Final Regular-Season Grades for Every Indiana Pacers Player
The Indiana Pacers fought and clawed their way through an extremely difficult campaign. In the end, it was not enough.
A 95-83 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on the last night of the regular season knocked the Pacers out of the playoffs. For stretches this year, this team played as well as anyone. The Pacers were ultimately undone by injuries and a roster that was too uneven to win consistently.
The Pacers faithful had a chance to watch George Hill come into his own, Paul George return to the court and Rodney Stuckey become an outside threat. It also had to watch Father Time chip away at David West and Luis Scola, while offseason additions C.J. Miles and Damjan Rudez struggled to fit in.
Staring down a long summer of training, recovery and roster rebuilding, there is plenty to reflect on. A good place to start is by looking at some of the Pacers' key players and grading their performances from this year.
Starter: Roy Hibbert
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Final Grade: B
Roy Hibbert played a fairly quiet season. He continued to control the interior—rating out as the third-most effective rim protector in the league by Seth Partnow's Rim Protection statistics. His rebounding numbers also snapped upward—a total rebound percentage of 15.5 percent, compared to 12.1 percent last season—without Lance Stephenson dropping in from the wings to steal defensive rebounds.
However, his offensive impact continued to ebb away, which was really troubling given the opportunity to see more post touches without Paul George and Stephenson. Hibbert attempted fewer free throws than last season—3.8 per 36 minutes as opposed to 4.0—and only attempted two more field goals per 36 minutes.
His field-goal percentage improved slightly, but his play at that end was mostly flaccid. Any hope for him being a contributor on the offensive end is essentially gone. Hibbert will make some hook shots and some offensive rebounds, but he is mostly a rather tall (7'2"), space-sucking impediment to be worked around.
Even with his great defense, this offensive letdown and his declining minutes—just 25.3 this year—make it feel like he is an increasingly smaller and smaller part of the team's identity.
Starter: David West
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Final Grade: C
Age continued to sap at the effectiveness of David West. Injuries limited the 34-year-old to just 66 games, and his minutes were down to 28.7 a contest—the lowest since his second season in the league.
West continued to bring physicality and battle on the glass. He defended well and even became more of a facilitator in the high post, assisting on a career-high 20.1 percent of his teammates' baskets when he was on the floor.
All those tangential contributions are well and good, but West's real value to the Pacers is about how and how well he scores. In those areas, he fell off consistently. In years past, West could be counted on as a devastating weapon in the pick-and-roll and a powerful post-up player in certain matchups.
This year, a career-low percentage of his field-goal attempts came within 10 feet of the basket. The natural extension of that is a career-high percentage of his field-goal attempts coming on long two-pointers. He shot well, but the more one-dimensional he becomes, the less valuable he is to the Pacers.
Indiana's offense is a patchwork meant to make the most of the ill-fitting skill sets of its best players. As those skill sets continue to degrade, it becomes harder and harder to hold things together.
Starter: C.J. Miles
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Final Grade: C+
The responsibilities on C.J. Miles were supposed to be simple this season—defend his position and space the floor by making three-pointers. He did both, including some huge games down the stretch. But by the time he was consistently doing either, the Pacers were already in an enormous hole they couldn't quite get out of.
Through the end of January, Miles had made 31.1 percent of his three-pointers. From the beginning of February to the end of the season, he shot 38.5 percent from behind the three-point line. That difference was enormous and helped lift the team for its stretch run.
To some degree, he can be forgiven for the slow start. Like half the roster, Miles was fighting injuries when the season began. But his early struggles killed the Pacers during a time when they were in desperate need of a consistent shooting threat.
Moving forward, the team has to hope that his true level of performance is much closer to what it saw over the last two months.
Starter: Solomon Hill
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Final Grade: B
Solomon Hill wasn't even supposed to be here. He played just 226 minutes last season as a rookie. Although the team appeared to like him, he began the season behind Miles, Rodney Stuckey, Chris Copeland and Damjan Rudez on the depth chart.
Still, for about four weeks, the Pacers desperately needed healthy bodies, and Hill showed the ability to compete. This earned him a permanent spot in the rotation, one which he never relinquished. Hill finished the season leading the team in minutes played, more than 400 ahead of the next-closest player.
He stuck in the rotation despite shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 32.7 percent on three-pointers. Solid rebounding, conservative ball-handling and consistent defense offset much of his shortcomings in offensive efficiency.
This was all gravy, much more than the Pacers ever expected to get from him this year. However, if Hill is playing more than 2,000 minutes for them again next season without significant improvement in his shooting percentages, the team will be in big trouble.
Starter: George Hill
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Final Grade: A
George Hill was everything for the Pacers this year. The circumstances of Paul George's injury and Lance Stephenson's departure dictated his assuming a much larger offensive role, one he had never really played in an Indiana uniform.
He shone.
When the dust settled, Hill had averaged career highs in points, rebounds and assists per game. On the more advanced side, his usage rate was also a career high, and his turnover percentage was a career low. Altogether, Box Plus-Minus—a box-score-derived, per-100-possessions estimate of a player's impact—estimated Hill as the sixth-most impactful offensive player this season.
He was the team's best scorer, shot creator and perimeter defender all while blossoming under more offensive responsibility than he'd ever had.
There were plenty of opportunities to be seized for the Pacers this season. Hill was one of the few who really stepped forward and made the most of one. His offensive emergence opens all sorts of creative doors for the team moving forward.
Sixth Man: Rodney Stuckey
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Final Grade: A
George Hill was a clear and shining bright spot for the Pacers this season, but he was almost outdone by Rodney Stuckey. Expectations here were reasonable. Stuckey had wilted under the responsibility of carrying an offense for the Detroit Pistons over the past few seasons. In Indiana, he would just need to come off the bench and replicate some of Stephenson's off-the-dribble shot creation.
Stuckey exploded once the team's injury problems abated and he was finally able to settle into that role. As a secondary creator, he excelled. The big bonus was his knocking down 39 percent of his three-pointers, more than 8 percentage points above his career average. For large portions of this season, he was the Pacers' offense.
Stuckey was in Indiana on a one-year deal. He would be a great asset to bring back next year, but his strong play may have increased the price too much.
Key Reserve: Paul George
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Final Grade: Incomplete
The Pacers saw Paul George on the court for just 91 minutes this season, but it felt like a blessing. After a catastrophic broken leg in a Team USA scrimmage last August, missing the entire campaign was a real possibility for Indiana's best player.
His recovery went ahead of schedule. By March, he was practicing with the team and joined it for its last six games of the season, giving Indiana a lift as it chased a playoff spot. George was not quite the player we remembered, but he was enough to leave fans feeling optimistic.
A scary strained calf (in the other leg) during the final game against Memphis should not be a problem by the time he's in uniform again.
The future of the Pacers rests with George. Seeing him on the court again gave every indication that it should be bright.
The Rest of the Mess
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Luis Scola, Final Grade: B
Scola had a much better year than his first with the Pacers and helped hold down the fort in the frontcourt. The 34-year-old's rebounding, timely scoring and savvy passing were one of the few bright spots at the end of the bench.
C.J. Waston, Final Grade: B
Watson played just 57 games but was actually fairly effective when healthy. His defense and outside shooting were a nice complement to the starting lineup.
Ian Mahinmi, Final Grade: B
His defense slipped a bit this year. Since he provides next to nothing on offense, it's hard to feel excited about what he provided.
Donald Sloan, Final Grade: C+
Sloan was another player who received an opening because of injuries. Expected to be the third point guard, he carried the team for a few weeks, scoring and creating shots for his teammates. It was a nice surprise, but he fell out of the rotation as soon as Hill and Watson were healthy.
Damjan Rudez, Final Grade: C
Rudez's shooting was as good as advertised—he finished the year shooting 40.6 percent on three-pointers. However, he struggled on defense and wasn't really able to find a comfort level at that end defending small forwards or power forwards.
Chris Copeland, Final Grade: F
Copeland essentially has one NBA-level skill—shooting. Unfortunately, his jump shot was nowhere to be found this season, and he finished the year shooting 36.1 percent from the field.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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