (15.9 points, 7.0 assists and 2.5 rebounds per contest in 2014-15).
It’s clear that Jeff Teague posted very good offensive numbers last year, but let’s look beyond the box score stats for a moment.
According to 82games.com, Teague had an on-court/off-court value of +3.5 last season, which is an indicator that the team performed better when he was on the floor. By comparison, the player Indiana traded for Teague, George Hill, had a lesser impact during his final season with the Pacers (+0.4 in 2015-16).
The Defensive Real Plus-Minus metric from ESPN measures individual defense, and while Teague has never had the reputation as a great defensive player, he performed nicely in this category.
Jeff Teague’s defense was rated 24th out of 91 point guards who played in the NBA last season, so his efforts on the defensive end were more than satisfactory in 2016-17.
Overall, one would have to conclude that Teague’s first season in Indiana was a success, but now his contract (or lack thereof) becomes an issue.
Teague has now played out the contract that paid him $8.8 million in 2016-17, and he will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Pacers must now decide whether or not to bring Teague back next season, and if they do, how much money are they willing to invest in him?
It seems logical that Teague will command a hefty salary increase this summer, so Indiana could be pulled into a bidding war for the 29-year-old from Indianapolis.
The Pacers appear to be committed to the idea of retaining Jeff Teague, but if they cannot sign him to a new deal, they will have to look at other options for a starting point guard.
Those options could include: replacing him via the NBA Draft, making a trade or handing the job to someone already on the roster (Lance Stephenson would be the most likely candidate at this juncture).
The free agent crop at point guard is a bit thin this year, but that too could be a way to compensate if Teague signs elsewhere. Derrick Rose and Jrue Holiday are among the more realistic options Indiana would have in this summer’s market.
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In a vacuum, Jeff Teague had a very good 2016-17 season with the Pacers, but the value of the trade that brought him to Indiana would be greatly diminished if he turns out to be no more than a one-year rental.