The Indiana Pacers went all in this off-season by switching their starting point guard from George Hill to Jeff Teague, finding a starting quality power-forward in Thad Young (so Larry Bird doesn’t have to try and scare Paul George into playing the four spot) and finally trusting Myles Turner enough to let him start the season at center. And if that fails, they’ve got Al Jefferson coming off the bench for his 20 minutes of low-post offensive production, if his knees can handle it.

Questions remain whether a Teague and Ellis can work together defensively, but luckily that doesn’t matter too much with fantasy basketball.

Player Movement

Notable Ins	Notable Outs
Al Jefferson Charlotte Hornets Jeff Teague Atlanta Hawks Thaddeus Young Brooklyn Nets	George Hill Utah Jazz Jordan Hill Minnesota Timberwolves Solomon Hill New Orleans Pelicans Ian Mahinmi Washington Wizards

Indiana Pacers Depth Chart

Point Guard	Shooting Guard	Small Forward	Power Forward	Center
Jeff Teague Aaron Brooks Joseph Young	Monta Ellis Rodney Stuckey	Paul George C.J. Miles Glenn Robinson	Thaddeus Young Kevin Seraphin Rakeem Christmas	Myles Turner Al Jefferson Lavoy Allen

Rotation Player Projections

POS	PLAYER	USG	MPG	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	3PM	FG%	FT%	TO
SG	Monta Ellis	21	32	12.9	3.1	4.2	1.8	0.5	1	42.7	78.6	2.2
SF	Paul George	29	32	20.3	6.4	3.6	1.7	0.4	2.3	42.2	86	2.9
PF	Thaddeus Young	18	30	11.4	8.2	1.4	1.4	0.5	0.1	51.4	64.4	1.4
C	Myles Turner	21	30	13.6	7.6	0.9	0.6	1.9	0.1	49.8	72.7	1.4
PG	Jeff Teague	24	30	14.9	2.8	5.3	1.3	0.3	1.3	43.9	83.7	2.5
C	Al Jefferson	22	24	11.2	6.6	1.4	0.6	0.9	0	48.5	64.9	0.7
SF	C.J. Miles	22.9	20	10.3	2.4	0.9	0.7	0.4	1.9	40.9	75	1
SG	Rodney Stuckey	19	16	6.1	2	1.6	0.5	0.1	0.2	41.3	82.9	0.9
PG	Aaron Brooks	23	14	6.2	1.3	2.3	0.3	0.1	0.9	40.1	76.6	1
PF	Kevin Seraphin	22.3	12	4.3	2.8	1.1	0.2	0.9	0	41	82.6	1

Rise in Value

Mylers Turner

Pending injury, trade or Al Jefferson rediscovering the fountain of youth, Myles Turner looks to have a whole season starting at center for the Pacers, and I’m excited to see what he can do. He has a fantasy friendly game in a league where big men who can block and hit a high FT% are rare. Keep an eye on Turner during draft day as he should outperform his ADP.

Decrease in Value

Monta Ellis

Monta and George Hill were a good pairing. Monta got to have it all, while Hill played defense and hit 3s. But George Hill is gone, replaced by a high usage point-guard, who needs the ball in his hands to be effective. Expect a dip in production.

Jeff Teague

Teague finds himself on a new team and a new system. Expect some early teething problems as he adjusts to playing with high usage players such as George and Ellis. Teague has some experience in this regard, having shared the ball with Schroder, another high usage player in Atlanta, but that experience isn’t enough to keep his value. Expect a slight decrease across the board.

Thad Young

Thad went from being one of the few half-decent players in Brooklyn, to being the fourth option in the starting lineup. Expect a dip in offensive production and an option for out of position steals at the power-forward spot.

Injury Risks

Al Jefferson

Jefferson hasn’t played more than 65 games in a season since 2013-2014. There’s a chance a reduced role can help preserve his body, but a reserved role is never something you want to read about a draft target. Luckily for most, Al Jefferson isn’t a draft target.

Other Player Summaries

Paul George First Round

Indiana is still Paul George’s team. Expect similar output from last season, but with a slight improvement to his FG% (I repeat slight, he’s still a punt FG% candidate).

C.J. Miles Deep League

C.J. is the definition of streaky. He can get hot from three and win you a H2H match-up, but he can just as quickly go cold or get injured, having played more than 70 games in a season once since 2010-2011.