NBA post-free agency power rankings

11. Indiana Pacers

The Pacers jump-started their rebuild by putting Victor Oladipo in position to succeed last summer (and smartly forecasting his growth into someone worthy of being traded for Paul George). They entered this summer with cap space and a fairly wide-open roster, and they got a lot better.

Oladipo is an excellent drive-and-kick player, and his offense is buoyed by his ability to stop on a dime for pull-up jump shots from 3 or midrange. To maximize his value, he should be playing next to a solid secondary playmaker and as much shooting as possible. Indiana correctly identified those areas of need and signed two relatively young players, Tyreke Evans and Doug McDermott, to join Oladipo.

McDermott’s three-year, $22 million contract is an overpay in dollars and years relative to what other young shooters got this summer, such as Joe Harris or Davis Bertans. But they clearly identified a bigger shooter like McDermott as a need (perhaps based on Bojan Bogdanovic’s success last year), and grabbed the best option in the market — no harm in giving multiple years to a player you value highly.

In fact, they probably wish they could have locked Evans in for longer. He will make $12 million on a one-year deal for the Pacers, now equipped with four point guards plus Oladipo after also drafting Aaron Holiday, though Evans can defend wings. As a closing combination, Evans and Oladipo is dynamic on both ends of the court.

To complete the summer, Indiana watched as Kyle O’Quinn fell in their laps to fill out their big rotation. He’s more of a luxury than a necessity with two exciting young players in Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis around, but he’ll help in the regular season. Plus, he only cost the room exception and will be a free agent in 2019.

Indiana got better this year without sacrificing future flexibility. Few teams can say that.