The Indiana Pacers were one of the biggest surprises of early last season. Tyrese Haliburton emerged as an all-star, and the team’s franchise player in just his age-22 season. It was truly a breakout season for Rese, who averaged a career high 20.7 points per game and finished second in assists at 10.4 per game. He went down with an injury on January 11th, and the team couldn’t stay afloat without him. However, at the time of his injury the Pacers were the 7th seed in the Eastern conference and looked like a legitimate playoff team, which was a surprise. Clearly Indiana liked what they saw, as they gave Haliburton a 5-year $260M contract extension this offseason. The goal is to be a playoff team this year, and take a jump from the 11th place they finished last season. They made a great step in that direction by fixing their biggest issue this offseason. Last year the Pacers essentially had no power forward, and often resorted to starting shooting guard Aaron Nesmith at the four spot. They drafted power forward Jarace Walker in the top ten of this year’s draft and traded for former New York Knick Obi Toppin. A solid power forward will benefit greatly from playing alongside Haliburton, as we could see more pick and roll combinations as well as more lobs to Toppin. He likely won’t play the power forward spot, but they also brought in 2023 NBA champion Bruce Brown on a two-year $45M contract this summer. He’s going to bring more defense and toughness. It’s a team built of solid veterans and young guys with upside and could take a big jump this season. It reminds me a lot of the Cavs situation. They were surprisingly good in 2022 before being decimated by injuries, then became a legit playoff team last season. After being decimated by injuries last season, I believe the Pacers will make the playoff leap this year.
Think about subbing, I’m on the road to 11k!!!
#indianapacers #tyresehaliburton #bennedictmathurin
1 Comment
Greetings from Indiana! It's gonna be (another) fun year. Go Pacers!