The Pacers Future Is Just Getting Started… Right??

The Pacers Future Is Just Getting Started… Right??

so the Indiana Pacers season is over as the Boston Celtics advance to the NBA finals and the Pacers now look towards the offseason but this has been a fantastic season for Indiana if you told any Pacers fan before the season that you were going to be in the Conference Finals they would take that 100 out of a hundred times but it’s important now for Indiana especially with the changing landscape of the Eastern Conference over the next couple of seasons to make sure that they are the right kind of Eastern Conference Finals Contender kind of team you can either be the video is like 20 seconds long and I’m already going to upset a fan base you can either be the 2021 Hawks who make a Conference Finals that aren’t really heard from ever again fre Trey young or you could be a actual perennial Contender to make the Conference Finals and I think Indiana is a little bit more on this side despite the the weakness of the Eastern Conference this season I think they’ve shown some some really sustainable things in this postseason run that they can continue to draw on for years and years and that’s going to start of course with this offseason and of course for Indiana the big move that they made in the middle of the year was bringing in Pascal sakam and that is going to be priority number one in the off season because one of the reasons that cakam didn’t go for as much on the trade market as some people thought he would is because he is an unrestricted free agent he can technically go and sign anywhere that he wants to that includes teams that have a ton of cap space like Philadelphia a variety of other teams as well and even though the indication is that se yakum wanted to go to Indiana the deadline in contrast to someone like ojan and Obi that just kind of ended up on the Knicks SE yakum was kind of like angling to end up in Indiana they seem very confident they’re going to be able to resign him resign him on what I would presume is going to be a Max contract that still is Priority One and as soon as they do that there is no more cap space available for Indiana once they sign Pascal SE yakum to the max they are not going to have any cap space to work with so I would presume that they are not going to have any cap space and speaking of that trade they do still have some picks out in that deal they owe the 19th overall pick in the draft this year to Toronto as well as their 2026 first round pick to Toronto in addition as well so they have a couple of future picks out but not a tremendous amount out of assets out the door to bring in a player of SE yak’s caliber he clearly fits really well with the roster I like the move and even though they don’t have any extra first round picks coming in they’re in a pretty good spot moving forward assetwise in terms of other free agents there’s really only one other guy to talk about is Obi toppen uh his rookie contract is going to end so they’re going to have to figure out what to do with him uh I think there’s going to be teams out there that want him but he fits so well within the structure it seems like he’s really found a role that he enjoys in Indiana and I would presume that he will be back as well on a decently sized contract and at that point Indiana will basically be bringing back the entirety of this team that just made the Conference Finals but as we mentioned before it’s important to not get complacent it’s important to not just be the 2021 Hawks and continue to run it back and try to just try and make the Conference Finals once again you kind of need to go and make some other moves and I think Indiana is certainly going to take a look at improving the roster even more one thing I want to mention by the way when you look at this this free agency list when you look at the roster when you look at the contracts is there anybody that stands out to you if you know if you’re someone that watched a lot of Pacers games in the postseason you’re really impressed with how they’re playing their offense there’s a guy in here you might have forgotten about um Benedict Maan just wasn’t healthy for the entirety of the postseason and that means one of two things for Indiana that either means that his return next season is going to add an even better offensive punch to a team that already was one of the best offensive teams we’ve ever seen and take a little bit of the scoring load off with someone like Tyrese halberton or that means that he kind of doesn’t fit in super well with the way that this group plays and potentially is a trade asset in either of those scenarios that’s a positive for Indiana and something that people just aren’t really talking about or thinking about because they’ve been on such a great run even without Maan playing now his role was kind of in flux throughout the season because just not really sure how big of a mathine fan Carlow Rick Carlow is the head coach of the Pacers um and again given how they play he’s a little bit more um ball hog isn’t even the right term but he’s a little bit more kind of standstill than this free flowing offense that they’ve implemented um and so I’m really interested to see kind of what his situation is but I do want to point out um B Catherine is on the roster and as a result of that I think Indiana is set up as a really interesting trade team this offseason obviously they have an opportunity to just bring their guys back continue to have internal Improvement for someone like Tyrese halberton that made an all NBA team this year that’s going to continue to get better and improve SE yakum is who he is but that’s someone that you can count on bunch of other young players on the roster nard Shepard like a lot of guys that are going to continue to get better and they have a nice core and there’s going to be some built-in Improvement there but they’re kind of a sneaky trade Target team even for some of those like upper tier teams because in comparison to um you know some of these other teams like like Philadelphia for example that have a lot of c space Indiana has a couple of assets they could potentially send out and sign and trade if they chose to if they were able to bring in a guy and potentially get them to commit Paul George rumors have been out there that feels unlikely to me but someone like Klay Thompson would be really interesting because of this free you know free flowing Style again that would have to be an assign and trade they don’t have the cap space but they could do you know mathin and a pick or something and exchange for clay don’t hate me pser fans I’m not saying that’s what they’re actually going to do I’m just saying it is definitely an option like demaro rzan maybe is out there as well but more interestingly to me you go to that next level that next tier of possible trade candidates for Indiana because they they need a wing right like they need another guy on the wing that they can just say hey go guard this guy because they all season long kind of got killed by all these bigger Wings these guys that would get to the rim all the time and it caused them issues the entire season because they just don’t have the Personnel right like they traded away Bruce Brown in the middle of the year not that he’s tall but he’s at least a stronger guy and if they could get kind of that in between player between halberton and cakam that bridge player in between specifically if they’re a good Defender I think that is the perfect addition for Indiana as long as that guy obviously fits their offensive framework a couple of guys that immediately came to mind for me would be ludor in Oklahoma City if Oklahoma City wanted to move on from him at any point over the next year or two um because they have all these young guys they feel like they could probably replace what Lou Dort does with someone like Cas Wallace a variety of other players that they have there that would be an interesting one for me speaking of the Thunder Josh giddy would be relatively interesting although his struggles at okay of not being the the primary on ball guy would obviously be there with Indiana as well but he’s got kind of that free flowing you know style as well despite obviously not being a good three-point shooter um M Bridges is really really interesting for this team because just like for a lot of teams he’s that like perfect you know in between kind of player he’s never going to be a number one option but he can be an okay number two and a really good number three option alongside SE yakum and halberton and you’re probably going to get back that really good defense that he was playing as well in Phoenix because he won’t have as much offensive responsibility as as has had in Brooklyn that’s probably one of my more favorite fits if they’re able to try and get Brooklyn to actually trade away male Bridges uh DeAndre Hunter is another guy potentially in Atlanta or maybe it’s bogdanovich there’s a couple of guys that are going to be available in Atlanta that I think would be interesting if Indiana was to go out and try and get uh Kyle kosma as well in Washington someone that I think is certainly going to be available all the way up until the trade deadline if he has not moved at the deadline or excuse me in this off season uh someone that again just can guard can shoot gives them size that’s exactly what they need uh Jeremy Grant another option there in Portland the list goes on and on right like I think it’s obvious exactly what Indiana needs in that kind of in between area and if they get one of those guys and then they continue to improve internally I expect this to be a team that contends to win 50 games you know over the next couple of seasons and and be in contention to make the Conference Finals once again this feels like a like a sustainable team yes they they went through a path in the East where they played teams that were hurt a ton no Giannis in the first round Dame got hurt in the middle of the series um in the first round and then of course the Knicks had all the injury issues in the second round but for the most part teams don’t make the Conference Finals by accident like Indiana still took advantage of their opportunities that they had in front of them and their offense is fantastic and if they can maintain that continue to grow that while also adding some pieces defensively this could be a really really interesting team and I certainly think that the future is bright and Indiana of course fueled by Tyrese Halbert but that to me is the final point the final piece of all of this because we’ve gotten two different we’ve got a lot of different versions but primarily two different versions of Tyrese Halbert in this season the first 30 35 games of the year he was one of the best guards in the entire like he was first team all NBA caliber the first 30 35 games of the year then he has that hamstring injury or or calf injury or whatever it was lower body injury issue and then after that like he was he was fine like he was a good starter maybe borderline All-Star and then obviously has his ups and downs in the postseason and one of two things is true either Tyrus halberton is the guy that we saw in the first 30 35 games of the season and then he just got hurt and he’s going to return to that guy next year or he was just on a hot streak through the first 30 35 games of the year and then cooled back down and more so what we saw the latter part of the year the latter the former whatever the second part of the year um is who Tyrese Halton actually is and that to me is a deciding factor of all this for Indiana they can add a nice Wing they have SE yakum I really like the addition there but if if if halberton isn’t an all NBA caliber guard they’re not really going to be going anywhere right so like that is the deciding factor they have all this internal Improvement they have some nice options I think in terms of outside of the roster Improvement as well uh but it’s all going to depend on Halbert but regardless congrats to the Indiana Pacers on a fantastic season I’m excited to see what they continue to do as one of the more interesting up and coming teams in the Eastern Conference it’s just cool to have this Pacers team be good just kind of add some some fresh teams to the Eastern Conference here

The Indiana Pacers offseason has begun after losing to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals… so what happens now? Are Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam enough or do they need to add more pieces?

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