5 things the Indiana Pacers should wish for this holiday season
By Joe Lyon
Gift No. 4: Continued health of star players.
One thing that has continuously hurt the Indiana Pacers in the last few years has been injuries. Going back to Paul George with the national team, star players for the Pacers have had a continuous string of injuries. Victor Oladipo couldn’t stay healthy. TJ Warren failed to return from injury after his big performances in the bubble. Malcolm Brogdon, as valuable as he was, could stay healthy for months at a time.
Some of this is on the Pacers themselves. They have taken risks on injury-prone players such as Malcolm Brogdon with the hope that the injury bug wouldn’t continue after the move to Indiana. Yet time and time again, these risks failed to pay off as major pieces of the team failed to make it onto the court.
The Pacers should be asking for continued health on their holiday wish list. Many of the players on the team don’t have a history of injury like previous versions of the team, but some of that is that they are so young. Duarte is showing a trend of injury early in his career, but many others such as Tyrese Haliburton and Mathurin have seemed durable to date.
If the Pacers can stay relatively healthy consistently, that will help with the growth of the young talent and allow management to determine how far this team can truly climb.