When the curtain went up on the 2019-20 NBA season, the Indiana Pacers had high hopes. They had a new floor general in Malcolm Brogdon who was fresh off a near-miss shot at the NBA Finals and they believed they were ready to challenge for the East’s top spot. Unfortunately, the Pacers had a few setbacks, the biggest of which proved to be the ongoing absence of team leader Victor Oladipo due to a knee injury suffered on January 23, 2019. The other was the Larry Bird-induced, Roy Hibbert-like fall off of Myles Turner.
Fortunately, nature abhors a vacuum, as does an NBA stats sheet. Opportunities thus presented, the Pacers have seen others step up. Donatas Sabonis is having a brilliant season, Brogdon has fit in perfectly, and now that Oladipo is set to return, another player is finding himself in head coach Nate McMillan’s offense. This player is Doug McDermott.
Here’s a piece of sports trivia for you: While playing college basketball for Creighton University in 2013-14, McDermott led the nation in scoring- 26.7 points per game- and was a three- time consensus first-team All-American. He is one of three players in NCAA men’s basketball history to record 3,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. He also set an NCAA record by scoring in double figures in 135 games. McDermott is amongst the greatest collegiate basketball players of all-time, being mentioned in the same breath as Hall-of-Famer Larry Bird.
Despite his collegiate accomplishments, McDermott struggled to find his footing in the NBA. His career numbers are fairly pedestrian, averaging 8.1 points per game. It would have been easy for McDermott to give up and get lost in the sauce, but instead he continued to work hard to show that he belonged in the NBA. He has been playing very well during the Indiana Pacers’ last five games, averaging 16.2 per game. Most notably, he scored 24 points (shooting 9-10 from the field and 6-7 from 3 point range) against the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors.
The Pacers currently sit in the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference standings, posting a win-loss record of 30-16. They have won seven of their last eight games, which is around the same time that McDermott began to contribute some real production in the scoring column. Coincidence? Probably not. The Pacers are starting to heat up at the right time, especially because they are expecting their leader Victor Oladipo to return to the lineup this Wednesday. Expect the Pacers to be a tough out in the playoffs this year.
Bill Ingram contributed to this article. @TheRocketGuy on Twitter.
