The Indiana Pacers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2023, but fans shouldn't expect that to become a trend. And just before their regular season finale on Sunday, star guard Tyrese Haliburton made sure fans "don't get used to" them not playing postseason basketball (h/t Alex Golden of SI.com).
“Don’t get used to the Pacers not playing in April, May, and June. Go Pacers!” Haliburton said.
Haliburton missed the entire 2025-26 season due to an Achilles tear, and the Pacers clearly felt his absence. They finished with a franchise-worst 19-63 (only the Washington Wizards finished with a worse record this season), and they were a mess on both sides of the ball for most of the season.
However, the future is still bright in Indiana. And as Haliburton said, fans shouldn't expect the team to miss the playoffs too often for the foreseeable future.
The Pacers should be title contenders again as soon as next season
Not only will the Pacers get their star guard back on the court next season, but they will get Ivica Zubac back, all of their other top guys will revert to the roles they had when they made it to the finals last year, and they may even have an AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, or Caleb Wilson on the team to really boost their odds.
It was easy for some to forget this season, but Indiana is still the reigning Eastern Conference champions, and there are reasons to believe the team can get right back to that spot next season.
The Pacers have an incredible roster, an elite front office and coaching staff, and they play in a wide-open conference that mostly didn't take advantage of their one-year hiatus from contention. Additionally, they are still very young and should only be getting better from here on out.
Ever since Game 7 of last year's finals, things haven't been great for the Pacers. Obviously, Haliburton's injury was the toughest blow. But even beyond that, Myles Turner joined the Milwaukee Bucks as a free agent, their center-by-committee to begin the season was mostly a failure, and they would just a little over twice as many games as the Indianapolis Colts did in that span.
With the 2025-26 season officially wrapped up, the Pacers can now shift their focus to the offseason and beyond. And fortunately for them, it looks like brighter days are officially ahead of them.
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