Post-ups have a love-hate relationship with the Pacers. Aside from Domantas Sabonis, whose default setting is basically to search and destroy mismatches, and a few bright spots from T.J. Leaf, Indiana struggled to wring any semblance of efficiency out of the anachronistic play-type for which they routinely showed so much fondness last season. Not only did they call for post-ups on over seven percent of their possessions; on 12th-ranked frequency, they scored 0.893 points per possession, good for 24th in the league. With stagnant surrounding offense and post-entry passes that were oftentimes late or off-target leading to bowled over defenders and/or extended windows of opportunity for extra hands to swarm and deflect the ball, the low rate of return, which was admittedly bogged down by turnovers, hardly seemed worth the trouble in many cases — especially when Sabonis wasn’t directly involved.
On Malcolm Brogdon turning the offense inside out
