In what Pacers President Kevin Pritchard described as “an epic day for the franchise,” the team introduced Malcolm Brogdon as the newest addition to the roster.
“Malcolm is exactly what we want as a player and a person,” Pritchard said. “He will be a guy that takes care of his teammates first. He’s a point guard, but he can play a lot of different positions. But I know he will step on the floor and his first thought is, ‘I don’t need to take care of me, I need to take care of we.’”
“For me, I feel like we have a little bit of the Mark Jackson-Reggie Miller [dynamic],” Pritchard added. “We have a backcourt that is super talented, knows how to play, but also right coming into their prime.”
During Monday’s introductory news conference at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Brogdon discussed how coming out of the University of Virginia, eyed Indiana as a team he wanted to join.
“I have watched the Pacers for years, watched Coach McMillan coach this team, watched their toughness, their defensive ability and focus on that end, and their ability to play together and win games as a team,” Brogdon, a 6’5” point guard, explained. “There is no one guy that is taking all the shots every night. They have a selfless leader in Victor Oladipo and that’s a guy I want to play with and a coach I want to play for and a team I want to be a part of.”
Last season in Milwaukee, Brogdon set career highs with an average 15.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 64 starts. He also became just the eighth player in NBA history to shoot at least 50 percent from the field (.505), 40 percent from 3-point range (.426) and 90 percent from the free throw line (.928).
“It’s an organization where I immediately feel extremely valued. They have a great franchise player in Victor Oladipo and they have great building blocks in Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, guys like that, and a great coach in Coach McMillan. I am excited to be here, glad to be a part of this organization and I am ready to start winning.”
Brogdon headlines a revamped Pacers roster. In addition to acquiring the University of Virginia product in free agency, Indiana also added shooting guard Jeremy Lamb and forward T.J. Warren to their roster this offseason. Brogdon was the NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2016-17 season in which he averaged 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.
“I was driving into work today and literally having to pinch myself because sometimes you put all these plans together and you want them to come together so badly,” Pritchard admitted.
“You want the team to be a couple of things. You want them have a great character, you want to have a team that is potentially moving into its prime, you want a team that has a totally unselfish leader or leaders and it lines up really nice," he said. "I don’t know that we are going to play our next basketball the first month of the season but I see this team having some major continuity over the next few years.”
