Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
Their 2018/19 season was an exact opposite of a season 17/18. This time Myles Turner heavily outplayed his average draft position blocking astonishing 2.7 blocks per game, but the rest of the starting five (other than Bojan Boganovic) didn’t live up to hype. And if you drafted Oladipo, you probably lost your league. After all Pacers pulled together a solid but rather disappointing season.
Changes in the offseason
Lost = Thad Young, Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Tyreke Evans, Kyle O’Quinn
Added = Malcolm Brogdon, Jeremy Lamb, TJ Warren, TJ McConnell, Goga Bitadze
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Malcolm Brogdon | Jeremy Lamb | TJ Warren | Domantas Sabonis | Myles Turner |
| Aaron Holiday | Victor Oladipo | Justin Holiday | TJ Leaf | Goga Bitadze |
| TJ McConnell | Edmond Sumner | Doug McDermott | JaKarr Sampson | Alize Johnson |
Positional Battles: None/Everywhere
There is some competition for a backup PG role with 3 players fighting for the spot: Holiday, McConnell and Sumner but that isn’t really meaningful unless it comes out that starting five needs more creation and one of them moves into that lineup. Then (or after Oladipo comeback) things might get interesting. Out of nowhere Lamb and Warren would have to compete for minutes against each other and Justin Holiday, Warren also would get in the discussion for that Power Forward minutes, pushing Sabonis more into that backup-C role, limiting Turner minutes and maybe pushing Goga out of regular rotation. It might get dynamic here, we just have o wait.
Fantasy Relevant in leagues with 12- to 15-teams:
After an amazing campaign 17/18 when he finished as top10 player in roto 9 cat, the next season turned out to be one huge disappoitment. Oladipo not only had struggled to maintain his amazing defensive stats and shooting efficiency, but also he started the season on a swallen knee. Playing through injury might have caused later accident when he ruptured his quadriceps tendon, an injury rare in basketball and extremely hard to recover from. We shouldn’t expect him back in 2019 part of the season and when he finally comes back he won’t be this year anything close to his former self.
Myles Turner
Can he and Sabonis play together as starters? Last year’s data was quite promising and with Domantas next to him Turner’s block rate goes through the roof. That a huge positive, as all of his value comes from being neutral everywhere and great in blocks – 2.7 blk from last season is not only repeatable, but also beatable, as Turner blocked in preseason 3.5 shots a game in limited playing time. On the other hand – Sabonis steals a lot of his usage, limiting his upside as a scorer, so he should be only considered as an elite specialist. That is a tricky feature, as every player who’s value comes from only one category is not only risky but usually not worth it. Picking him as high as his value projects him – in top20-30 range is simply unwise, because on that stage of a draft you need to take care of versatile production, even in head to head leagues and loading early only in blocks with Turner would make it much harder to you to build a competetive team. He is much more of an auction type of pick, than the one who is drafted early in snake drafts.
He is a weird fantasy center in the mold of Enes Kanter – he gives you good, positive contributions in points, rebounds and FG%, without defensive stats nor threes. His upside lies in his assist potential as he might be the best passer on Pacers roster and his downside comes from his high free throw rate because he doesn’t make them with enough efficiency.
He made his value from playing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, with an elite combination of shooting and an ability to attack closeouts, finishing well in traffic. That led him to an excellent shooting efficiency – and its where his value was. Now, he will have to create for his own, while also being a lead playmaker for others and an obvious type here is that his FG% will drop. How much would it affect his value depends on how good of a creator could he become. If he manages to pass the ball well and go to the line at decent rate, he will be fine pick in that 60-70 range. However his upside is limited, as he provides no defensive stats, and he is not a volume shooter.
He is the type of player that helps by being neutral everywhere – really good supporting guy for a fantasy build. What he brings as a bonus is noticeably positive contribution in FT% and exceptionaly good rebounds for a guard.
He is same type of player as Lamb is – good supporting guy, providing some modest positive contributions all over the line. Only points and steals stand out a bit more on a positive side, and rebounds and assists on a negative side. Also it is worth mention that last season he jumped out of nowhere from no threes at all to 1.8 on 40% shooting and, even though he still shoots the ball well in preseason, there is a strong suspicion that he might not be able to replicate it… Oh, and he never played more than 66 games in season.
Could be useful with trades/injuries [or in deeper leagues than 15 teams]:
Aaron Holiday, TJ McConnell, Goga Bitadze, Justin Holiday, TJ Leaf
Just don’t bother with:
Doug McDermott
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Indiana Pacers fantasy basketball projections..
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