Indiana Pacers: Looking at Ike Anigbogu’s G League performances
By Tony East
Indiana Pacers rookie Ike Anigbogu has a lot of promise but fell far in the draft due to injuries. Let’s take a look at how he has performed so far in the G League.
On June 22, CBS released their final two mock drafts of the year. In these final mocks, Gary Parrish projected Ike Anigbogu was talented enough to be drafted with the 22nd pick in the draft, and Reid Forgrave chose the 19th slot for where the freshman out of UCLA would be drafted. Draft night came and went, and the Indiana Pacers were able to snag Anigbogu.
Remarkably, the Pacers didn’t do it with the 18th pick in the draft, but rather with their second-round pick at No. 47. Injury concerns scared every other team away from Anigbogu, and the Pacers were fortunate enough to get him later in the draft than anyone expected.
Anigbogu projected as a bouncy, defensive-minded big man who could finish lobs due to his freakish athleticism; think DeAndre Jordan‘s playstyle. Unfortunately, the combination of his injury, age and presently raw skills make it very hard to crack the Pacers’ rotation. So far, he has only played 17 NBA minutes.
He’s looked … okay in those 17 minutes, but they are unfair to analyze because they are all in garbage time. All four of his NBA points came against the Sacramento Kings, where he also got half of his professional minutes. He also showed in that game his bounciness and his defense, sending a Frank Mason shot into the stands:
Not in Ike’s house, fellow second round pick. The Indiana Pacers had to be excited to see that.
But since this game, Ike has been assigned to the G League for a couple of stints. He has played in three games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, and so far he is 14-of-25 from the field. Anigbogu left quite the impression in his first game against the Delaware 87ers, going 6-for-8 from the field and pulling down seven rebounds. He finished with 13 points in 24 minutes and added two assists and a block in the process.
In his second game, this time the opponent was the Canton Charge, Anigbogu again took eight shots but this time made five of them. He finished this game with 11 points and eight rebounds, very in line with his box score stats from his first game. He also showed off his strength and athleticism here, holding off his matchup before exploding up to both catch the pass and finish the dunk:
That’s what the Indiana Pacers hope they have in Anigbogu. If that’s the type of player he can be, he could be a seamless fit as a third big next to either Myles Turner of Domantas Sabonis a few years from now.
His final G League game was his worst scoring the ball, as he only finished with eight points against the Westchester Knicks. However, he did roughly everything else well in that game. He had 10 rebounds, two assists and three blocks, some of his best work in all of those areas so far. He showed in this game what he can do on the defensive end of the floor, nine of his 10 boards were on the less glamorous end, and he had the blocks to go with it.
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With only nine professional appearances so far, Ike still has a long way to go. He is the youngest player with an NBA contract at the moment, so patience will be key with the UCLA product. The Indiana Pacers have to be happy with what they have seen so far, and hopefully, Anigbogu can put it all together sooner rather than later.