Indiana Pacers: Injuries hamper fit between Victor Oladipo, Malcolm Brogdon

Injuries have been a constant for the Indiana Pacers this season. They continue to hinder Victor Oladipo and Malcolm Brogdon as they try to find footing together.

It seems like the Indiana Pacers have been in catch-up mode since before the season began. Following an international trip to India in the preseason, the Pacers struggled to find their way when the season began. It’s a pattern that holds true for most teams after they go overseas, and they started the year 0-3 with two losses against the Detroit Pistons sandwiching a loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It was a poor start, but even without Victor Oladipo the Pacers are a talented team and were sure to bounce back. Sure enough, that’s what they did and they surged to a high-water mark of 30-16.

The Indiana Pacers have hit trouble since then. Malcolm Brogdon has missed 14 games on the season and hasn’t looked like himself when he’s been in the lineup since his last absence. In the last 20 games he’s suited up for, he’s shooting 39.1 percent from the floor and 27.2 percent from 3-point range. He’s averaging 13.3 points on 13.3 shots per game in that stretch.

Oladipo has made his return and played in nine games, but he’s far from being himself as well. He might not look like the Victor Oladipo of old anytime soon, and it’s clear that the game is still moving a bit too fast for him in the early goings.

Oladipo seems to be lost between recognizing that his feel after just nine games back (virtually the same length as training camp and a full preseason, but remember that everybody else is playing at full speed already) is not where it should be, but still trying to play at the same tempo he could hit before rupturing his quad tendon last January.

While it’s going to take more time for him to get to game speed even in the best case scenarios, the Pacers have struggled while trying to reacclimate him.

The Indiana Pacers are 5-7 in the 12 games since he returned, and they’re 4-5 in the nine games he’s played. He played in five of the six straight games the Pacers lost before the All-Star break, but he’s also played in three of the four wins they have in the past five games.

He’s averaging 11.2 points per game while shooting 35.3 percent from the floor and just 25 percent from 3-point range. His rebounds per 36 minutes have dropped from 6.3 a season ago to 3.8 this season and his assists have dropped from 5.8 to 3.7. His turnovers per 36 have gone from 2.6 to 3.2, and his steals have cratered from 1.9 to 0.8.

The Indiana Pacers have the unenviable task of working their two most important players into a cohesive unit while they both recover from injuries, and with Jeremy Lamb’s recent catastrophic injury (he tore his ACL, his lateral meniscus and fractured his knee in a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, the same team Oladipo’s injury occurred against), the task won’t get any easier.

When Oladipo and Brogdon are on the floor together, the Pacers are getting outscored by 5.5 points per 100 possessions. It’s a meager sample, just 213 minutes and a bit over 400 possessions, but it’s certainly a concern to a squad looking to build some momentum for the playoffs.

Of course, there’s no risk of falling out of the playoff picture. Their current total of 35 wins is probably already enough to get them into the Eastern Conference playoffs considering the dreadful state of the bottom of the bracket.

But still, the Pacers looked like a tough out before Brogdon’s injuries kicked in, and the hope of a healthy Oladipo painted a picture of a team nobody would be happy to face in the first round (or even the second round) of the playoffs.

Video courtesy of 3ball.io