The moment for the Pacers to research and discover the reality of what they may have in the Turner-Sabonis pairing should’ve been last season and it needs to be now. Neither player is old enough to rent a vehicle and their individual skill sets are disparate enough to avoid treating each other like bumper cars while coexisting, but Indiana’s starting center is extension eligible and could be headed for restricted free agency while his supposed understudy is soon to follow.
Before putting a price tag on those potentially long-term decisions, Indiana’s front office needs as much information as possible to determine if they should invest in zigging at the same time as several of the other teams expected to be near the top of the Eastern Conference are increasingly zagging toward more versatile lineups showcasing multi-talented wings with size (Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Gordon Hayward in Boston, Ben Simmons in Philadelphia, Giannis Antetokounmpo plus shooters in Milwaukee, and Kawhi Leonard in Toronto).