Indiana Pacers 2024 NBA offseason preview: There is plenty to build on with a healthy Tyrese Haliburton

2023-24 season: 47-35

Highlight of the season: Remember that time, before the Tyrese Haliburton injury and before the Buddy Hield trade? Back when the Pacers had the best offense in the league, and Haliburton was averaging almost 27 points and 12 assists? Definitely that time.

How it ended

With less enthusiasm than expected. The Pacers couldn’t stay healthy and ran into the best team in the East, the Boston Celtics. Despite the midseason acquisition of Pascal Siakam, the Pacers lost a ton of floor spacing when they moved Hield to Philadelphia, and never really got around to solving it.

Haliburton, who dominated during the first half of the season, suffered lingering back and hamstring injuries, and his production dropped in the second half of the year, with only sporadic All-Star-caliber moments sprinkled throughout for the rest of the season.

As a general rule, when a team’s best player goes down, it’s tough to be overly critical of said team’s performance. It’s additionally difficult when a team’s best player is the point guard, and thus the primary decision-maker. The Pacers leaned into offense before the season and didn’t make the wrong call by doing so. They just caught the injury bug (Bennedict Mathurin missed the entire playoffs due to shoulder surgery) and lost too much talent.

As such, the Pacers are likely to run this thing back next year, optimistic that they won’t find themselves in a similar situation. After all, there’s a lot of encouragement in seeing a team field a healthy Haliburton, Siakam with a full training camp under his belt and the return of Mathurin, who can provide a solid scoring punch either off the bench or as a starter.

That’s not to say they’re on Easy Street. Indiana was a dreadful defensive team and one of the worst rebounding units in the NBA as well. While Myles Turner had another quality season in terms of production, the 28-year-old remains an inconsistent rebounder, which is a problem when just two other players on the roster (Siakam and Jalen Smith) pulled down more than five per game.

The biggest challenge for the Pacers this summer won’t be to just fill…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/indiana-pacers-2024-nba-offseason-preview-there-is-plenty-to-build-on-with-a-healthy-tyrese-haliburton-144451673.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-05-28 14:44:51

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.