Indiana Pacers: Who’s out of the rotation with Darren Collison back?
Darren Collison made a successful return from minor knee surgery Friday night. The Indiana Pacers will now need to make some adjustments to accommodate his arrival.
At first glance, the Indiana Pacers survived the nine-game absence of their starting point guard rather well.
They not only went 7-4 with Cory Joseph filling in for Darren Collison, but managed to tie for the fifth-most efficient defense in the league over that stretch. That’s impressive for a team that’s spent much of the season in the bottom half of the league in overall defense. They should be quite pleased.
Except…not really. Of the 11 games they played, two came against the Atlanta Hawks, in addition to one each against the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks. They also caught the Washington Wizards twice without their own starting point guard of some renown, John Wall. As usual, the devil is in the details.
Still, they’ll take it. Sitting in a tie for fourth in the East at 38-28, the Pacers have 16 games left to settle on a playoff rotation. With Collison likely to reclaim his 30 minutes a night in short order (he played 20 off the bench in his return), someone is going to get left out in the cold. It won’t be an easy choice.
Too many warm bodies
The most obvious candidate to be affected by Collison’s return is Joe Young. Young averaged 16 mostly unspectacular minutes a night over the 11 games his starting point guard missed. Sure enough, in Collison’s return game against the Atlanta Hawks, Young only saw two minutes of garbage time. It was nice knowing you, Joe.
That only accounts for half the time DC is going to end up with, and also doesn’t factor in Glenn Robinson III. Son of Big Dog made his season debut a few games after Darren went out, averaging a tidy 14 minutes over that time. Robinson III has not only been good, but is exactly the type of versatile wing the Pacers have been lacking all year.
Unfortunately, his lack of shooting might prove problematic for the playoffs, when opponents have time to game plan for even the slightest weakness. GRIII has only attempted six 3-pointers in the eight games he’s been back, making one. Whether he can keep defenses honest from deep may be the difference between him getting playoff minutes or not.
New man in town
The other interesting figure that’s butted himself into the conversation is Trevor Booker, who signed with the team last week after Philadelphia waived him.
Booker seems a bit of an odd fit with Indiana at first glance. He’s best suited to play the role of a small-ball 5, but the Pacers have a logjam in the middle as it is with Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis both being nominal centers. Thaddeus Young is also a mainstay at the power forward spot, continuing his run as one of the most under-appreciated players in basketball.
Still, they brought Booker aboard for a reason, and he played 18 minutes despite Collison being back in the lineup.
Next: 2017-18 Week 21 NBA Power Rankings
Overall, these are good problems to have. The Pacers seem to have a strong culture at their core, and no one has so much as mumbled a complaint about playing time so far this year. That said, the toughest test lies ahead.