3. Malcolm Brogdon, guard
The third-best Pacer for the 2019-20 season was their big offseason acquisition, Malcolm Brogdon.
Indiana’s new floor general was arguably the most important Pacer this season. He ran the show, and it was truly his team for the majority of the season.
In his fourth NBA season, Brogdon averaged career-highs in several statistical categories. He averaged 16.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game on 44-31-90 shooting splits and a PER of 17.8.
From the opening tip-off of the very first game of the season, Pacers fans everywhere almost unanimously agreed “yep, we have our guy”. Brogdon notched a 22 point, 11 assist double-double in a losing effort in the first game of the 2019-20 season. Up to that point in his career, Brogdon was not necessarily known as a big assist guy. His career-high in assists per game for a season had been 4.2. If he had just become a guy who can get other people buckets at an elite level too, well that is just the cherry on top.
He would continue his phenomenal play through the first 11 games of the season, at which point he sustained his first injury of the year. During that stretch, Brogdon averaged 21 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds on 47-33-98 (!!) shooting splits and a positive net rating of +5.6.
He was exactly what the Pacers traded for and more. He added defense on the perimeter, extremely high basketball IQ, floor spacing, and he is one of the best free-throw shooters in the league. In fact, he had a streak this season of 44 consecutive free throws made, and a game in which he went 15-15 from the line against Boston, including several clutch free throws down the stretch that put the game away.
He was the guy that the Pacers wanted to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line. He was who they wanted to take those free throws and he made several game-winners this season, against the Lakers, Timberwolves, and even had a game-sealing dunk in Denver.
Unfortunately, Brogdon was somewhat bitten by the injury bug this season. In their game against Houston, Brogdon left the game after just nine minutes with a sore lower back and was forced to miss the next three games. He would return and continue his great play until, you guessed it, another injury. He would miss eight more games with a sore left hamstring. Then in Phoenix, his head collided with teammate Myles Turners, and he missed two more games with a concussion. And finally, towards the end of the season came the torn hip muscle that forced him to be listed as week-to-week, which forced him to miss the final three games of the season before the suspension of play.
All in all, Brogdon missed 17 games due to injury in 2019-20, and this is the primary reason he is listed at No. 3 on this list. Had he appeared in more games, he would likely be listed higher. He truly is a game-changer for Indiana.
Even still, when Malcolm Brogdon is healthy, he is noticeably one of the best players on the floor. Recently, the Pacers point guard took to Twitter to let fans know that “he is feeling great, and 100 percent.” Great news to hear if you are an Indiana fan.