ATLTimekeeper wrote:Who wins if Indy drafts Jalen Williams instead of Mathurin and Cason Wallace instead of Jarace Walker? Also why did Indy waive Goga again?
One of the core issues Indy has is Hali as a world class defensive liability and building a coherent defense around him.
Nembhard is too small and the full court pressure D is a way to mask and mitigate how they bend and break in the halfcourt D (they want to spend as little time in it as possible). Once the pick is set, you can forget about Nembhard providing meaningful back pressure deterrence, and then the choices are converging in the paint or allowing easy paint points.
Replacing him in the starting lineup with JDub really provides the optionality you're missing. Now you've got size. Nesmith at POA, JDub
or Siakam on whoever fits best for the other two threats. Teams can still target Hali, but you're better equipped in all facets of D.
Then there's the big downstream effect of replacing Mathurin minutes with Nembhard minutes. The Pacers bench minutes are not actually strengths, they are just a strategic approach to keep the pace and style of play in the Pacers favour, and buy minutes for the starters to rest and play high octane and wear teams down. This is how the Knicks got whittled down to a nub, where you see OG scoring at will in the paint, but shooting horribly from 3 after getting killed by the Pacers pace. Now those are a strength when paired with TJ. You're looking at winning them.
You don't even have to bring Cason into it. The Thunder have pretty big holes to fill on offense with that change alone (I'm not starting Mathurin. He might play less then Joe is). I'd pick the Pacers. It gives them the flexibility they are pretty much missing everywhere. Although I wonder how much the Hali targeting amps up after that.
