Who can carry Pacers’ offense in Victor Oladipo’s absence?

Option No. 1 without Oladipo: T.J. Warren

Most would’ve called me crazy for picking a former Phoenix Suns player to lead Indiana’s offense, but that is exactly what I am doing with T.J. Warren. Despite playing for a dismal Suns team, Warren actually showed some reasons he might be able to pick up some offensive slack for the Indiana Pacers.

Warren averaged 18.0 points per game in the 2018-19 season, a slight drop from his 2017-18 campaign of 19.6 points per game. However, this also came with a decrease in attempts per game (14.2 in 2018-19 versus 16.4 in 2017-18) and much more efficient shooting.

By shooting fewer 2-point field goals (10.0 per game in 2018-19 versus 15.0 in 2017-18) and becoming a 3-point threat (42.8 percent on 4.2 3-point attempts in 2018-19 versus 22.2 percent on 1.4 attempts), Warren made himself a legitimate scoring threat and posted a 54.9 effective field goal percentage.

Now, Warren has a chance to be a 20-point a night scorer while Oladipo is sidelined. A big reason why he might be able to do it is that Warren will be surrounded by much better players both on the perimeter and in the paint in Indiana. There are a few other solid shooting Pacers that will be able to spread the floor out, as well as a couple bigs that will be able to draw the defense’s attention.

Obviously, scoring empty points for a tanking Phoenix team does not warrant much credit, but Warren has potential. He has taken steps to scoring more and more efficiently, so he may be the answer for the Pacers offense before Oladipo returns.