Indiana Pacers: 5 keys to series vs. Cavaliers
2. Playing Sabonis
In the NBA this year, there were exactly 250 two-man combinations that played at least 1,000 minutes together. If Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis played one more minute together, they would have made it 251.
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If the duo the Pacers got in the Paul George trade had qualified for the league’s ranking of its most efficient pairings, it would have ranked 30th in efficiency, having posted a net rating of +9.5 in the 999 minutes they shared the court.
With Oladipo and Sabonis on the floor together, the Pacers turned into the Denver Nuggets on offense and were better than the league-leading Celtics on defense. Suffice it to say, the Pacers probably would make the trade again.
Out of Indiana’s 55 pairings that played over 1,000 minutes, this duo was easily the best. Oladipo is clearly the driving force behind that success, but it’s worth noting that over the course of 1,484 minutes, ‘Dipo and starting center Myles Turner were only a +6.0. That’s still good, but not great, and they’ll need to be great to beat the Cavs.
Throw in the fact that the Pacers have pretty much mothballed the Sabonis/Turner pairing for the moment (they’ve played less than five minutes a game together since the trading deadline) and it would seem Indiana has a difficult choice on its hands.
Maybe the answer is to split the baby: start Turner, but give him a quick hook for Sabonis, and then reinsert Myles to help prop up bench units. Like going small, it can’t hurt to give it a try.