revealed<\/a> in an interview with Caitlin Cooper. \u201cHe\u2019s a great leader on our team. He\u2019s made tough adjustments where a lot of vet players would have said, \u2018Hey, you know, I\u2019ve been an All-Star twice. You\u2019ve got to get more with me.’\u201d<\/p>\nAlthough Siakam has adjusted to what the Pacers required, his role most likely will change this season. Carlisle already has the outline of what to expect out of him as the team\u2019s undeniable best player in Hali\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that he\u2019s going to be our closer,\u201d Carlisle revealed. \u201cHe and Nembhard are going to be involved in a lot of actions to close games.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the Pacers\u2019 2025 playoff run, Haliburton iconically became Mr. Clutch for the team. That expectation will now fall to Siakam Having such responsibilities bestowed upon him isn\u2019t something new for the Cameroonian star. During his final years with the Toronto Raptors, he experienced what it\u2019s like to be the team\u2019s go-to player.<\/p>\n
Siakam won\u2019t have to shoulder that burden alone, as Carlisle revealed that Andrew Nembhard will also step up. Siakam\u2019s humility makes Carlisle\u2019s ability to plan for the upcoming season easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cPascal Siakam is a great player. He\u2019s convinced the world, I think, at this point. I don\u2019t throw the word \u2018great\u2019 around very much. He is a great player,\u201d Carlisle proclaimed.<\/p>\n
It has been a few years since the NBA has seen Siakam as a No. 1 option. In the 2019-20 season, he led the Raptors to a 53-19 record after Kawhi Leonard left. The 6-foot-8 forward earned All-NBA Second Team honors for his performance.<\/p>\n
The Pacers, along with their faithful, are hoping Siakam can replicate the same impact for the team in the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2024-25 NBA season will be interesting for the Indiana Pacers. A sidelined Tyrese Haliburton considerably reduces their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-48176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}