Pacers Season Preview

Toby: What's good beefers? Welcome back to Who's Your Beef? I'm your host, Slick, Flying Solo today. Guess what? Today is the start of Indiana Pacers basketball. That's right, let's bring out the blue and gold swag. Go get yourself one of those throwback pinstripe jersey and sign up for Dozone, the new TV home of the Pacers. Let's start there so you know where to watch the Sures tonight. Out at Halliburton's Alma Monter, Iowa State. They're up in Ames taking on Ant-Man and the Wolves. Dzone is buying up a lot of these teams TV rights this season. You can sign up for a free trial at dazn.com. Yeah, it's pronounced DaZone, it, but it's spelled D-A-Z-N. With that, you get 22 regular season games for free, as well as all the preseason games like tonight. And for the rest, I think it's around 20 bucks a month or a lump sum for the whole year. You can also catch 15 regular season games for free between Fox 59 and CBS four this year. I don't know how they divvy those out, but check your local listings. And I think as of now, we have 11 nationally televised games. So a lot of options to access your pacers this season. And on a slight side note, I I think the NBA is absolutely atrocious. They have no respect for the Pacers and exposing our brand of basketball to a national audience. So after sixteen damn months of anticipation of Halliburton's return, they stick us opening night in New Orleans. The worst TV market in the association. We can't even get a frickin' home game. We can't even play someone of note that day. Man, we never get that coveted Christmas game. Come on, NBA schedulers. Do better. Well, folks, I'm excited for this season. I'm excited every season because I'm a Hoosier and basketball tends to be in any Hoosier's DNA. But we're back healthy. We're ready to turn the Eastern Conference into the Indy 500 like we did a couple years back. So today I just wanted to do kind of a broad assessment. Of the offseason, what occurred, what happened with the draft, and give you my bias opinion, my humble opinion, and a preview of the twenty-six-27 Indiana Pacers. First of all, apparently we are supposed to be concerned about the Indian Pacers this year. According to a lot of the national media, they are calling us names like Wildcard, Fringe Playoff Team, Play-in Team. Apparently, The Achilles injuries to one Tyrese Halliburton means we should all sit around and wonder if the Surers can compete this year. Well, I'm looking at this Pacers team and I'm seeing something very different. I'm seeing a team that went to game seven of the NBA finals, had a lead at halftime. I'm seeing a team that won 50 games that same season. And then I'm seeing the exact same franchise go nineteen and sixty-three the following season, last year, because its best player. was sitting in a suit. Well guess what? Now that best player is back. But somehow we're supposed to believe Indiana is rebuilding. Man, get the hell out of here. That's not rebuilding. We've done the rebuild. Rebuilding is what happens when somebody takes the engine out of your car and everyone goes, why doesn't it drive? We've done that. Now we're putting the engine back in the car. It's even better. And we're about to go faster. But let's deal with the ugly part first because yes 19 and 63 was disgusting. It wasn't basketball. It was 82 episodes of an archaeology show of me texting my buddy, hey look, we found a fourth quarter lead. It was a tough year to watch. We can all agree on that. Tough year to swallow. And it was exasperated at the end of the season by a calculated risk by Kevin Pritchard and company to try to secure a top-notch center and replace Miles Turner. And Get a top four pick in this summer's draft. At the time and even now, I do agree with the decision. It was a calculated risk. It just did not work out for us. They traded real NBA dudes that really helped us in big time moments. That was Benedict Matherin, who maybe not the best fit here in Indy, and Isaiah Jackson, who I really liked, but he failed to develop into the potential I think everyone saw when we drafted him out of Kentucky. We also gave up our 2026 protected first round pick. And for a team that only wins 19 games, that's a heck of a pick. The catch is we have to have the first, the second, the third, or the fourth pick in the draft If we are picks five through nine, we lose it. So we get our center, Ivaka Zubaks, who is awesome by the way. We just need those ping pong balls not to land on picks five through nine. Pacers had a fifty-two point one percent chance to get one of those heralded rookies, like Boozer, Caleb Wilson. But the basketball gods landed on five and said, No soup for you, as Indiana finished fourteenth in the Eastern Conference. So we weren't competitive last year, we weren't dangerous, we weren't exactly inspiring confidence. But here's the thing Tyrese Halliburton didn't play one damn game, not one. The same tie who had just taken us to the finals, the same tie who had turned Indiana's offense into an Olympic sprinter. Get the ball, move the ball, make a decision, show some bazazz with it. That guy was gone. Indiana's offense went from one of the league's better units to one of its worst. So when somebody comes up and says, Slick, dude, they won nineteen games. They coming all the way back. I said, Yeah, but I did watch the Colts one year lose Peyton Manning and they went two and fourteen with Curtis Payner. So context does matter. And Ty Reese's the whole damn story. You know, let's get the biggest question out of the way. How healthy is he? Not gonna lie to you, that's a big concern. Achilly injuries are no joke. Certainly a really, really hard injury to come back to. I don't know if anyone ever comes back to 100%. We saw a slew him in that playoff run with Dame Dollar and Tatum. It looks like Durant has bounced back pretty well from his 2019 Achilles injury. And so we hope Halliburton's done the right thing. He's certainly taken a lot of time off. He's roughly 16 months removed from that injury. And at Media Day, he did say, I'm healthy. I'm a hundred percent, which you wouldn't expect anything different. Rick Karis emphasized that they're gonna bring him along at the appropriate pace, but no major restriction. So I guess my opinion is, and I'm hoping I'm speaking for a lot of the fan base here, we we don't need Halliburton to be that finals guy in October, November. We don't need him to be Superman. We don't need him dropping. thirty and fifteen opening night. Hell he doesn't even need to play thirty eight minutes. You know, restrict his minutes, whatever. Do what you gotta do. But what I do need, what we need, we need him healthy in April. That's the difference. Cause the season isn't one October, November, December. It's one in March and April. That's when it matters. And if Halliburton is healthy in April, the Pacers become a completely different problem. Pacers aren't coming off a normal 19 win season. They're coming off an NBA finals appearance. Then their franchise point guard tore his Achilles. Pacers, they basically had a season long rain delay. And now the sun is coming back out. And while everybody's talking about Tyrese, let's turn our attention to the man of last year, Pascal Siakam. Claps around. Because Siakam was the dude last year. And hopefully at age 32, he can still give us all he's got. He was terrific last year. He had to be the scorer, the creator, the stabilizer, the veteran. He put the whole team on his back. He was the guy who got the ball when the offense turned into a dumpster fire. And that's too much. With Halliburton back, Siakam get back to being second banana. And that's exactly where we need him. We don't need Pascal scoring twenty eight every night. Give me 17 to 20. Seven boards, four dimes. Give me some efficiency shooting. Give me solid defense. I'll take the occasional night where he tosses in 35 at the garden. You know, he's still gonna be our guy late in the shot clock. Let the man do work down there. That's what he's best at. He's still our best one on one creator. But let's hope we don't have to rely on him like that all the time. That's the version of Siakam that this team needs. And then the other big guy down there, the new guy. Ivaka Zubox. Let's talk about him. He can make a huge difference for this team. We acquired him last year in that trade, but we barely got to see the big guy. We went on a first date with him. He played five games. And you're not going to decide whether you're marrying someone within five games. But now he's actually part of the plan. Zubox gives us something they desperately need, size. A legitimate seven footer that's not jacking threes and can't rebound. Don't get me wrong, I was ride or die with Miles for many years. When I moved out here to Phoenix in 2015, I was fortunate enough to meet Kevin Pritchard in a golf shop out here randomly. And it was right before the draft, and we did chit chat talking about Biggs. It was pretty obvious. That's the direction the Pacers were going in the first round that year, because that's the year we lost Hibbert and West. And Miles' rookie year was the PG's return year, Monteellis experiment. And we saw great potential out of Miles. And I love Miles. I'm a big Lego guy. He's Lego guy. And I kind of fell in love with him for a while. And I I felt bad for him all those years. He had to go through the trade rumors. But, you know, he just he never really hit a ceiling. And he was just he was not the right fit for us at the end. And he really just didn't fit in with any offense we ever ran. He's he's kind of an odd bird. So You'd get your peaks and valleys with them. You know, you get your air ball threes, and then you get the occasional smothered chicken from Quinn. But at the end of the day, he just he just didn't fit in. He took up a lot of the perimeter, not enough space around the rim, and he's he was suspect on the boards. So now you get Big Z in there. He's a guy who can screen, roll, rebound, post, protect the rim. I watch probably more. West Coast basketball than many Pacers fans, just because I live on this time zone. And I can tell you firsthand, Z you're gonna like. He is so damn consistent. The biggest difference you'll notice from him and Turner is the consistency. You know, he might be the best screening big in the league. He's an underrated passer, and unlike Miles, he's not gonna get torched by those other all-star bigs in the league. You remember the nights when we had to face Giannis. ball gate, the wall. Nights we had to go to Philly and then bead would torch him. we played Joker twice a year. He'd put up monster numbers, and now you got the likes of Wimby out there. But we dreaded those nights cause w we all knew that Turner just he couldn't stand tall to those guys. They were a little superior of him physically. And Zumach is not. He's he's not the scorer those guys are, but physically he can stand up to I've seen him play. against Joker a number of times and Joker still gets his numbers, don't get me wrong, but he has to work for him. And in turn, he doesn't make the guys around them as good as they can be. So I like Zubox for that a lot. And he's a vet. Like I said, you're gonna love his screening ability. and most importantly he gives Halliburton a real target down low now. For those of you caught highlights of fan jam on Sunday out there at Game Bridge, Holly drop one of his favorite jump pass, no look dimes. To Big Z for a wide open layup. And man, it was sexy. Halliburton, he just doesn't make the pacers better. He makes everyone else's job easier, And Zuebox is definitely going to flourish with that. He's going to benefit like everyone else. And that's where Indiana becomes dangerous. So there's there's two guys besides Z that I think will determine how far the pacers go this year in the regular season and postseason. And the first is my man, that's Jaris Walker. Don't sleep on this dude. after the all-star break last season, Jaris averaged almost fifteen points a game, seven boards, four assists. Not bad. And he shot almost forty percent from three in his final twenty two games. That's not nothing. That's a young stud starting to figure some shit out. And now he's got tie back. And I think that's where he's gonna take a step forward. And Walker, you know, he could have a crazy year. He could explode. He hadn't quite found his role yet in the NBA because he can play all over the court. It's kind of placed just a certain position on him. He played some point guard back in his high school days at IMG and then he only spent one year on that stacked Houston team and he played all over there. So when he got to the NBA, it was great. It was a Swiss Army knife, but he didn't really know how to play one certain position. He didn't have a defined role. This year, I think the man is gonna have a defined role. I think he's gonna be first off the bench if it's not Ubre, and he's gonna be a spark plug for us. And if everything goes well by the end of the year, I think he'll be in the running for decision making for Rick for end-of-game rotations. what I love about him is he's got he's got man hands. Guy can catch anything. He makes some of the most ridiculous steals you'll see. Guy has great court vision, even though sometimes That's a disadvantage because he tries to be Halliburton, make crazy passes. And he's got surprisingly good range for a guy his size. I love his release. just wish he'd be more aggressive on the boards. He's gotta continue to develop fundamentals and be sound, but the dude's still young. But I'm really hoping for a breakout year for Jarriss this year. The other big addition was Kelly Ubre Jr., who we picked up from the Sixers. this year. He he's gonna bring a lot of length athleticism to the wing. Another player who can attack. It's gonna be a nice wing defender that we can throw on some of the big guys out there, Jaden Brown, Tatum. I saw him a few years live out here when I was watching a lot of Suns game pre COVID. And he he didn't do much for me back then. He had a lot of upside, but he wasn't there mentally. He was a bit of a get out of my way guy, kind of like Matherin was. Then he went to the Warriors. He didn't work out there. Just not a right system for him. But then Charlotte picked him up. And that's where he may have turned the corner. I remember he had a career day against us in Charlotte. He had ten threes against us he had a couple of good years there and then he's found his strength in Philly. He's been a really good contributor for them the last couple of years, and so hopefully we can take advantage of that. He can provide some much needed depth at the wing position, The Pacers also picked up Larry Nance Jr., a vet now with playoff experience. It's going to give you veteran toughness, defense, versatility. Probably a perfect guy, as we get to the latter parts of the year off the bench. He's going to provide stability and and some good key minutes to give some starters some rest. And then I'm a boiler. I'm absolutely thrilled, as I think a lot of Hoosiers are, that we got Braden Smith. He'll be a fun story. And maybe even the Bloomington faithful will become to like him by the end of the year. I'm rooting for the kid. it was crazy seeing him next to McConnell Sunday during warm ups of fan jam. Everyone thinks TJ's this short little white guy, and he is. But I bet he had Braden by two inches close to it. And so you're looking, you're like, man, he's gonna have a tough time making it. But he's he's a hell of a fierce competitor. We know what he can do with the ball as far as a playmaker. And if he can't get it, meaningful minutes and the Pacers rotation. You know he's gonna fill the gym in Noblesville in the G League with the boom this year. So we'll be pulling for him. But the big thing we gotta work on, we gotta talk defense. Cause I'm not gonna sit here and act like everything's perfect. The defense sucks. It's gotta improve and it's had a bad defensive team for several seasons. And you can't win playoff basketball games giving up layups like you're playing pickup at the Y. But this year I think Rickett does have more options, starting with Big Z. Ubre's a good one. They they've got more size, length, versatility for different lineups they can throw in there. Zubacks, he's a legitimate rim protector, great rebounder compared to Miles. I'm not predicting that they're going to be, you know, the 89 Pistons, but if they can at least go from a bottom five-ish defense to league average, that might be five or ten games. So What could go wrong, right? let's be responsible here. Who's your beef? there are legitimate concerns. So first and foremost is health. how is Halliburton's Achilles? You know, if he goes, we go. That's number one. general health of of everyone, because every Pacer fan knows a basketball god sometimes they wake up and they choose violence like they did last year. You can have beautiful rotation, everybody's healthy, everybody's smiling, and then a random Tuesday night in January, and you look at the Pacers' injury report, and it just lists everybody. You know, we saw that last year, and it seemed over time the Pacers were just running urgent care. That's for every team, but it bit us in the butt big time, obviously, last year. Chemistry. We've gotta have better chemistry this year or at least establish it Halliburton hadn't played with these guys in over a year. Zubotch has only played a hundred and eighteen minutes with us. He's never played alongside Halliburton and Siakam together. That's gonna be a real adjustment, But let's let's get to the money. Cause you know some of y'all don't care about my beautiful basketball analysis. You want to know, slick, can I cash a ticket on the boys or not? So we've got the current season win number at forty four and a half. For those of you been living under a rock, that basically means Vegas has our pacers as an average to slightly above average team that should squeak into the playoffs. Well, I'm telling you right now, I'm taking 48 wins. 48. So they won nineteen last year. You add back your all NBA point guard. That's enormous. You get another development year from Walker in a defined role. You're gonna get a full Z and the Big Z. Hopefully the chemistry's there. We'll see what he does on the defensive end. And you add in Ubre, the wild card, the X Factor Plus, don't forget, you have your finals experience back behind you in that great cast of characters. from Nismith and Nimhard all the way down. And you're playing in the Eastern Conference, which frankly was wide open last year till the Knicks stole it. We don't have to go through Wimby and the Spurs. We don't have to go through SGA and the Thunder. Let them fight it out on the other side of the bracket. We have to deal with the Knicks. They are back. They are still loaded with basically what'd they lose? Robinson down low. they're back. But They had a marathon of miles put on last year in that run. They celebrated for months. You saw them everywhere. You saw them on SNL. And now the New York pressure should be off of for a little bit, at least half a season. So I would not be surprised to see them take a step back in the standings at least, and maybe lower their seed this year. I don't see them being a one seed. But you never know. That kid Brunson, he is wired differently. He may keep them motivated from day one. and get them going. Pistons won sixty games last year, concerned that they lost Tobias Harris. He was a big scoring option for them. Jalen Durin got paid in the offseason after his crazy year last year, and then they flamed out in the playoffs big time, especially Dun. that alley oop game with Cade was gone and we'll see if Cade can repeat his performance of last year. And then you got the big three that change moving parts between the Celtics, Philly, and Miami. They all look really talented on paper. They all got their new toys, but they got some serious chemistry issues You know, you got Giannis and Bam, how are they going to work together? And then you've got just a conglomerate of talent that they got to figure out in Philly between Embiid, Maxie, Brown, and LeBron now. And Who knows about the Celtics? it seems like everywhere PG goes now is not a good thing, but we'll see how he mixes with Tatum and group. Brad Stevens always seems to figure it out up there. But they've got chemistry issues. We don't. We do not have chemistry issues except for Zubac. And by all accounts, that is going well. we basically have the same finals team from two years ago just to change its center and maybe a better version at center. So my ceiling for this team, if Halliburton is generally back, Zubach fits the part, Siakam does what Siakam does, and all those moving pieces around perform. I could see a world where the Pacers get to fifty five wins and are like a two seed. I'm not saying fifty five's my prediction. I'm saying that could be the ceiling. Forty eight wins, I think that's realistic. That puts them in the playoff mix, and once you're in the playoffs, anything can happen. We've seen that from this team before. They went from everybody's cute little underdog to playing in the NBA finals on that miraculous run, which was really fun to watch. So let's make it official. Let's put it in the Hoosier Beef Vault. Indiana Pacers, 48 wins, top five seed in the Eastern Conference. No play-in game, playoff series win. And I think there's a legitimate chance they could win too. Now, am I making that prediction? No, I'm not predicting an NBA championship. It's October. But if I'm another team, I don't want to see Indiana in the playoffs. Because if Halliburton is healthy, Siakam is cooking, Big Z is controlling the paint, Walker is a rive, Ubre's an X Factor, and the shooters shoot. If our defense can just be average, That's a bad matchup for anyone in the league. That's the type of team that sends your team fishing on inside the NBA. So here's my message to the national media. You don't have to believe in the Pacers. That's fine. Rank them 11th or 12th or whatever you got them right now. Sell them as a play-in team. And I know what you're saying. We need to see what Halliburn looks like. That's cool. We will see. I'm just predicting what's about to happen. And what's about to happen. Is Tyrese Halliburton is walking through that door, back on that floor, and he's got a final tested roster around him. He's got Pascal Siakam, he's got Nimhart, Neesmith, Walker, Zubotch, Obi, McConnell, and now Ubre. And guess what? He's got a coach in Rick Carlisle, who's been doing this a very long time, and he knows how to put the pieces together. So while everybody else is staring at nineteen and sixty three last year, I'm looking at that fifty win team. That went to the finals and then went nineteen wins without their franchise point guard. And now he's back. And I'm calling it right now forty eight wins, playoffs, first round series win. This is slick. This is who's your beef. And if the Pacers prove me wrong, I'll eat the loss. But if I'm right, we're gonna have a heck of a lot of fun in the Circle City. Peace.