Indiana Pacers Make Roster Moves That Change Nothing


DominicMcGuire

David Butler II – USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Pacers bench has been, well, awful for most of this season. Pacers president Donnie Walsh and general manager Kevin Pritchard made a couple of roster moves they hope will address the problem.

The Pacers front office decided to waive reserve forward Sam Young Sunday evening and sign forward Dominic McGuire to a 10-day contract Monday morning.

Young averaged 3.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 28 games this season. He suffered a grade-two ankle sprain in practice last week and was wearing a walking boot on the Indiana bench in Saturday’s home win over Milwaukee. The timing of the injury couldn’t have been any worse for Young, whose one-year contract was set to be guaranteed for the rest of the season on Monday. Now, the veteran is injured and looking for a job.

McGuire comes to the Pacers after being waived by the New Orleans Hornets. He played nine games this season, averaging 2.1 points and 3.1 rebounds. The Pacers will be his seventh team in six seasons.

Whether it’s Young or McGuire, there is not much that’s going to help the production of the bench other than Danny Granger’s return around the All-Star break. Lance Stephenson and his very good (and surprising) offensive production would then come from the bench, which could ignite a spark from the reserve unit. At this point, exchanging Young for McGuire is just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Indiana is fifth-worst in bench scoring and third-worst in bench field goal percentage. McGuire is the same player as Young, a defense-first wing with a limited offensive game, just in a bigger body. His acquisition won’t change the bench’s offensive ineptitude.

Follow Jay Neal on Twitter @JayNilla

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