“When you’re out for as long as [Tyrese] Haliburton was out, people do tend to forget about you. Now that he’s coming back, he has to make them remember what he was back in the day and get back to that level.”
Byron Scott has one of the most interesting career arcs of any player turned coach. He was a key role player on the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers and a part of the trade return for All-Star Stormin' Norm Nixon. After sharing the court with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he continued to partner with all-time great players, coaching LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Kobe Bryant
Scott knows how teams are built around stars, especially playmakers. He also knows how the loss of a central star can spell disaster for a team built around them. When Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles, Scott was on the bench, wondering how the team could survive. A year later, the team saw Bryant return, with Scott still worrying about the ecosystem the star would return to.
Now, Tyrese Haliburton is working to do the same, and Scott has thoughts.
“It usually takes a little time. When you miss a whole year, it takes basketball to get you back into basketball shape. A lot of people can run and do all this stuff off the court, but it’s a different shape when you’re on the court. I think it’s going to take him some time to get readjusted to that.
The Pacers could challenge for the Eastern crown
In each of Scott's three championship runs as a player, the Lakers had the first overall seed in the conference. Home court advantage is so vital to have in the playoffs, when every little detail can become a deciding factor.
The Indiana Pacers are not expected to challenge for this top seed, but they could and should be expected to make some noise after a gap year.
“I think Indiana is one of those teams that can be a sleeper in the Eastern Conference. But when you look at the Eastern Conference – the Knicks, Detroit, you look at Philly and what they’ve done, Cleveland, Boston, don’t count them out either – the [Eastern] Conference has gotten so much better from top to bottom.
Still, this is not the East of the past, and just getting into the playoffs may be a challenge in and of itself. Between the Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, champion New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Toronto Raptors, along with former play-in options like the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and maybe even the Chicago Bulls, the Pacers will be fighting for one of eight spots in an 11-team race.
“It’s not like it used to be about five years ago when the top four teams had winning records and the next four that made the playoffs had losing records. Now the top eight are all good teams that can win damn near 50 games or more. The Eastern Conference has gotten so much better, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it develops over there.”
Indiana has all the talent in the world to return the top of the league, but as Scott puts it, time makes people forget about you.
It's time for Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers to remind the NBA world who they are.
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