"It's become more important to have more good players than be top-heavy" - Carlisle thinks the NBA has entered into a new era

“It’s become more important to have more good players than be top-heavy” – Carlisle thinks the NBA has entered into a new era originally appeared on Basketball Network.

The Indiana Pacers may not have won the 2025 NBA championship after coming up short in Game 7, but Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle says that since the Finals, many random people have been coming up to him and praising his Indy squad for nearly toppling a 68-win OKC Thunder team that was heavily-favored to win it all last season.

According to Carlisle, a significant portion of their success can be attributed to their playing style, which maximized depth and relentless effort to outplay their opponents.

“We play a lot of guys. And this is a way for us to engage a lot of guys, try to keep our minutes reasonable and try to get in the legs of the opponent. It’s no secret. But that’s a big part of the approach. It’s difficult. I mean, this is a hard style to play. It’s a beautiful style to play,” said Carisle.

The NBA is a different league today

Indiana did not have a player who played more than 33.6 minutes per game, and had six who averaged at least 25 minutes per contest and 12 with at least 15 minutes of game time per night. Everyone on that dozen scored at least 5.3 points, including seven who had a double-digit scoring average during the 20224-25 campaign.

The Pacers also had 11 players with at least 1.0 defensive win shares, the same number as the Thunder. In contrast, the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves, who made the Conference Finals, only had eight each.

Superstar guard Tyrese Haliburton only had a usage rate of 21.6 percent while Pascal Siakam, who led the Pacers in that statistical category at 24.2%, ranked outside the Top 50 in the entire NBA. Carlisle says all of these are part of a new era.

“The NBA game has now become a play-hard league,” added Carlise. “It’s not just being top-heavy with stars. Roster construction is changing. It’s become more important to have more good players than be top-heavy with two or three great players that get all the touches.”

End of the super team era

Interestingly, this was also what Carlisle’s former starting center, Myles Turner, said about the NBA after they advanced to the 2025 NBA Finals. Turner, who has signed a free agent deal with the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this summer, said that the Pacers and Thunder playing in the NBA Finals is proof that the super team era is officially over.

“I think it’s a new blueprint for the league, man. I think the years of the superteams and stacking is not as effective as it once was. Since I’ve been in the league, the NBA has been trendy. It just shifts, but the new trend now is kind of what we’re doing. OKC does the same thing: Young guys get out and run and defend,” said Turner.

Turner may be gone, but the Pacers still have Tony Bradley, who could be the next man up for Indiana. They also added Jay Huff, who shot 40 percent from 3-point distance last season. Again, these aren’t big names. However, they have the skills needed to play the role. And as Carlisle said, it’s no longer about superstars.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.

“It’s become more important to have more good players than be top-heavy” – Carlisle thinks the NBA has entered into a new era

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