Indiana has established themselves as one of the better Eastern Conference teams, and they have an underrated starting five. Darren Collison and Victor Oladipo both sit starting in the backcourt. Darren Collison is the point guard, but Oladipo will have a ball-handling role most games over him. They are widely recognized as one of the better defensive backcourts in the game as well. Bojan Bogdanovic isn’t a household name, but is someone who shoots well, and produces when needed for Indiana. This is an area where they lack depth, so Bogdanovic has a safe starting role for Indy. Thaddeus Young has been in the league for a while now, and still holds the starting power forward role for Indy. Young continues to chip in across the board, and is a nice starting four option for this team. Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis both see time, but Turner is the starting center who has taken a big step forward this season, especially with his blocks per game.
Indiana held the most improved player last year, Victor Oladipo. He led the team in usage, and was an excellent player on both sides of the ball. Oladipo is now looking like the Pacers build around superstar over the next few seasons. They missed out on edging out LeBron James and the Cavs in the playoffs. This is a sneaky good roster, and the addition of Tyreke Evans is going to help offensively. He will likely retain his off the bench role that he had last season, but his minutes tend to be around 30 per night with a very solid usage rate.
Given the Pacers do not have a ton of scorers, Evans should have a hefty fantasy usage. Darren Collison isn’t the highest usage point guard in the league, but offers up a safe floor in season long and in DFS when looking for value. Collison will sit behind Oladipo in Evans in usage, but still will have enough production to cover his cost. The front court is missing an elite scorer, which seems to be what you need to be competitive, but in the East they will be fine. Bojan Bogdanovic is a pure shooter at the three, but doesn’t offer up much in the peripherals. He will continue to log starter minutes, but is very dependent on his shot. There isn’t much depth behind him, but expect Indy to go small and use a lot of Evans or even Thaddeus Young at the three pushing Domantas Sabonis into a bigger role. Sabonis was an excellent fill-in for the injured Myles Turner in the early stages of the season. Sabonis is a solid rebounder, and works well in the pick and roll. With Turner back he will need to build upon a slow sophomore season. He has potential to make a big jump if he can stay healthy.
