Johnny Furphy shines as bright spot for Pacers (Patreon)

-- even as he was also obscured

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

The Summer Timberwolves had 17 steals in what was a 105-94 loss for the Summer Pacers, dropping the blue & gold to 0-2 in exhibition play. Of course, given that the Actual Pacers have arguably more depth at the point guard position than any team in the league, there's a good chance that what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas. Even so, there was a 53-second span at the end of the third quarter, in which Tristen Newton committed three turnovers while also picking up a technical foul, that speaks to how much this roster has struggled to initiate at the point of attack -- especially against full-court pressure. Here, for example, after committing a turnover for an easy score at the other end, Newton gets face-guarded out of bringing the ball up the floor, which forces Johnny Furphy to both handle and kick-start the offense against a set defense.

If that's the Actual Pacers, two of Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell, or Andrew Nembhard would likely be on the floor so as to provide another dynamic ball-handler as a pressure release. In effect, with only Newton and Quenton Jackson available as "point guards," some players are getting pressed into doing more initiation than what would otherwise be necessary or ideal for their overall development (i.e. Jarace Walker), while others are not exactly getting to show what they might be capable of when playing off the advantages created by others (i.e. Ben Sheppard, Johnny Furphy, Enrique Freeman, etc.). For that reason, Furphy is the player of the game for this recap and also stars in the play of the game -- not only because he finished with a team-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting while making himself available within some familiar pet plays and running hard in transition, but also because there were areas where it was obvious that he might've shined even more in a different context.

For more on how he projects to plug himself into the offense, both with his shooting and athleticism, here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

1:13 - Oof, the ball-handling against pressure is a struggle-fest

3:01 - What would change for Furphy playing with T.J. McConnell

5:06 - Furphy has already made as many dribbles threes as he did as a freshman at Kansas

6:00 - But, he still needs to evade closeouts

7:00 - Oh hey, another lob threat (77 Stack Veer StS as the play of game! Plus, Newton initiating out of sets > Newton processing on the fly)

9:45 - Surprise! Furphy held his head above water on switches (but... doesn't exactly look ready to punch his above his weight class under the basket)

13:16 - Thank you and Goodbye!