Whether fans want to call it one or now doesn't really matter anymore: the Indiana Pacers are in for a gap year.
They will not be competitive this season, even in a best-case scenario, and they won't have many opportunities this season to see their team at full health (sans Tyrese Haliburton) as many key players have dealt with or are currently sidelined by injuries.
For a team that just made it to the NBA Finals less than a year ago, this isn't necessarily ideal. You always hope to carry this momentum into the next season and continue building on something special.
That's not the case for the Pacers right now, but that doesn't mean there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel. Just ask the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors bounced back from their gap year
No, it's not the same situation. But the Pacers can still learn a valuable lesson from the Warriors and how they navigated through their gap year.
Everybody knows about Golden State's dynasty. But as a refresher, the Warriors, mostly led by their trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, took the NBA by storm in the mid-2010s. Curry came into his own as a star player for the team and changed the game due to his exceptional skills as a perimeter threat, which led to the NBA we see today as it proved that teams can win championships while living behind the three-point line.
But it wasn't just that. The Warriors also had a tremendous mix of defense, ball movement, and depth. They were innovative and changed basketball, and they were awarded with three championships in 2015, 2017, and 2018, as well as two additional appearances in 2016 (how can anybody forget about them blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals?) and 2019.
However, in the blink of an eye, the Warriors hit rock bottom.
Thompson suffered an ACL injury in their series-clinching Game 6 NBA Finals loss in 2019, which kept him out of action until January 2022. And Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles injury in Game 5 of that series before joining the Brooklyn Nets that offseason.
All of this, combined with Curry playing just five games, led to Golden State having a gap year in 2019-20 and finishing with a 15-50 record. After five consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, the Warriors' dynasty was done. Or so people thought.
See, Golden State trusted the process (sound familiar?) and took advantage of its gap year instead of blowing it up. The team was horrendous in 2019-20, but that didn't mean they were never going to win a championship again. And after they got healthy again and re-tooled their roster beyond their "Big Three," that's exactly what happened when they defeated the Boston Celtics in six games during the 2022 NBA Finals.
Again, it's not the same exact situation, but this is a story the Pacers can somewhat relate to.
They were fresh off their two most successful seasons in years, culminating in a seven-game NBA Finals loss in 2025, before hitting rock bottom. Haliburton suffered an Achilles injury, which will sideline him for all of this season, and long-time big man Myles Turner joined the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency. And now, they are in for a brutal season.
Are Haliburton and Turner just Indiana's version of Thompson and Durant? Well, no. But the idea is still there. The Warriors bounced back from their hardships even when everybody counted them out. And the Pacers, who have built a reputation as one of the most resilient teams in the NBA, will soon have a chance to do the exact same.