Four years ago, long before the Pacers moved on from one Nate only to hire and fire another, Doug McDermott finished the 2017-18 season playing for the Dallas Mavericks, where he converted a career-best 49 percent of his threes in 26 games following a midseason trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Put into action, then, by the same man who recently signed a four-year contract to return to Indiana as head coach, the fourth-year sharpshooter, as he so often does, would explode from the left corner into a maze of picks, darting straight across the lane and feigning a flex screen before abruptly veering into a shot at the top of the key.
How Rick Carlisle’s playbook fits the Pacers
