Doug McDermott doesn’t fill up the stat sheet, but he offers the Indiana Pacers a ton when he is on the court.

Doug McDermott makes things happen on the basketball court. If you just watch the ball, you’ll miss it, but the things that happen to the Pacers offense when McDermott is on the floor are intriguing and engaging.

When McD came into the league, the thought was that he could evolve into a guy that could create shots for himself and be a solid scorer from all over the floor. The Pacers have said “to hell with that” and focused on using him in a way that caters to his elite skill shooting the ball.

McDermott is canning 41.7 percent of his three-pointers on a career-high 56.9 percent three-point attempt rate. That alone obviously brings a boon to the team. When he’s flying around the perimeter, you can’t lose him as the defensive team or you are going to give up points. He’s not afraid to let it fly off of the catch at any speed. It’s wild how easily he can slow down his body, turn, and shoot in such a short amount of time:

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But I don’t need to tell you about McDermott’s shooting. He grades out in the 99th percentile amongst perimeter shooters in the entire NBA in our talent grades. He is clearly very good at that.

It’s the stuff he does when you aren’t watching the ball that makes him so effective.

A subtle example that happens all the time is the opposing team switching away from the ball to prevent McDermott from even receiving a pass:

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Opposing teams don’t even want McDermott to get open away from the play. It takes McDermott a minuscule amount of time to release the ball, even the slightest opening is enough for him. As a defense, being mindful of that sometimes calls for switching off-ball, which can either create a mismatch or cause the defense to scramble later.

Doug McDermott moves in double-time, he grades out in the 89th percentile in off-ball movement. On the perimeter, you saw the effect that can have. It gets the defense moving and can create substandard matchups for the opposing team. But it also is cuts – cuts that both get teammates open and get McDermott open:

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The cuts that get his teammate open are usually of the same variety. The Pacers often start a possession by having McBuckets fly around a wide pin down. If he gets a modicum of space to let it fly, the defenders sell out for him and he is able to dish to someone else for the easy points.

How does he do it? By cutting hard and fast, and he almost always rubs shoulders with the screener – an essential skill for any player:

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The hard and well-timed cuts combined with already elite shooting make McDermott a spacing deity. McDermott’s spacing is so good, in fact, that I would almost call him a playmaker.

I know that seems like a stretch, but part of what makes elite floor stretchers so useful is that they provide extra space for their teammates to do their thing. That extra space allows guys to score more easily and without the fear of a help defender coming.

Isn’t that what a playmaker is? Someone who does something on the basketball court that makes it easier for his teammates to make finish plays?

Look at that! Sabonis is 5 feet from the basket and McDermott’s man is the strong-side defender who is supposed to rotate in and help. Instead, he has his back to the ball because he is afraid of letting McDermott take a corner 3 – a shot he makes 57.6 percent of the time.

Here’s a fun one where kinda the opposite happens. Thaddeus Young is barreling down the lane for a layup, and Josh Hart is already in excellent help position. But he is so panicked about McDermott in the corner that he gets out of the way of the play and concedes a wide-open layup:

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I don’t need to explain spacing to you. Everyone gets that by now. But I do think I need to explain why I think Doug McDermott is a playmaker. He turned that Thad layup from a 65 percent shot to a 90 percent shot just by standing in the corner. If a playmaker is a guy who creates easy opportunities for his teammates, then McDermott is exactly that.

I know it isn’t the conventional definition of the term “playmaker”, but I am making an exception. Stop watching the ball for a few games and you will see how good Doug McDermott is, and how he makes plays for the Indiana Pacers away from the ball.