2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball

The Indiana Pacers have officially played one full week of basketball.

Going into the season, expectations were pretty high, and so far, the Pacers have done a mix of meeting those expectations and completely failing them.

For starters, after back-to-back convincing wins to start the year, Indiana suffered back-to-back losses to put their current record at 2-2.

The first loss was at least close, as a controversial call led to Indiana losing to the Chicago Bulls 105-112. The second loss, however, was another story.

Indiana went into their fourth game against Boston eager for a usual close matchup.  However, without Tyrese Haliburton there to lead the way, the Pacers were crushed by a historic margin of 51 points, the largest loss in franchise history since 1977. Rest assured, this game had plenty of issues we need to discuss here.

When it comes to the Pacers, it’s hard to realistically gauge expectations for this team, with some people having them ranked among the bottom feeders of the league and others projecting them to sneak into the fourth seed and perhaps even win a playoff series.

In my opinion, the Pacers will win around 44 games and finish around the sixth seed, skipping the Play-In for the playoffs. That is a long while away, though.

What matters now is analyzing the four games Indiana has played so far and looking at what we can take away from them going forward into the season. After watching every game for myself and writing down my thoughts, I came up with five takeaways, some positive and some negative, so let’s get into it.

Positive: Pacers are an exciting ball club

We had to get this one out of the way early because it goes without saying.

Whether the Pacers started 2-2, 4-0, or even 0-4, one thing would be certain, and that would be that they would still be a fun team to watch. It really makes sense when you look at it, as the Pacers have the perfect combination of young, athletic players and sturdy, reliable veterans to make an extremely fun basketball team.

This was evident before the season even started, as the Pacers youngsters were making exciting plays all the way back in Summer League before the whole team was even ready.

It has been mostly the same for the regular season, as the additions of Obi Toppin and Bruce Brown have added some extra athleticism and hustle to the team to go along with the elite playmaking and scoring ability of Tyrese Haliburton, the raw athleticism of Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner, and the hustle of guys like TJ McConnell off the bench.

In addition, Jarace Walker, Indiana’s prized rookie, has shown some flashes of excitement as well despite limited playing time. All of this combines to make an extremely fun basketball team that is capable of plays like reverse putback dunks and between-the-legs dunks, courtesy of Obi Toppin.

That’s not to say that the team only has dunks to offer, as with the amount of shooters and facilitators on the team. The Indiana Pacers are also capable of playing some beautiful team basketball, as displayed by some amazing sequences early in the season.

Overall, the Pacers are currently showing why they were ranked 12th on Zach Lowe’s NBA League Pass ranking after years of being ranked near the bottom, as there is a new excitement and fire in Indiana that has not been seen since the days of Paul George and Roy Hibbert.

Negative: Rookies not playing much

This has been a huge discussion point of mine as of late, but it is so prevalent that it deserves a spot on this list as well.

Jarace Walker was traded to the Indiana Pacers on draft day 2023 after being selected with the 8th pick by the Washington Wizards. Following a promising Summer League and preseason, Walker and fellow first-round pick Ben Sheppard played six garbage time minutes in Indiana’s blowout opening night win against the Washington Wizards.

Those would be the only minutes Walker and Sheppard would see until three games later when it took a 38-point fourth-quarter deficit to get Walker some playing time in his first game in a whole week.

I understand that Rick Carlisle has a bit of a reputation for not playing rookies as much as they should play unless they are already proven (Luka Doncic), but what I do not understand is the front office trading down to get Walker, then just not playing him for two whole games.

Despite the fact that Walker did play against Boston, it still seemed like Carlisle did not want to bring him off the bench and only did so when he ran out of options. Isaiah Jackson got more minutes than Walker on Wednesday, and Jackson’s future with the team is not exactly certain.

Hopefully, as the season goes on, Walker’s talent and ability will be more evident to the point where Carlisle has no choice but to play him, but for now, there are some serious rotation changes that need to be made as the team’s lack of defense outside of Bruce Brown and Myles Turner could very easily be helped with a dynamic presence like Walker out there next to them.

Positive: Tyrese Haliburton is still the man

Pacers fans, if there’s one guy that’s never going to let you down, it’s Tyrese Haliburton.

Ever since the first time he put on a Pacers uniform, Haliburton has made fans fall in love with his play, displaying a combination of finesse and flair that has led him to be recognized as one of the best guards in the league, if not best point guard in the East.

So far this season, Haliburton has averaged 20 points, 12.3 assists (leads the league), 5.3 rebounds, and one steal in about 32 minutes of playing time, and the Pacers have needed every single second of his on the court.

Despite the team around him being more talented, Haliburton’s scoring has not taken much of a hit, with him still being the team’s highest scorer and assist man while also being the guy Rick Carlisle turns to when the team needs a boost of energy in the clutch or a shot to win the game, as he has displayed plenty of times before, including against Cleveland, showing off his trash talking skills along the way.

It is very important that every Indiana Pacers fan knows whose team this is going forward. While Bennedict Mathurin may be a rising star and Myles Turner may be the team’s best defender and longest-tenured player, this is Tyrese Haliburton’s team through and through, and he has no problem embracing it.

Negative: Over-reliance on Tyrese Haliburton

It has been stated before by many that too much of a good thing can be bad, and in the Indiana Pacers’ case, this is true with their reliance on Tyrese Haliburton.

While it goes without saying that Tyrese Haliburton is the undisputed heart and soul of the Pacers organization, the Pacers seem lost without him, as indicated by the Celtics game.

While the team was expected to lose, they were not expected to lose by as much as they did, with the end result making fans realize just how important Haliburton is to this Pacers team.

This is a topic that I have discussed before, as just last season, I compared 10 games of the Pacers with Haliburton to 10 games with him on the shelf, and the results were evidence of his importance to the team.

Despite the Pacers improving around the edges, this team still goes as far as Haliburton can take them, and without him, they would undoubtedly be the worst team in the NBA by a wide margin.

While backups TJ McConnell and Andrew Nembhard are not bad options at all in a pinch, it goes without saying that they are not Tyrese Haliburton and cannot replicate his contributions at all.

This is why I have been a strong advocate for Haliburton as the best point guard in the Eastern Conference. He seems to hold a strong case as perhaps the most crucial and impactful player for his team.

Consistently, he demonstrates his reliability in clutch moments, stepping up when the team needs him most and being the guy to do the dirty work. The recent loss to Indiana underscores a vital point: the Indiana Pacers’ success often relies on how far Tyrese Haliburton can carry them, and this dependency might pose a concern for the future.

While depending on a star player during tough times is not inherently problematic, it does raise concerns when that player becomes the sole reliable figure, with no one else stepping up to share the burden or responsibility when times get tough, as was seen in the Celtics game.

Negative: Lack of defense

This is perhaps the most glaring issue the Indiana Pacers have had so far. The team’s defense is just not there yet and oftentimes digs the Pacers into hopes they cannot take themselves out by the time the final buzzer sounds.

The Pacers’ struggles on defense are often most evident in the first quarter, as the team usually starts off slow but allows a nice opening run by their opponents, as we saw in the Wizards and Cavs game.

Despite wins in both, the Pacers made it harder for themselves than it should have been, with Tyus Jones and Danilo Gallinari having great first quarters in the first game and Caris LeVert exploding for a 22-point first quarter in the second game.

While the Pacers did outscore the Chicago Bulls in the first quarter of their matchup, they still ended up on the losing side due to laziness and half-hearted defense by the end of the game, most notably when they let Alex Caruso get a wide-open fastbreak dunk that iced the game, despite it coming before the controversial foul call on Andrew Nembhard.

These defensive issues were furthered in the next game, with the Pacers allowing a whopping 155 points from the Boston Celtics, good enough for the third-most points in a game in Celtics history. This harrowing performance from Indiana was bad enough to rank them 29th in the league in defensive rating, only trailing the Milwaukee Bucks.

While it is true that having 155 points scored on you in one of four games is going to skew the sample just a bit, that game is not an isolated case.

The Indiana Pacers also raised some eyebrows by allowing the lottery-bound Wizards to score 120 points on them on opening night, despite scoring 143 themselves, and their defensive ways caught up to them in the final minutes of the Bulls game, letting Nikola Vucevic have his way in the paint and even letting DeMar DeRozan break out of his dry spell with some clutch buckets.

Perhaps playing your lottery pick, who is known for his defense and hustle, can help with these issues, and perhaps not. All I know is that it certainly wouldn’t hurt.