Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Alex Golden to discuss Indiana’s outlook for the coming season without its star point guard and how Pacers fans can remain optimistic. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
You look at the Pacers offseason, not a lot of big names that are going to impact the rotation.
Necessarily, but those losses with Miles Turner are the most shocking now, with Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman as likely centers, Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Naismith, Obotop, a lot of familiar names, but not having Tyrese Halliburton here.
Alex, uh, boy.
It just doesn’t feel quite the same after the team was in game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Tell me, like, what’s the temperature of Pacers fans right now when they look at the team today, minus Halliburton?
I think that they’re still excited.
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I, I obviously coming off a high from being in game 7, and every Pacer fan will tell you if Halliburton hadn’t gotten hurt, they think they actually won the championship against OKC.
And so there’s obviously a big debate on that.
I mean, OKC was pretty spectacular all season long, but it was a really good NBA Finals and the Pacers were just having that magical run.
Obviously, no Halliburton means opportunity here for Andrew Nembhard, and I think that’s what we want to see is just can he kind of carry that load?
You know, Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson, James Wiseman, all three are really competing for that center spot with the loss of Miles Turner.
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So, a lot of question marks here for the Pacers because they’ve got some big holes to fill with two starters from a team that made it to the NBA Finals not returning, but I think losing Halliburton obviously is a much bigger loss than Miles Turner.
I think that if Halliburton were healthy, you could probably get away with having a different center and still make it pretty far.
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, as you said up top, this is going to be a year of opportunity for Andrew Nembhard, Ben Mathurin, Ben Sheppard, like, where do these touches get distributed?
Aaron Naismith, maybe we see a little bit more from him as well, just all the opportunity that’s going to come.
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With Halliburton not being the guy running the show here, and Nembhard is going to be the number one guy, we’re going to see a lot of opportunity for.
And with the Pacers, I think that’s what’s interesting because, of course, this team isn’t going to have finals expectations without Tyrese, that goes without saying, but I do feel like it’s right to still feel excitement for the season, as you’re saying Pacers fans are feeling right now, because maybe there ends up being blessings in disguise here for Andrew Nembhard if he’s able to take a leap of faith with all the opportunity that’s going to come.