The Indiana Pacers have a center issue, but it is not the obvious kind.
They have already addressed the position in a few different ways. Last season’s trade deadline brought Ivica Zubac into the mix.
Pascal Siakam has been used frequently at the five. Jay Huff is available as a backup option if the team needs him for about eight minutes a night.
Even with those pieces in place, there are still gaps to fill. The roster simply does not have enough size, and when Zubac and Siakam are staggered, some minutes are still left hanging.
That is where Obi Toppin comes in.
He barely logged any time at center last season - just 3% of his minutes there, according to Basketball Reference - and the numbers from his year do not exactly scream solution. Toppin played only 24 games and posted a career-worst net rating of -4.5 while on the floor.
On the surface, that is a hard sell. Indiana was also -2.6 with Toppin on the court in the 2024-25 season, which suggests the Pacers were better off without him even as they reached their highest point of team success in more than 25 years.
But the people who watched him night after night would tell a different part of the story.
Toppin’s value has never really been about carrying a unit. It has been about holding it together.
There is a baseball term for that kind of player: an “innings eater.” It is usually someone who is not a star and not especially dominant, but who can absorb the workload that keeps the bigger pieces fresh.
The job is not glamorous. The job is to be there, to cover ground, to make sure the stars do not have to do everything.
That idea fits Toppin well. He has spent years in that connective role, first backing up Julius Randle in New York and then arriving in Indiana as a second draft candidate who brought enough energy to become a staple of the bench.
For the Pacers, the math is pretty simple. Zubac and Siakam will cover roughly 40 of the minutes needed at center.
That leaves about eight more that have to go somewhere. Huff could handle them, but if Indiana wants a consistent rotation piece, that player needs real time to settle in.
The problem is the Pacers do not have extra minutes to hand out.
They do not need Toppin to be a polished small-ball center. They need him to be good enough in short stretches.
If he can do that, Indiana can keep its eight-man rotation intact and avoid the mess that comes with stretching the group into a ninth man.
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The fit is straightforward for the Spurs, who have enough roster room to bring Peter in without having to clear a spot first. His exact arrangement is still the part worth watching, since an Exhibit 10 deal could send him toward San Antonios G League affiliate and give him another route to stick in the organization. [Read more 🡒]