When the Indiana Pacers entered this season, they knew that of all the potential pitfalls they could face this season only one would be completely insurmountable. While Tyrese Haliburton's return was its own big storyline, and the questions of the fit of Ivica Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr. alongside the pre-existing roster still existed, the only thing that would truly doom a season would be the return of bad injury luck.
Unfortunately for Indiana, that's exactly what has happened. The Pacers are dealing with a litany of injuries, leaving the roster with only seven active players for Monday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Tyrese Haliburton has a hamstring injury, as does backup point guard TJ McConnell, who still hasn't played a game this season. Aaron Nesmith was also dealing with a hamstring to start the season and is being kept out for injury management. Andrew Nembhard has some sort of cervical injury, which affects the jaw and upper spine. Ivica Zubac has missed the last few games with an ankle injury, and Pascal Siakam is being held out for rest on the second night of a back-to-back.
That is this entire roster's top six players, but even fringe players like Ben Sheppard and Johnny Furphy are missing considerable time with pre-existing knee injuries (meniscus and ACL surgeries, respectively).
Most recently, Obi Toppin has been added to the ever-lengthening injury report with a lumbar sprain and Larry Nance Jr. is apparently sick.
Just like that, in only seven games, the Pacers are back to their gap-year roster of Quenton Jackson, Jay Huff, and a handful of castoffs. You know you're in a bad spot when your seventh man is suddenly your best remaining player.
This was always what the Pacers needed to avoid, but no one's depth is good enough to survive this.
Quite simply, there's not much to say outside of that this sucks.
Hoisted by their own Pace-tard
Going into the season, Pacers fans insisted that their depth was finally good enough to warrant a return to championship contention. If that gap year proved anything, it was that you can never have enough players, considering how bad injuries can get in the NBA.
Basketball is a physically grueling sport. With how overspecialized bodies have gotten to deal with playing year-round from ages 7-8 through AAU programs and college camps, bodies are bound to break down.
The Pacers tried their best to bring in good rotational pieces with the minimal amount of resources they had available to them. However, what they couldn't have possibly predicted was that their terrible injury luck from the year prior would somehow carry over to a roster that had not had many injury issues before their 2024-25 Finals run.
There's truly not much the Pacers can do here outside of waiting. They do not have access to a Disabled Player Exception, as none of their players are out for the rest of the season. Equally, none of their two-way players outside of Jalen Slawson are a particularly good fit for what the team is missing right now.
This is about as bad as the first seven games of a season could have gone. The only real silver lining right now is that it can't get any worse.
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