{"id":3906,"date":"2025-07-18T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3906\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:17:07","slug":"pacers-notes-nembhard-mathurin-turner-jackson-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3906\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers Notes: Nembhard, Mathurin, Turner, Jackson, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> sidelined for the entire 2025\/26 season as he recovers from a torn Achilles, the Pacers\u2018 offense is expected to look significantly different in the fall and likely won\u2019t be nearly as \u201chigh-octane,\u201d according to Jamal Collier of ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indiana ranked second in both offensive rating and pace during the 2023\/24 regular season and was a top-10 team in both categories again in \u201924\/25, despite getting off to a slow start last fall. The Pacers also played at the fastest pace of any Eastern Conference team during the 2025 playoffs en route to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000.<\/p>\n

As Collier observes, Andrew Nembhard<\/a> \u2013 who figures to take over as the team\u2019s starting point guard in 2025\/26 \u2013 doesn\u2019t have the same burst as Haliburton, so the Pacers figure to lean more into his strengths, including his decision-making in half-court sets.<\/p>\n

According to Collier, several executives around the league believe that fourth-year wing Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> is in line for an increased offensive role with Haliburton on the shelf and Myles Turner<\/a> no longer on the roster. Mathurin, a 2022 lottery pick, has averaged 15.9 points in 28.3 minutes per game during his first three years in the NBA. He\u2019s eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Pacers:<\/p>\n

Confirming remarks<\/a> made by president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said during an appearance on The Green Light with Chris Long podcast (YouTube link<\/a>) that the club didn\u2019t have the opportunity to match the contract offer Turner got from Milwaukee before he agreed to sign with the Bucks. \u201cWe were talking to them \u2013 \u2018them\u2019 meaning his agent \u2013 about him returning,\u201d Carlisle said (hat tip to HoopsHype<\/a>). \u201cAnd really, kind of out of nowhere, Milwaukee decided to waive Damian Lillard<\/a> and stretch his contract\u2026and then they created space to sign Myles. I think what probably happened\u2014and this is part of negotiation in any sport\u2014a team will say: \u2018Hey, look, we have this offer. It\u2019s this much over this many years, but if we make this offer, we need to know that you\u2019re going to take it and not shop it.\u2019 And so, I believe that\u2019s probably what happened with Milwaukee. It was a number. It was a certain number of years. And they just jumped at it, and there was never a chance to counter. So\u2014those things happen. And when they do, you just have to keep going.\u201d
\nWhile Isaiah Jackson<\/a>\u2018s new three-year, $21MM contract with the Pacers is guaranteed for now, it includes injury protections in years two and three in the event that the big man suffers another major Achilles injury that prevents him from reaching games-played benchmarks, tweets<\/a> Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Jackson missed nearly the entire 2024\/25 season while recovering from an Achilles tear he sustained in early November.
\nPascal Siakam<\/a> tops the list of the Pacers\u2019 most important players for the 2025\/26 season with Haliburton out and Turner gone, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star<\/a> (subscription required). Nembhard, Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith<\/a>, and Jay Huff<\/a> round out Dopirak\u2019s top five, in that order.
\nIn a separate story for The Indianapolis Star<\/a>, Dopirak shares his takeaways from the Pacers\u2019 fourth Las Vegas Summer League game on Thursday, including forward Enrique Freeman<\/a> continuing to make a strong case for a two-way slot in Indiana. Freeman racked up 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, along with 10 rebounds and four assists, in Thursday\u2019s win over New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Tyrese Haliburton sidelined for the entire 2025\/26 season as he recovers from a torn Achilles, the Pacers\u2018…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[5642,5643,64,63,726,5644,5645,5646,5647,5648,5649,85],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-aaron-nesmith","tag-andrew-nembhard","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-enrique-freeman","tag-isaiah-jackson","tag-jay-huff","tag-myles-turner","tag-pascal-siakam","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}