6. Doug McDermott, forward
The sixth-best player for the Indiana Pacers in 2019-20 was their sharpshooter, Doug McDermott.
The Pacers brought in Doug McDermott in the Summer of 2018, signing him to a value contract worth $22 million over three years. While Doug had a solid season in his first year with the Pacers, he really found his place with the team this season.
This season, McDermott appeared in 62 games, playing 20 minutes per game in those appearances, which is up from the amount of floor time he saw last season. Doug averaged 10.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game, on tremendous 49-45-83 shooting splits and a PER of 14.3 with a positive net rating of +1.9 while he was on the floor. Nearly all of these are career highs for Doug (points, assists, FG%, and 3PT%). His 45 percent 3-point shooting was good enough for 6th in the league, and his effective field goal percentage of 61 percent was good enough for 11th in the league.
There is an argument that could be made that McDermott was the most important bench player for the Indiana Pacers this season. When he checked into games, opposing defenses noticeably adjusted their strategies to keep a man on Doug. This opened up the floor tremendously and allowed for the Pacers to have options on offense. Not to mention the two-man game between him and Domantas Sabonis was something to behold. Those two gave defenses fits all year long.
McDermott is the kind of shooter that can enter a game and immediately have an impact. Especially when the Pacers were on the road. Over the last two seasons, McBuckets has some of the strangest home/road shooting splits these eyes have ever seen. For just the 2019-20 season, McDermott shot 42.6 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from 3 at home. On the road, he shot 55.4 percent from the field and a ridiculous 54.6 percent from 3.
Doug put this on full display while the Pacers were on a five-game West Coast road trip in January. During that stretch McDermott played 24.6 minutes per game, averaging 17.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, shooting 64 percent from the field, and an absurd 67 percent from 3 on seven attempts per game(!!!). Doug’s posted a positive net rating of +4.4 during that stretch, helping propel the Pacers to a 3-2 record for the trip. Which included a come from behind victory against one of the best teams in the league in Denver, where Doug completely took over late, knocking down four 3’s and scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter alone.
Doug was awesome for the Pacers this season, and he will look to continue to build on that when the league is able to resume play.