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

2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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2. The backups are better than ever

The Pacers have some serious bench depth and flexibility on this 2019-20 roster. Second-year guard Aaron Holiday will start the season behind Jeremy Lamb and Malcolm Brogdon on the depth chart, but he will get reps with a second unit that includes improving outside shooter T.J. Warren, rookie sensation in the making Goga Bitadze and, once Victor Oladipo comes back, Lamb himself.

Throw in Doug McDermott, who is still a catch-and-shoot virtuoso, and you have a lineup that can hold leads or even close deficits when the starters sit in the second and fourth quarters.

We don’t know if Bitadze is the next Nikola Jokic or the next Nikoloz Tskitishvili, but Sabonis blossomed under coach Nate McMillan. The Pacers staff’s ability to develop big men — we saw the same thing with Myles Turner’s evolution — so there is plenty of reason to believe in great things.

Top-heavy teams tend to fall apart when the injury bug bites. The Golden State Warriors looked shockingly ordinary in the NBA Finals when they couldn’t keep Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry on the floor.

The Pacers won’t have that problem. There is a lot of room for a next man up mentality on this roster.