Who you want to see more and less of next year?

[yoadknux]

I've always been a Mathurin supporter, now I'm more cautious with him, but I still think that with the right mentorship he can be a star.

I think they should sit his *** down with Rick and a personal mentor and figure out how to develop him. He has superstar talent with a bonehead mentality. He's the only Pacer other than TJM that can drive inside and create his own shot, but Mathurin can also shoot from outside. His rebounding is good and he showed a lot of hustle against OKC. At the same time whenever he logs in I'm like "alright what dumb play will he do now, get baited into a foul, a tech, or an ejection?". His on-ball defense is OK, but team defense and getting through screens is where he has to improve. They have to find a way on the one hand to give him freedom to play his game, and on the other hand hold him accountable for when he's slacking off. I would really be happy if Siakam could mentor him.

Obi should be groomed for 6th man. He had some butter finger and dumb play moments, but he was a good contributor in the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if in the last two rounds he logged more minutes than Myles.

Nesmith is a mixed bag. He's a solid player and had that monster game against the Knicks, but when he can't hit threes he looks like Ben Sheppard. I get terrified whenever I see him dribble or drive inside. I think ideally he's a 3&D off the bench, or a situational body to defend opposing star players.

Speaking of Ben Sheppard, sorry, not an NBA rotation player. Takes more than just heart to get minutes in a championship team.

Nembhard, I was really hoping to see him have a breakout year, I think he defers too much. He has already proven he can be a clutch scorer in the playoffs, go ahead dude, now's your chance. Definetly deserves a bigger role

Siakam and TJM are absolute gods, I hope they can hold off their decline until Hali returns. Siakam is definetly an all-time Pacer.

Myles, I'm in favor of keeping him because of how the NBA cap works, not because I think he's particularly viable. Can trade him later.

Walker actually had some good moments in the playoffs! I want him to get more playing time, he deserves it.

Bryant and Bradley, I thought they were servicable. Nothing special about Bradley but at least he hit his free throws and battled the Knicks' frontcourt pretty well. Bryant was kinda scapegoated imo.

I think a reasonable goal for next season would be 4th-6th seed and compete in the second round. Nembhard/Mathurin/Nesmith/Siakam/Turner can get it done.

[stew]

I would like to keep Isiah Jackson as the backup big. His size and agility would have help against Chet.

if i were to choose between Bradley and Bryant, I would go with Bradley. Pacers likes to have their Centers high above the free throw line, and when Bryant double, the guard always split the double team. Also, Bryant does not offer any rim protection and his supposedly elite skill (rebounding) is basically “fake news”.

Bradley atleast offer some rim protection, and fights for rebounds. Both NY and OKC series, Rick ended up playing Bradley over Bryant.

i Rather go look for another 3rd string Center. Maybe try wiseman again. Atleast he give the team a big body when we need to face bigger centres.

[Cubs231721]

I think Mathurin starts and soaks up a lot of minutes.

You have to use this year to find Walker minutes anywhere you can. I know the team will not treat this as a gap year, but in this case they need to at least recognize the lower expectations and let Walker sink/swim.

Some teams wanted to trade for Nembhard as their primary PG. Huge range of outcomes on how he is perceived after this year is over.

[MillerTime]

I think Mathurin starts and soaks up a lot of minutes.

You have to use this year to find Walker minutes anywhere you can. I know the team will not treat this as a gap year, but in this case they need to at least recognize the lower expectations and let Walker sink/swim.

Some teams wanted to trade for Nembhard as their primary PG. Huge range of outcomes on how he is perceived after this year is over.

I agree. I see us moving Nembhard to PG and starting Mathurin at SF

[BobbyMac]

I believe that Nebhard will be our primary point guard. I expect Mathrin to be the shooting guard, with Walker backing up Nesmith. TJ and Shepard will back up Nebhard and Mathrin. Jackson will be the #2 Center behind Myles with Bryant being the spare. This could very well be a good team. I do not expect Haliburton to play at all before April, even then he will probably play restricted minutes.

[BornReady]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but if it were me, I would start Nembhard, Mathurin, Jarace, Pascal, and starting C, and pump as many minutes into Mathurin and Jarace as possible, to see what they're made of. Then, we get to maintain a deep bench with TJM, Nesmith, Sheppard, and Obi. I agree, I'd keep IJax, he's an intriguing player and doesn't have a huge contract. A large part of me wonders if we're keeping tabs on James Wiseman - if I'm not mistaken, he does work out at Pacers facilities, right?

[BobbyMac]

I hope everyone here has a great summer and won't stress themselves over how the Pacers need to completely make over the team because they are only #2 in the world.

[DrFife]

A championship run next season seems doubtful, so all moves now should support a deep run in the 2026-2027 season. That said, the team's salary structure must be a consideration. Let's see what happens with Turner, but IMO, the buy-low, sell-high player to trade is Mathurin.

[MillerTime]

I think we’ll finally see Mathurin break out next year.

if he turns into the scorer we are hoping for, it’ll be high volume.

also a defensive backcourt of Nembhard, Mathurin and Nesmith may be a nightmare for opposing teams

[SaintLouisan]

This could very well be a good team.

I know people are down now but I really don’t think it’s out of the question to get—at least—back to the ECF without making basically any moves, even if Haliburton doesn’t play a minute next year. Particularly if one of Nembhard, Mathurin, or Walker has a breakout season (listed there in order of probability IMO).

Given the Celtics’ situation, who in the Eastern Conference really scares us? I can’t think of anybody…and we smoked the two likeliest suspects a month ago. And I don’t buy that the Knicks are going to improve with whatever poor sap decides to take that cursed job.

[712Jefferson]

I look forward to half this board melting down any time Mathurin makes a mistake next year. He will be the new Myles in terms of being a PD lightning rod. I will get my kneepads out and continue to root for him every step of the way. He's a mixed bag, for sure, but game 7 demonstrated his heart and toughness. Completely agree with using the next year to develop our young guys as much as possible. Of course, Benn and Jarace should be heavily featured (even more so than they were this season). I want to see Furphy start to get more regular rotation minutes as well. Let's even try to further develop Shep and see if he can add anything to his game off the dribble.

One of the things I think we need most is a young center that we can develop for when Ty returns, whether that's as our starter next year or off the bench to backup Myles. I don't know who or how we acquire that player but I think it's quite important to our future success that we try to figure it out somehow. Re-signing Myles was supposed to be a win now move but I don't think he's an awesome fit long term as he continues to get older, slower and probably more injury prone in the coming years. With the Ty injury, it changes the calculation a bit about what that move should be, imo.

We also need to get better as a team at attacking off the dribble/shot creation, whether that's internally through player development or adding another piece at some point. I hope we never change our team identity of unselfish ball movement but imagine if we can add the ability to also attack more effectively as part of our collective offensive bag? We rely so much on Ty to set things up that it's painfully obvious how much we struggle in that department if he's unavailable to play or even if he's playing but being shut down by physical defensive schemes, etc.

Agree that we have enough talent on the roster as it is to still remain competitive in the East next season without Ty. Cleveland and New York seem like obvious picks for the top two seeds. Orlando and Detroit probably take advantage of the opportunity and make a leap as well. After that, we should be right there in the mix with Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Could actually be kind of a fun, low pressure season to watch in a way. Rick will definitely have his work cut out for him to balance development and winning but I hope he doesn't too often give in to temptation to sacrifice the former for the latter. If things just aren't working out at all out by the trade deadline, the FO would still have some options there or we could just transition to tank mode and try to add one more lottery pick to the mix before Ty returns. Should be interesting.

[PR07]

I would like to see more Mathurin and Walker.

By default, with Hali's injury, Mathurin should see a lot more playing time and opportunities next year as it stands.

Walker to me is such an interesting player from a defensive versatility standpoint. Turned into a reliable outside shooter too. He's blocked off the bench by Toppin at the 4 though.

[Tony Valente]

Nesmith is a mixed bag. He's a solid player and had that monster game against the Knicks, but when he can't hit threes he looks like Ben Sheppard. I get terrified whenever I see him dribble or drive inside. I think ideally he's a 3&D off the bench, or a situational body to defend opposing star players.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but if it were me, I would start Nembhard, Mathurin, Jarace, Pascal, and starting C, and pump as many minutes into Mathurin and Jarace as possible, to see what they're made of. Then, we get to maintain a deep bench with TJM, Nesmith, Sheppard, and Obi.

I feel Aaron is so underrated by some over here. I didn't feel like he was looking like Ben Sheppard at any moment this post-season. Take some of his minutes off for the sake of developing others, but he doesn't deserve to be demoted.

[712Jefferson]

I feel Aaron is so underrated by some over here. I didn't feel like he was looking like Ben Sheppard at any moment this post-season. Take some of his minutes off for the sake of developing others, but he doesn't deserve to be demoted.

Think Aaron is pretty well loved by all here, tbh. He definitely did struggle somewhat in the Finals but the guy was unbelievable for us the rest of the postseason and is all heart all the time. No chance he gets moved to the bench next season. That said, he does need to continue to develop his game off the dribble like a lot of our players do.

One potential interesting curve ball this summer is the following: he's locked up for two more seasons on a bargain (by NBA standards) contract of 11 million per year but he's evidently already extension eligible and we've seen in recent history that the FO likes to reward their core pieces and get ahead of those extensions as early as possible. Not sure how they approach that.

[BillS]

The main thing we need to focus on, win or lose, is a team that is one pass-first perimeter-shooting point guard away from a championship. I'd like to see us with more length/height on the wing and I'd like to see them work on FREE THROWS and on catch-and-shoot.