Pat Lovell – USA Today Sports Images
The Indiana Pacers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals this past season despite having an enormous flaw on their team. In fact, they may have been able to get past the Miami Heat in that series had it not been for said flaw. That flaw was that the Pacers secretly had a very suspect bench and got very little contribution from their reserves.
In the 2012-2013 NBA season for Indiana, guys like D.J. Augustin, Gerald Green, Orlando Johnson and Sam Young routinely saw minutes. However, the Pacers have done a good job of not only adding solid depth to their roster this summer, but they have also ridded themselves of Green and Augustin through a trade and free agency, respectively. Only Johnson remains on the roster out of those four players as Young is also a free-agent.
Johnson is unlikely to break the rotation for the Pacers this season, but Young seems like he is almost certainly going to be phased out and might not even be re-signed, especially with the signing of Chris Copeland, the return of Danny Granger and the team drafting Solomon Hill. For the Pacers and their fans, that’s a great thing.
Young was abysmal in the 2012-2013 season. He appeared in 56 games for them and averaged a paltry 2.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 12.4 minutes per game while shooting only 39.2 percent from the floor and just 30.8 percent from three. He continuously made bone-headed plays, took bad shots and missed open shots.
The great thing about what the Pacers did this off-season is that they not only upgraded their bench, but they also are able to get guys like Young completely out of the rotation and possibly out of their hair entirely. The Pacers are going to be much improved this season and Young not seeing the floor or maybe even putting on a uniform is clear sign of that.
Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.
