Indianapolis- When Malcolm Brogdon arrived in Indiana ahead of Free Agency in 2019, he was expected to be the perfect running mate with Victor Oladipo. 3 years later Oladipo is gone and a new, young guard Tyrese Haliburton is primed to be the next star for the Pacers.
While only playing in 4 games since coming to Indiana, Haliburton has already impressed averaging 20.8 points, 11 assists, 4.3 rebounds and shooting 45% from 3. What makes Haliburton different from Oladipo is that Haliburton is a natural point guard. Which begs the question, how will he mesh with Brogdon who has been running point since he arrived in Indiana? JMV asked that question to former Pacer and current Bally Sports Indiana Analyst Eddie Gill on Wednesday:
“I think that we often forgot that Brogdon played off the ball quite a bit in Milwaukee before he came here and did a great job in doing that. I think in this modern NBA you see a lot of teams with two point guards on the floor anyway and those guys take turns in facilitating offense for the team so I’m looking forward to seeing those two together.”
Before arriving in Indiana Brogdon was seen as a lethal 3 point threat shooting 40%, 39%, and 43% during his 3 years in Milwaukee. While taking on more point guard duties with the Pacers, Brogdon’s 3 point percentage has declined shooting 33%, 39%, and 31% in his three Pacers seasons.
With Haliburton taking some of the offensive load off of Brogdon’s plate, the Pacers should hope that Brogdon will return to his Bucks shooting numbers.
If you missed any of JMV’s conversation with Eddie, the podcast is below! They touch on Myles role in the offense without Sabonis, a players perspective on the day-to-day when a team is “tanking”, and if he thinks rookies Terry Taylor and Isaiah Jackson have a role on this team moving forward.
