Weak Draft Night? Here’s How Your Team Can Bounce Back in NBA Free Agency

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Draft Mistake

The Indiana Pacers used the No. 18 overall pick on 19-year-old center Goga Bitadze from Georgia, which seemed to represent good value. He was the MVP of the Serbian League while playing against grown men, is an excellent shot-blocker and can step out and hit three-pointers.

The problem has to do with his fit on this Pacers roster, as Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star wrote:

“In a league moving away from size in the post and headed toward skill on the perimeter, the Pacers already had one young 6’11” post player. Well, no, they already had two of them: Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, 6’11” bigs already on [the] roster, guys who cannot play together. The Pacers went into the 2019 NBA draft with a clear mandate: to get better on the perimeter, to add firepower to Oladipo and, well, nobody. Because the Pacers don’t have anybody else on the perimeter.”

With Oladipo rehabbing from a ruptured quadriceps tendon in his right knee, the Pacers finished the season with a starting lineup of Darren Collison, Wesley Matthews, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young and Myles Turner. Turner, a center like Bitadze, is the only one currently under contract for next season.

Not only is Turner locked in as the team’s starter, but Sabonis has become one of the NBA’s best reserves behind him. The Pacers don’t like to play the two together, as they did so for only 6.7 minutes per game in 2018-19. Turner played exclusively at center last season, the same spot where Sabonis spent 76 percent of his minutes.

Bitadze may have been the best player available on the draft board, but minutes will be limited while the Pacers scramble to fill out the rest of their roster in free agency.

      

Free-Agency Solution

Acquiring T.J. Warren from the Phoenix Suns gives the Pacers a potential starter at either forward position, but they’ll still need to fill either the 3 or 4 as well as find a new starting point guard.

Even after trading for Warren, the Pacers can still carve out more than $30 million in cap space, enough to offer one max contract to a player with no more than nine years of NBA experience.

While Indiana should first make calls to representatives for Kawhi Leonard, Kemba Walker and D’Angelo Russell, the best fits might be Khris Middleton and Ricky Rubio.

Middleton could play shooting guard for the Pacers while Oladipo recovers and slide down to small forward upon his return. A first-time All-Star in 2019, the 27-year-old wing does a bit of everything with his 18.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.3 three-pointers and 1.0 steals per game. Signing him away from Milwaukee would be a huge blow to the top-seeded Bucks as well.

Rubio is a “significant free-agent target” for the Pacers, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. His age (28), playmaking (career average of 7.7 assists per game) and playoff experience (he started for the Utah Jazz in the last two postseasons) fits what Indiana needs, and he won’t command a max contract like some of the other top point guards on the market.

The Pacers could be looking at a lineup of Rubio-Oladipo-Middleton-Warren-Turner by next postseason, which would be the best starting group they’ve put around Oladipo to date. 

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