Indiana Pacers: Moving forward without Domantas Sabonis

The Indiana Pacers received another tough break on Friday with news of power forward Domantas Sabonis’ left foot plantar fasciitis.

More than any other player, the hopes for a postseason run for the Indiana Pacers rested on the shoulders of big man Domantas Sabonis. Sadly, it’s his foot that may be the ultimate undoing of the team during the Orlando restart.

On Friday, the team announced that Sabonis is suffering from plantar fasciitis in his left foot, which has forced him to leave the Orlando bubble to receive medical treatment. The team did not provide a timeline for his injury recovery and didn’t reveal whether or not Sabonis will be able to return to the team this summer.

Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela dealt with a plantar fasciitis injury (before he was traded from the Houston Rockets to the Hawks) this season that resulted in him missing the rest of the pre-suspended regular season after January 29. Former Cleveland Cavaliers center Ante Zizic missed the first four weeks of the season with the same injury. Combine the fact that Sabonis is seeing a specialist and the fact that he’ll have to quarantine when and if he returns to Orlando, and it feels like Sabonis won’t be back this year.

In his breakout season, Sabonis was the best player on the Pacers. He averaged 18.5 points and 12.4 rebounds per game, the latter of which led the team. Sabonis also dished 5.0 assists per game and shot 54.0 percent from the field. He deservedly made his first All-Star appearance in February.

Sabonis’ importance to the Pacers during the restart is hard to understate. The status of fellow star Victor Oladipo – who originally planned to opt out, only to begin to reconsider and keep his situation in limbo – potentially left Sabonis as the alpha of the team. Myles Turner and Malcolm Brogdon are both dealing with day-to-day injuries (Brogdon is active while Turner is not) and Jeremy Lamb remains out with a torn ACL. Without Sabonis, the cupboard for Indiana begins to look mighty bare.

The brunt of the scoring load is going to fall on T.J. Warren’s shoulders. He led the team in scoring this season at 18.7 points per game and scored 11 points in Thursday’s scrimmage with the Portland Trail Blazers. Warren could be in line to average more than 20 points per game with Sabonis (and maybe Oladipo) out.

Doug McDermott and T.J. Leaf will also have to take on bigger roles. McDermott averaged 10.4 points per game off the bench this season, but didn’t start a single game all season. This is also the first season where McDermott played a majority of his minutes at power forward, rather than small forward.

Asking Leaf to contribute in a major role is also a stretch. He struggled to crack head coach Nate McMillan’s rotation all season and played in just 25 games, averaging 2.9 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. Leaf grabbed 11 rebounds during Thursday’s scrimmage (which would be his second-highest total of the season), but struggled from the floor, making just one of his nine shot attempts.

The Pacers are going to make the postseason, likely as a sixth seed. If Domantas Sabonis is unable to return by the start of their first-round series, the ceiling for this year’s Indiana Pacers probably ends there.