![\"Pacers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758974829_475_960x0.jpg\")
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Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton talks to participants during his basketball camp at the Indiana Pacers Athletic Center, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, in Westfield, Ind. (AP Photo\/Darron Cummings)<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved<\/p>\n
INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 The Indiana Pacers won\u2019t have Tyrese Haliburton for the coming season. They lost Myles Turner in free agency. That\u2019s two starters from their NBA Finals run last season that aren\u2019t going to be a part of the coming campaign, and there\u2019s a sentiment that the upcoming year in Indianapolis could be a gap year<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the Pacers don\u2019t feel that way. If anything, they believe the opposite reality will be true. With many young, talented players and several holdovers from their Finals team still around, the blue and gold are hoping to win with what they have.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hear people talk about this being a gap year. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s ever been what we\u2019ve been about. With (Herb) Simon as our owner, it\u2019s always been about trying to compete and trying to win,\u201d Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said on Thursday. \u201cNow, some years are going to be more challenging than others. Obviously, we\u2019re down Tyrese [Haliburton], so that will make some challenges. But we\u2019re not looking at this as a year to just try and get through. We\u2019d never wish away a season. We\u2019ve got so many opportunities for some players on our team that weren\u2019t there before that we\u2019re excited to see what they can do. And I think this team has shown that they come together when people kind of doubt them, and I think they feel and they sense and they hear the doubt about this season for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Why might this season be different for the Pacers?<\/p>\n With Haliburton out for the year, the Pacers plan to start Andrew Nembhard at point guard. He has experience running the show and has been a part of deep playoff runs, but most of his time in the NBA has been spent next to Haliburton as a shooting guard. Nembhard\u2019s spot will be filled by Bennedict Mathurin in the opening five<\/a>, and he was critical to multiple Pacers wins in the postseason.<\/p>\n On top of that, Turner is gone. Indiana will have a new starting center. Their backup five from last season, Thomas Bryant, is elsewhere as well \u2013 he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. The blue and gold will have a drastically different rotation on the interior. Currently, Isaiah Jackson and Jay Huff are projected to fill those roles, and it isn\u2019t clear who the starter will be. Jackson was a contributor during the Pacers Eastern Conference Finals run in 2024 but tore his achilles last season. Huff is a strong stylistic fit.<\/p>\n So at two different positions, the Pacers will look much different this season. And Haliburton is a two-time All-NBA player. It\u2019s natural to think the Pacers will be worse this coming year after going 50-32 last season.<\/p>\n Yet even if they will likely win fewer games, the internal hope is for another campaign with victories and development overlapping. \u201c[Last year], I remember everybody asked me what would define success this year coming off an Eastern Conference finals run. I think [this year] I would answer the same way as I did last year. I think we approach everything with our organization, with coach [Rick] Carlisle, with (President of Basketball Operations) Kevin [Pritchard], at maximizing every day, approaching every day \u2014 how can we be a little bit better today \u2014 and not thinking about the end result as much as we are thinking about improving ourselves and developing ourselves, our players, our staff, our team, every single day,\u201d Buchanan said. Those focuses have led to combined success in both the win column and the player improvement department in recent years \u2013 many young Pacers players have developed under Carlisle\u2019s guidance, which is partially why he received a contract extension<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd wherever that takes us is where it takes us. We saw where it took us last year,\u201d Buchanan continued. \u201cI think your ceiling is defined by how consistent you are with what you do every day. We want to be consistent with our approach, with our players, with their work, with our team, with their preparation, and with our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Portland Trail Blazers interim general manager Chad Buchanan talks with reporters during a news conference introducing center Hasheem Thabeet and point guard Jonny Flynn Monday, March 19, 2012, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer)<\/p>\n ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n Nembhard, Mathurin, Jackson, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, Ben Sheppard, and Jarace Walker have all improved across the last few seasons under the current Pacers leadership. They\u2019re all young enough that development can be expected again this season. But for the Pacers to be as good as they believe they can be, those players will have to be reliable contributors every night.<\/p>\n Many of them already are. Last year, the Pacers went 4-5 without Haliburton \u2013 good for 36 or 37 wins over the course of an 82 game season. They went 6-4 in 10 games without Turner. In the two games without both players, they went 1-1. Those win rates suggest that, at worst, Indiana will be a good-enough but lagging team.<\/p>\n But those win-loss records were in the middle of a season in which the Pacers played a particular style \u2013 a faster one that thrives with Haliburton heavily involved. Without the star guard, some slight tweaks in approach could come to the Circle City this season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still going to have a lot of the same identity. We still have a lot of the same core pieces on this team. The traits that those guys bring, what our coaches bring, is still there,\u201d Buchanan said early in his press conference.<\/p>\n Later, though, the GM had more clarifying thoughts on how his team might look on the hardwood in 2025-26. \u201cThings that may be a little different are, we don\u2019t have Tyrese leading the charge, creating pace. It may be a little different with how we play offensively. We\u2019ll probably be a little more physical, maybe we might be a little better defensively. But we\u2019re going to have to play a little differently to win,\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to completely change how we play, but there\u2019s going to be a different path and maybe a little different style of what we\u2019re doing on the offensive end, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n In theory, those tactical changes \u2013 especially when practiced over the course of a full season \u2013 will make the Pacers better than their past sans-Haliburton level. But the team has to be careful. Straying too far from their methods won\u2019t help much when Haliburton returns. There is an important balance to find.<\/p>\n The Pacers are aware of that. But figuring that equilibrium out doesn\u2019t come with an obvious answer. If the team wants to be as good as possible, they probably need to slow things down. But that doesn\u2019t maximize their long-term future. That\u2019s why development is so crucial this year, and why day-to-day growth will be success for the Pacers. Young talent ending the season with more talent and more versatility to be able to play multiple styles is key.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t put a limit on anything for this year,\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cBut as far as what defines success, I think we want to be playing our best at the end of the year, whatever that takes us to.\u201d That\u2019s what this year will be all about for the Pacers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton talks to participants during his basketball camp at the Indiana Pacers Athletic Center, Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[3441,355,15990,99,20629],"class_list":["post-185249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-sports","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}