Shams Charania<\/a>.<\/p>\nIndiana was a surprise buyer at the deadline despite having the worst record in the Eastern Conference this season at 13-38.<\/p>\n
There are extenuating circumstances that led to their struggles, including star guard Tyrese Haliburton missing the entire season due to a torn Achilles, and center Myles Turner opting to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency.<\/p>\n
The Pacers came within one victory of winning the NBA championship last season, as they pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Haliburton’s absence has loomed large this season, but there is reason for optimism next season given the core the Pacers have in place.<\/p>\n
A healthy Haliburton will lead the way along with All-Star forward Pascal Siakam, and there should be plenty of depth behind them in the form of Zubac, Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin, Aaron Nesmith and a host of others.<\/p>\n
Zubac, 28, is a 7-footer from Bosnia and Herzegovina who has enjoyed the best seasons of his career over the past two campaigns.<\/p>\n
Last season, Zubac averaged career highs with 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, earning him NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors and a sixth-place finish in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year voting.<\/p>\n
He has been nearly as good this season, averaging 14.4 points and 11.0 rebounds, while shooting over 60 percent from the field for a seventh consecutive year.<\/p>\n
The Eastern Conference has been wide open this season with multiple teams having a legitimate chance to go to the NBA Finals, and if key players are healthy and savvy additions are made during the offseason, there is a real opportunity for Indiana to get right back into that mix next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark made a bold prediction Thursday regarding how the Indiana Pacers will fare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-451316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451316","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=451316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}