Indiana Pacers: 5 reasons to be excited for 2019-20 NBA season

4. Domantas Sabonis is determined to dominate

Domantas Sabonis was 27th in the NBA last year in field goal percentage on shots between 0 and 3 feet from the basket (minimum 50 attempts), per Basketball-Reference. That’s out of 335 such players in the league, putting him in the 91st percentile and the company of guys like LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

A lot of Sabonis’ in-close shots last season came from one of my favorite silly Pacers subplots. Tyreke Evans, who was 334th on that same list ahead of only Nik Stauskas, would drive the lane. Sabonis would follow behind, and when Evans inevitably missed an uncontested layup, Sabonis would grab the offensive rebound and slam the ball home. It seemed to happen at least once per game to the point where fans noticed.

This year, Sabonis will see his low-post looks come in a way that is more in line with today’s game. With shooters spacing the floor, Sabonis will nominally be the power forward but will play like the center getting looks off of offensive rebounds and entry passes. With Turner now able to stretch the floor, he and Sabonis aren’t at risk of getting in each other’s way.

Considering Turner and Sabonis are both 23, we could be seeing the beginning of a long and fruitful pairing as the Pacers’ dynamic big man duo.