Indiana Pacers
Breakout candidate: Domantas Sabonis
While there’s a very real, and possibly growing, chance that Domantas Sabonis could be on another team sooner rather than later, I still believe he has the best chance to have a real breakout season for the Indiana Pacers. In fairness, there are probably a couple of players worthy of this spot but elected to go with Sabonis.
Sabonis is an interesting prospect that – simply put – the Pacers probably don’t want to extend to a big-money contract. They already have big money tied to Myles Turner and, in today’s NBA, you probably don’t want to extend two big men to big-money deals. Especially when you have to pay Victor Oladipo soon, and just signed Malcolm Brogdon to a max deal.
On the court, there’s no question that Sabonis is a budding star. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if, by the end of the season, he’s a better overall player than Myles Turner. And if given a bigger role, he’s going to fill the stat sheet. He’s that good.