Indiana Pacers Player Reviews: Centers

Breaking down the seasons of Isaiah Jackson, Myles Turner, and Jalen Smith

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

With Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson, and Daniel Theis all battling in training camp to emerge from the rotating back-up big carousel, the Pacers started the season with a lot of question marks at center. After several trips around the merry-go-round, with Smith overtaking Jackson during preseason and Jackson coming out on top in the playoffs, the Pacers still have a lot of question marks at center -- albeit different question marks, which now also include Myles Turner, who is entering the final year of his contrast.

As such, Tony East and I are back over at Locked on Pacers with another set of player reviews, selecting one play, one number, and one over/under that best summarizes each of their seasons while also looking ahead to what comes next.

To make it easier to follow along, the clips, numbers, and lines are included below, albeit with some spoilers for those who may prefer having something to read while they watch. Enjoy!

Isaiah Jackson

One Play: Executing as a switch big versus in drop

As a quick heads up, Jackson was Tony's assignment for this episode. I'm still going to offer some commentary in this space even though I didn't select the clips. Ok, here's my blurb:

The Pacers allowed 0.940 points per chance on the 419 picks that Jackson defended in drop versus 0.787 on the 87 picks that he switched. As a note, those numbers include every pick that he defended in that coverage -- not just those that ended in usage. As a team, the Pacers gave up 1.025 picks per chance defending picks, which ranked 27th in the league. Keep in mind, Jackson played more minutes during garbage time than Smith and Turner. Also, picks aren't just defended by centers, they're also used as a means to target mismatches and, you know, require team defense as well. Still, if there is a big on the roster who is going to be able to mix coverages on the same possession, it's most likely going to be Jackson, rapidly pouncing out above the level of the screen and recovering to play drop or switch out on a second screen. That said, just because he can play multiple coverages, doesn't always mean that he's flawless in his execution of those coverages. As the clips go to show, he can still get lost playing centerfield and while he's capable of switching out, he has a tendency to stand up out of his stance or jump on finishing moves -- which is why that possession against Portland is a shining example of his utility when he fights against both of those urges.

And yet, when the team leaned heavily into switching during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals while also continuing to apply maximum pressure on the ball, it seems somewhat telling that after Myles Turner was subbed out with 3:54 to play in the fourth quarter, they pivoted to Obi Toppin -- not Jackson. In that regard, with the trouble they were having against Boston's defense during crunch-time of those games, that seemed like a clear move to juice the offense and outpace the Celtics while also responding to Turner's overall struggles and back soreness. Moreover, when Toppin got targeted without a rim protector behind him, the Pacers tried going back to Turner (again), rather than Jackson. To this point, Jackson hasn't shown himself to be a starting or closing center; however, if his primary utility is his mobility and event creation on defense, along with his vertical pop on offense, it seems notable that they weren't willing to chance his spacing in a finishing lineup with McConnell and Siakam -- especially since McConnell wasn't commanding as much of the ball, as might also be the case in bench lineups next season when Bennedict Mathurin returns to action.

All of which is to say that, by comparison to Smith, Jackson earned what playing time he got in the playoffs, but there was also plenty of situations in which, due to some of his constraints on offense and what can at times be noticeable signs of fatigue when not playing in short bursts, opting for someone who isn't officially listed at center was the figuratively, though perhaps not literally, the stronger choice.

One Number: 80 - percentage of his fouls that were shooting fouls or loose ball fouls

One Over/Under: 35 - percentage of his shots that he takes/makes as dunks 

Myles Turner

One Play: Gravitational waves on the glass

Myles Turner was dealing with back soreness during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. That context matters, not only with regard to how he was potentially limited in his movements but also in how he was electing to move while managing those limitations. Just as a refresher, in the prior game, the Pacers got more than they bargained for from Al Horford, who finished the night with more made threes (7) than the Pacers as a team (5). In response, after being a bit overzealous with off-ball stunts throughout the first two games in Boston and thereby attempting to recover with Turner in drop in Game 3, the Pacers adjusted by switching more frequently in Game 4. For reference, the Pacers switched on 46.2 picks per 100 possessions in that game compared to 20.7 over the prior three games combined and 5.4 during the entirety of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the Knicks. The logic was clear enough. If they couldn't defend the pick-and-pop in drop without involving a third defender, then the other option was to late-switch or test Boston's ability to make self-created threes on the perimeter. To that point, Jayson Tatum has shot 9-of-50 (18%) on isolation threes during the playoffs, but two of the makes came against Turner which is to say nothing of what was surrendered in blowby drives.

As such, when Nesmith saw Turner switched out to Tatum in that clip with the clock winding down, he immediately went to blitz. The only problem is, by virtue of the fact that Turner is switched out to the perimeter, he isn't in vicinity of the glass. Meanwhile, the double-team created an odd-man advantage on the weak-side, which effectively clinched the series. That's why, for a player who was dealing with back soreness, it was a bit questionable that he re-entered the game and was switching, especially since at the other end of the floor, he was shoehorning himself into tight spaces while being defended by Tatum and only popped four times despite the fact that Al Horford was playing drop as his primary. For that reason, it was a somewhat odd performance, even when considering the injury, as was most of his series, given that he finished the round with more turnovers (17) than three-point attempts (16) while also leading the team in turnovers as a center. Granted, it's a tough match-up, but that's also sort of the point. With shooting and screening at every position, there wasn't an obvious means by which to cross-match Turner and going switch-to-blitz, as the final possession showed, risked exposure on the glass. In the end, for a player who flashed some short-roll reads against traps and punished Milwaukee's drop coverage with his range in the opening round, there should be some question about to what degree he addresses the team's weaknesses against certain playoff opponents, although he deserves credit for how he spent most of the season building out the team's strengths.

As of now, there isn't an in-house upgrade, and there also might not be an obvious external upgrade either, which means the team either needs him to improve in some of the areas where he's previously shown improvement. Or, he needs the team to improve at surrounding him with players who can minimize what he doesn't do in support of what he does.

One Number: 1.221 - points per direct chance scored by the Haliburton-Turner pick-and-roll combination, which led the NBA among the 38 pick-and-roll duos with at least 500 picks

One Over/Under:  0.5 - seasons remaining with the Pacers

Jalen Smith

One Play: Making all the threes

As a quick heads up, Smith was also Tony's assignment for this episode. I'm still going to offer some commentary in this space even though I didn't select the clips. Ok, here's my blurb:

Jalen Smith shot 37 percent on 61 guarded three-point attempts this season. Last season, he shot 26 percent on 53 guarded three-point attempts. After starting the season making every shot in sight and briefly leading the league in three-point percentage on very low volume, he finished the last eight games of the season going just 4-of-13 from deep during the month of April. Granted, players miss shots and the fact that he can shoot enabled hybrid lineups featuring Pascal Siakam to play with inverted spacing in ways that aren't feasible when Isaiah Jackson is tethered to the dunker's spot where a guard would otherwise be stationed. In fact, during the regular season, the Pacers got outscored by 1.6 points per 100 possessions in the 104 minutes that Siakam played with Jackson. By comparison, they bested opponents by 4.81 points per 100 possessions in the 248 minutes with Smith in place of Jackson. Those are small sample sizes and lineup data can be fickle, but there was a reason why Smith started both the season and the playoffs as the back-up center. The only problem is, those reasons weren't quite as compelling when he wasn't pulling the trigger from deep. If Brook Lopez is defending in drop coverage, he has to shoot when he's open, rather than putting the ball on the deck and attempting to drive into a dead-end with his left hand.

Of course, Smith didn't just win the back-up five spot initially because of his shooting. He was also playing with more force against switches and with seal screens around the basket in a way that didn't exactly manifest in Game 1, when he was also struggling to call out coverages and defend at the level of the screen against Damian Lillard. By Game 2, during the minutes when Bobby Portis or Danilo Gallinari were at the five, the Pacers made the adjustment to play small with Obi Toppin at nominal center next to Siakam. Then, when the match-up called for the Pacers to play big and with speed against the Knicks, they turned to Isaiah Jackson's energy around the basket, with Smith largely being relegated to garbage time for the remainder of the playoffs.

In addition to the fact that Jackson is already under contract for next season, that change also made sense for how frequently the Pacers were applying full-court pressure and required ground coverage. Still, if the position that was Smith's goes to Jackson, there might be reason to wonder how feasible the spacing will be next season when Bennedict Mathurin returns to the lineup. Not because of his accuracy as a shooter, which improved off the catch as a sophomore, but rather because of how the ball might be divvied up. After Mathurin was ruled out for the season, T.J. McConnell's usage rate ballooned from 21 percent to 27.6 percent, which meant he was most often at the controls and making sense of spacing that might not otherwise make sense. If Mathurin takes that usage back on, as he should, the potential is there for him to have to weave around more bodies in hybrid groupings with McConnell, Siakam, and Jackson.

That said, the Pacers could also play Haliburton and Siakam more often together or downsize once again with Toppin, assuming he is back on the roster. Needless to say, the Pacers have options, but just as they toggled from Smith to Jackson and ultimately got wavering output from Turner based on the match-up, they also enter next season with more, albeit different, questions.

One Number: 29 - number of games that Smith either shot 100% or 0% from three

One Over/Under: 0.5 - player options taken