Basketball, She Wrote

Indiana Pacers Player Reviews: Reserve Bigs

Added 2023-04-20 10:00:31 +0000 UTC

Talking into a microphone about the basketball played by the Indiana Pacers with Tony East

By Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Many of you have asked about whether there is going to be an audio component here at Basketball, She Wrote. Right now, as was laid out in last month's patron-only mailbag, I don't currently have plans to start my own podcast. In order for that to be a thing, I would probably need to start a podcast about searching for someone with whom to start a podcast. In the meantime, however, for anyone who has missed listening to me talk into a microphone about basketball, I reached out to Tony East over at Locked on Pacers to see if he would be interested in collaborating with me on player review pods. Turns out, he was! What a nice guy, right?

Altogether, there's going to be seven episodes in the format of what we're calling "The One" series, selecting one play, one number, and one over/under for every rotation player that best summarizes or encapsulates their season and/or future. For the first installment, we're diving into the season that was for the back-up bigs, reviewing the carousel rotation of Jalen Smith, Daniel Theis, and Isaiah Jackson.

To make it easier to follow along, the clips, numbers, and lines will be included below, albeit with limited context to avoid spoilers. Enjoy!

Jalen Smith

One Play: Shoot-or-drive decisions

One Number: 0.35 -- defensive rebounding impact, per NBA Shot Charts formulation of DREB RAPM

One Over/Under: 34.9 -- projected three-point percentage, while keeping in mind Smith's conversion rate from deep this season when defended by centers (35.1%) compared to forwards (29.9%)