After spending a significant amount of time playing on some going-nowhere Hornets teams where he should have been the second option on offense, Jeremy Lamb escaped from North Carolina to land in Indiana. And now he still doesn’t get to be the second option on offense.
The Hornets were honestly the perfect situation for him to show off his scoring ability. His coaches never realized it I don’t think, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the perfect situation. Perfect situations can still be mismanaged and that’s what happened time and time again with Lamb. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist not only ruined his own career but he tried to ruin Lamb’s career in the process. I’m only like 50% joking with that one.
The Pacers are a different story, though. They have legitimate scoring talent all across the roster. Victor Oladipo is the undisputed first option when he gets back, but until then, Malcolm Brogdon and Domantas Sabonis are clearly ahead of Lamb in the pecking order. T.J. Warren might be too. But Lamb’s not letting himself get marginalized: he’s averaging a career best 17 PPG per game. Meanwhile, Myles Turner is allowing himself to get marginalized HARD and I think he’s probably happy about it too.
Long story short, if Lamb continues to play this well, I’m of the opinion that he should displace both Sabonis and Brogdon in the pecking order, thus establishing himself firmly as the second option on offense like he should be.