Indiana Pacers Can Look at WNBA Team as Bad Example For How to Run a ‘Experimental’ Season originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The 2025-26 NBA season will likely be an experimental one for the Indiana Pacers. Myles Turner is gone, replaced by Jay Huff in what is likely a stopgap solution, and superstar point guard Tyrese Haliburton will miss all season with injury.

Advertisement

Head coach Rick Carlisle has confirmed that Bennedict Mathurin will be his day one starter at shooting guard and Andrew Nembhard will be the primary facilitator, with TJ McConnell playing a sizeable role off the bench once again.

For Carlisle to see how not to run an “experimental” season, he needs to look no further than the WNBA, where the Dallas Wings are showcasing how to be consistently inconsistent.

The Wings, much like the Pacers’ sister team, the Indiana Fever, are built around a young, highly-touted guard. Paige Bueckers is a superstar in the making and is expected to lead Dallas to long-term success, although the Wings’ 8-23 lineup doesn’t inspire a lot of faith moving forward.

Advertisement

While Carlisle seems happily committed to a starting five of Nembhard, Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, Pascal Siakam, and Huff, with McConnell, Obi Toppin, Tony Bradley, and Johnny Furphy coming off the bench, he likely will tinker with his rotations.

However, the starting five seems to be set firmly in place.

The same can’t be said for the Dallas Wings. With Bueckers running the show, one would think that Dallas would want to show her a degree of consistency. Instead, head coach Chris Koclanes has used 12 different starting lineups in only 31 games.

Advertisement

His most-used lineup has five losses and six wins, and yet, for some puzzling reason, he refuses to play true centers like Luisa Geiselsoder or Li Yueru for significant minutes, although he has cited a lack of rebounding for their lackluster season so far.

Carlisle, it seems, won’t be eager to switch his starting lineup too much, even if they struggle. With the Wings changing their lineup once every 2.5 games, Carlisle’s Pacers did so every 5.9 games, on average.

Of course, Carlisle is a lot more experienced than Koclanes and likely knows not to mess with the lineups just because they drop a game or two, and perhaps the first-year WNBA coach could take a lesson from an NBA legend.

Follow Jonah Kubicek on Substack or Twitter for more NBA and WNBA articles and analysis.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 10, 2025, where it first appeared.