Indiana Pacers: 3 things you might not know about hot shooting T.J. Warren

T.J. Warren’s defense to a new level with Pacers

T.J. Warren has always been a solid offensive player, but coming into this season with the Indiana Pacers his defensive skill set was a major question mark.

While you still can’t point to Warren as a top-tier defensive player in the NBA or even the Eastern Conference, he’s been a net-positive most would argue for the Pacers this year. It’s an aspect of his game that almost feels like Phoenix held him back in for the first five seasons of his career.

While his defensive box plus/minus still has him as a negative defender (-0.2) it’s far better than his worst season (-1.6) and better than his next-best (-0.4). He’s averaging 1.1 steals per game.

Warren has logged 2.2 defensive win shares this season, his previous high with Phoenix was 1.1 (some of that has to do with the Suns team-wide winning drought over the last several years).

Warren is active on defense, shows the right effort, and definitely looks like he wants to be a premier defender in the NBA. He’s not a liability, which means something as a starter on a team holding opponents to the fifth-least points per game this year.