Biggest Questions for Next Season with Derek Kramer of iPacers

Indiana’s Open Court: How a Season of Uncertainty Became a Field of Opportunity

The summer left the Indiana Pacers in an odd, productive kind of suspense. The franchise lost a veteran anchor and the team’s emergent floor general will begin the year on the sideline, but what could have read like a disaster has instead become a catalogue of possibilities: minutes are available, roles are mutable, and a coaching staff led by a seasoned tactician can recast identity as much as it selects lineups. Between contract chess, roster gambits, and a cluster of young wings and centers trying to define themselves, the club faces an uncomfortable but clarifying question — which players will seize the moment?

Minutes, Mandates, and the Missing Conductor

The most immediate tension is structural. Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles recovery removes the team’s primary playmaking engine, leaving a vacuum in usage and offensive rhythm. How a club compensates for the loss of its chief ball-mover says as much about organizational philosophy as it does about personnel. Indianapolis can attempt to replicate Halliburton’s habits: movement, reads, and pace — or it can lean into the strengths of those now tasked with more possessions. Both paths carry risk.

Default answers exist. Andrew Nembhard is the natural ball-handler, and his experience beside Haliburton makes him the logical interim conductor. Still, the coaching staff must decide how much freedom to grant a suite of wings that includes Ben Mathurin, Jalen Smith-adjacent comparisons, and role players like Aaron Nesmith. The freedom to create can accelerate growth, but it can also destabilize defensive assignments and collective spacing.

Ben Mathurin: Breakout Candidate or Trade Asset?

Few narratives loom larger than Ben Mathurin’s. Entering a pivotal contract year, Mathurin’s scoring flashes last season morph into a broader dilemma: do the Pacers build around his streaky offensive upside, or use him as leverage in a midseason recalibration? The conversation in Indianapolis is seldom binary. Coaches insist on fit; front office strategists weigh future cap sheets; and Mathurin himself, a player with clear confidence and a careful public persona, occupies that liminal space between possibility and impatience.

• Mathurin can lead the team in scoring if given volume and green light.
• Shifting the offense to his strengths now could complicate a seamless Halliburton return.
• The contract calculus at the deadline might make him a practical trade candidate.

Wings, Role Definitions, and the Value of Consistency

Beyond Mathurin is a cluster of wings — Jairus Walker, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard, Quentin Grimes–like hopefuls — each offering different ceilings and floors. Walker’s passing instincts and occasional shot-making create tantalizing playmaking depth, but questions about stamina and consistency remain. Sheppard offers a steady floor as a cutter and effort defender, while other perimeter pieces supply spacing, defensive versatility, or streaky shot creation. The coaching staff’s choice between a higher ceiling or a more dependable rotation will decide whether the Pacers tilt toward a wild overperformance or a steady rebuild of identity.

Center Rotation: From Miles Turner to a Committee of Types

Miles Turner’s departure didn’t merely remove a player — it erased a stylistic fulcrum. Turner’s rim protection and floor-stretching were part of the Pacers’ spine, and replacing that combination is unlikely to happen with one signing. The team will audition Isaiah Jackson, Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson, and James Wiseman in different pairings, adjusting matchups and minutes based on opponent and health. Huff brings floor spacing and modern center versatility; Jackson brings athleticism and defensive upside; Wiseman offers tantalizing potential if he stays healthy and engaged.

Expect the rotation to be context-driven: lineups assembled to maximize switchability against quicker opponents, or to maintain pick-and-roll efficiency when a primary ball-handler needs room to create. That fluidity will be less about indecision and more about adapting to the peculiar composition of the modern roster.

Salary Sheet Theory and the Aftershocks of a Free-Agent Loss

Front-office choices framed much of the summer. Turning down the cost to retain a veteran like Turner was a fiscal calculation as much as a strategic vote. Smaller contracts — the kind given to developing centers and rotation wings — enable flexibility at the trade deadline. They also force believe-it-or-not constraints in personnel decisions: can the Pacers find a veteran who marries defensive reliability with rim spacing without breaking tiered tax lines? The answer will determine whether the franchise chases a marquee midseason upgrade or leans into internal growth.

Coaching, Culture, and the Test of Identity

Chris—or rather, the new coaching voices—will have to balance creating shots for high-upside young players and maintaining a disciplined defensive posture. The team’s identity is at stake. Do they preserve a Halliburton-like motion offense in absentia, asking players to emulate tight reads and quick ball movement, or pivot toward a Mathurin-led scoring remit? Carlisle’s reputation for adaptive schemes suggests a hybrid approach: preserve core principles while bending schemes to the roster’s strengths.

What Success Looks Like Amid Ambiguity

Success need not be a clean win-loss surge. It may be visible in smaller, durable signs: a young wing establishing a starter’s reliability, the center rotation providing consistent floor spacing, or a midseason trade that adds a defensive piece without hamstringing financial flexibility. The franchise’s long-term health hinges on process outcomes — defensive cohesion, role clarity, and the emergence of at least one new primary contributor — rather than a single signature victory.

Reflective Close: A season without Tyrese Haliburton reframes the Pacers not as a team deprived, but as a laboratory for agency: which players claim identity, which contracts become negotiating tools, and whether a franchise can preserve a stylistic DNA while inviting reinvention. In that space between loss and possibility, narratives will emerge that matter more than any early record: who grows, who adapts, and which choices reveal a franchise’s future temperament.