It has been a long summer for Indiana Pacers fans.
It's been a summer filled with rumors of Tyrese Haliburton's return. It's been a summer of thought pieces on the Ivica Zubac trade to Indiana and the loss of the fifth overall pick. It's been a summer in which nearly every single other team in the Eastern Conference got better.
Understandably, there would be plenty of reasons for Pacers fans to freak out. There have been so many impediments in the past 12 months to them seeing their team win a championship. Still, that's the final goal, and that's what the fans are hoping for.
However, while the team itself can eventually aim for that lofty goal, they will, in their own words, have to become a good team before they become a great team once again.
Nearly every single Pacers player or coach who spoke focused on that point, that it takes time to turn the ship around.
Everyone from Rick Carlisle to Pascal Siakam to Kelly Oubre Jr. to Tyrese Haliburton hit on the same point. It's clear that they are either reciting marching orders from HR or are all on the same page.
Indiana won 19 games last year. They were clearly not a good team. So, before they can expect a 60-win goal or a playoff run like the one they had as a fourth seed in 2024-25, they must figure out what their new rules are and how to succeed in them.
Another burden on Haliburton
This is probably harder for Haliburton than for anyone else.
The entire team will be simultaneously depending on him to reinstate their old system, while also having gotten used to playing without him entirely.
A gap year is not an easy thing. It's why teams fail to pull them off.
Teams get used to their new roles, struggling to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Roles increase, stats get inflated, and players don't want that to go away. Make no mistake, it's far easier to ascend to being a winning team from zero than it is to return to it with the same foundation, just rebuilt.
Andrew Nembhard had the ball more. Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac were allowed to play more slowly.
Even something as simple as the rebounding and outlet passing that the Pacers were defined by has been altered.
Now these are professional players, and there is no doubt that they can figure it out once again. But it does remain that settling back into a rhythm is far harder than keeping that rhythm going in the first place.
Some may argue this is like riding a bike, swimming, or driving a car – that these are bits of muscle memory that have been ingrained – and, as such, can be duplicated with little to no extra effort. But it's not that easy.
The catchphrases the Pacers used throughout all of Monday's press conferences could be thrown away as just that, as PR speak, as slop for engagement accounts, but it does feel like that fit question is one that keeps popping up.
How the Pacers answer it will define not just their season, but this entire era of Indiana basketball.
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