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#7 in the LBB end of the season team rankings...
Indiana is a team I'm very high on for this season. They may not necessarily be a title contender, but they could still be a disruptive force come playoff time. With a healthy Haliburton, they have one of the league's 15 best players, and in Rick Carlisle, one of its more innovative coaches. There are some concerns after this year about what happens with Myles Turner, but aside from that, this is a group that is mostly intact for the next few years. They should utilize that continuity to build up some of their younger players as well. More importantly for the present, Haliburton was a top five MVP candidate before his injury last year and should come into the season healthy. He and Siakam will now get an entire offseason to further increase their synergy. I expect the Pacers to be a "balls-to-the-wall" offensive unit again but to look more like a reasonable defense throughout the course of the season. If that holds true, they should be in contention for a top six seed in a very competitive Eastern Conference.
#7 Indiana Pacers
Record: 47-35 (Tied-12th); 6th in East; 102.16 Pace (2nd); 120.5 Offensive Rating (2nd): 117.6 Defensive Rating (24th); 2.9 Net Rating (10th)
Total Salary Cap Allocations: $195,323,350 (8th)
Cap Space: $-54,735,530 (23rd)
Current Roster: Kendall Brown, Johnny Furphy, Tyrese Haliburton, Isaiah Jackson, James Johnson, Bennedict Mathurin, T.J. McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard, Pascal Siakam, Cole Swider, Obi Toppin, Myles Turner, Jarace Walker, James Wiseman
Single Word Description: Immediacy
Biggest Positive: Offensive Balance
It should come as no surprise that a team led by the league’s best playmaking point guard featured an egalitarian offense last season. The Pacers led the NBA in assists per game (30.8) and made the most passes per game (308)—meaning, on average, every tenth pass resulted in an assist. (Take note, every coach who ever ran the drill in which a shot could not go up until a certain number of passes were made.) This ball movement was the foundation of a Pacers offense that also led the league in pace and was fifth in possessions per game last year.
All this sharing is enough to make a kindergarten teacher smile. Because of Indiana’s focus on working to get the right shot and doing so at a rate that kept defenses working, the Pacers had the most balanced offensive attack in the NBA last season. Indiana didn’t just lead the league in scoring by 2.7 points per game (IND – 123.3; BOS – 120.6), but the Pacers ended the year with nine different players averaging nine points or more.
Pascal Siakam – 21.3
Tyrese Haliburton – 20.1
Myles Turner – 17.1
Bennedict Mathurin – 14.5
Aaron Nesmith – 12.2
Obi Toppin – 10.3
T.J. McConnell – 10.2
Jalen Smith – 9.9
Andrew Nembhard – 9.2
The balance in the Pacers' offensive attack went a long way in helping the team withstand the offensive inconsistency that plagued Haliburton after he suffered a nagging hamstring injury in early January. Their ability to work through Haliburton, McConnell (Haliburton led the league in assists per 36 minutes at 12.2, McConnell was second at 10.9), or Siakam allows the Pacers to attack teams from several different directions and in varying styles.
Biggest Negative: Defense.
From a defensive standpoint, Indiana took significant strides forward as the season went on, in large part because of the addition of Pascal Siakam, as well as the increased minutes for Ben Sheppard and Aaron Nesmith—players known much more for their defensive contributions than offensive. However, the Pacers still allowed the fourth-most points per game in the NBA at 119.0 and were the only team in the bottom eight to qualify for the playoffs. With a healthy Haliburton, the point-of-attack defense should hopefully improve. He’s never been a great defender, but he was at his worst last year, largely due to the injury, and there were too many blow-bys that led to the Pacers tying with the Wizards for the most points allowed in the paint last season at 58.4 per contest. In a much-improved Eastern Conference, Indiana will have to find a way to be at least a middle-of-the-pack quality defense if they expect to build on their success from last season.
What’s Next: Tough Choices
Indiana having one of the league’s most expensive rosters directly contrasts with their typical modus operandi. Historically, the Pacers have grown their talent, spent enough to be competitive, but existed on the more fiscally conservative side. Now, after loosening the purse strings to re-sign Pascal Siakam (4 years, $188,950,272) and Obi Toppin (4 years, $58,000,000), as well as extending Andrew Nembhard (3 years, $59 million) and T.J. McConnell (4 years, $44,800,000) this summer, the Pacers are now a franchise flirting with the second apron come next summer. That’s not necessarily a devastating position for a team with this much young talent that has most of its veterans locked up, but the summer of ’25 brings Myles Turner’s free agency and a decision on whether to extend Bennedict Mathurin. In both cases, the Pacers would take a significant hit if they lost the player. With Turner, he is at the literal center of the Pacers’ meager defensive identity—losing him means the whole house of cards likely implodes. However, re-signing him seems a daunting task given their cap situation and the fact that, because he is on a two-year deal, they can’t re-sign him until a brief window at the end of the season before he hits the open market. So, if he has another great year, further increasing his value, Indy is likely priced out. With Mathurin, the Pacers have a lot more flexibility about how to proceed with their former 6th overall pick, but it may prove more a matter of managing both ego and money. Mathurin has shown enough flashes at such a young age (22) that you have to imagine there would be a market for him, so trading him rather than paying a hefty extension may be the prudent choice. But Indiana could use Mathurin’s offensive punch, particularly off the bench, where they struggled to find consistent scoring from the perimeter. Yet, it’s unlikely that Mathurin sees himself in that role. The fact that Indiana had success without Mathurin may have planted a seed of dispensability regarding him, but the Pacers have been loath to trade talented young players in the past.
What They Shouldn’t Do: Let Turner Walk.
Indiana threw around a lot of money this offseason, and in most cases, it was well spent. (I do not understand the Toppin deal at that number. Who were they competing against at that cost?) But if all that spending literally caps their ability to re-sign Myles Turner, then the Pacers' process will have proven to be ultimately flawed. This is an Indiana team that started becoming a reasonable defensive unit as the season went on, thanks in large part to the addition of Pascal Siakam—Indiana lowered its points allowed per game by 4.4 points following the Siakam deal—but Turner is the foundation of the defense. His ability to cover as much ground as he does, his versatility in being able to step out and switch on the pick and roll, and his rim protection make him indispensable to the Pacers’ defense. If Turner leaves, the Pacers are in big trouble, as there are no in-house options—neither Isaiah Jackson nor James Wiseman can step into that role full-time—and Indiana will be very limited in its ability to sign anyone in free agency.
Is There Hope?: Yes, But The Clock Is Already Ticking.
Indiana making the Eastern Conference Finals last season has been treated a bit too much like the ’19 Blazers' and ’20 Hawks' conference finals runs, which many have all but discounted as functions of injury luck and strange circumstances. For the Pacers to shake that stigma will require continuing to build upon last season’s success, even if that doesn’t necessarily translate into a deeper postseason run—both the Hawks and Blazers had significantly worse regular seasons the year after, which was unfairly used as evidence of their fraudulence. The problem for this Pacers group is that because of some contract concerns and the age of some of the team’s most important players, the sands in the hourglass are already on the move. Though they remain a young team by average age, these concerns mean that the hope for the team is really founded in the here and now. This Pacers group has a window, which history has shown us is always narrower than we think, so how this Indiana team will be defined is being written in real time.
Links to Other Team Reviews:
#8 Orlando Magic
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