Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard addressed the media via Zoom for his annual postseason press conference on Monday afternoon.
Pritchard reflected on the 2020-21 season, a challenging campaign that he said felt like several different seasons because of all the moving parts, from navigating the NBA's new health and safety protocols, to the myriad injuries that besieged the Pacers' roster, to the midseason trade of Victor Oladipo for Caris LeVert and LeVert's Pacers debut being delayed due to surgery to remove renal cell carcinoma from his left kidney.
Ultimately, Indiana finished the season 34-38 and participated in the NBA's new Play-In Tournament, defeating Charlotte in the first game before losing to Washington and coming just short of advancing to the playoffs.
"All in all, we had some individual performances that we really liked, but we didn't win as many games as we wanted," Pritchard said. "We wanted to be in the playoffs."
"We knew that there was going to be some challenging times. What I liked from then on out was we had some players really step into some roles that we weren't expecting and really flourish and blossom. We knew Myles (Turner) was a great defender, he ended up with the (most) blocks per game in the NBA, so that was one. Malcolm (Brogdon) statistically had a phenomenal year. (Domantas) Sabonis towards the end of the year was a triple-double machine and was literally carrying the offensive load for us. You look at our bench — T.J. McConnell almost led the league in steals and Doug (McDermott) by all measurement had a career year.
As the teams enters the offseason, Pritchard shared the front office's mindset heading into a busy summer.
"We're looking at everything," Pritchard said. "We just finished the player exit meetings. We feel like we know this team, we're getting to know the players. I think the theme of the players was we have some talent, but at the end of the day, we've got to get on the court and see that talent play out."
The Pacers will be in the NBA Draft Lottery for the first time since 2015. They have the 13th-best odds in the lottery, which will take place on June 22 and determine the exact position of their first-round draft pick. Indiana also owns two second-round picks in the draft.
Much of the Pacers' roster is under contract for next season, but a few key players will be free agents this summer, including McConnell and McDermott. Both are coming off the best statistical seasons of their careers.
McConnell averaged 8.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 55.9 percent from the field, all career highs. McDermott averaged a career-best 13.6 points per game on 53.2 percent shooting from the field and 38.8 percent from 3-point range.
Both McConnell and McDermott expressed their love for the organization in exit interviews with the media. Pritchard also remained open to bringing them back, but acknowledged both should have several suitors on the open market.
"They're core to what we've done," Pritchard said. "They're two feet in on the Pacers...It sure was special for me to watch those guys blossom. Quite frankly, we don't win 34 games if those guys aren't playing well."
"They both stepped up and proved that they are important NBA players and probably more important than that, they know who they are."
You can watch Pritchard's complete press conference in the video player above.