Pacers point guard T.J. McConnell will be out at least a month with a hamstring strain, coach Rick Carlisle said after practice Thursday.

The veteran point guard and consummate sparkplug left in the second quarter of Tuesday’s NBA preseason game against the Timberwolves in Minnesota. McConnell averaged 9.1 points and 4.4 assists per game last season and he led the NBA in total assists off the bench with 348. He averaged 9.5 points and 4.0 assists per game off the bench and also had the most total assists of the bench of any player in the playoffs with 93.

He becomes even more important this season as the Pacers are already missing All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, out for the season with an Achilles tendon tear, so having him out for the season puts the Pacers in a serious bind.

“He’s going to be out for a while,” Carlisle said. “I think it’s safe to say he’ll be out at least a month. It’s Oct. 9. Maybe on Nov. 9 we can talk about it again. It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s going to take some time.”

Even if McConnell returns on exactly Nov. 9 when the Pacers have a road game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, he will miss the season’s first nine games. That Warriors game is the second in a four-game western road trip that also includes games at Denver, Utah and Phoenix.

The Pacers also released veteran point guard Delon Wright after he suffered a head injury in Tuesday’s game and signed veteran point guard Cam Payne. Wright collided with Minnesota’s Jaylin Clark in the first half of the Pacers’ overtime win over the Timberwolves.

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The 31-year-old Payne averaged 6.9 points and 2.8 assists with the Knicks last season and is averaging 7.8 points and 3.2 assists over his 10-year career. The 6-3, 183-pound left-hander was a first-round pick out of Murray State in 2015 and has played for the Thunder, Bulls, Cavaliers, Suns, Bucks, 76ers and Knicks. He averaged 8.4 points and 3.6 assists per game for the Suns team that reached the NBA Finals in 2021 before losing to the Bucks. He has appeared in 477 NBA games and started 71.

Payne presumably moves into the backup point guard role behind starter Andrew Nembhard, who is moving from his starting role last season at shooting guard to helm the offense. Rookie Kam Jones, who started at point guard at Marquette last season, will also miss most of preseason camp with a back injury. The next players below Payne on the depth chart are two-way contract guards.

“Quenton Jackson, RayJ Dennis, we’ve got four guys right now still that play the position,” Carlisle said. “That’s where we are right now. Knock on wood, we always want to stay as healthy as we can. But when difficult things happen, we have to focus on what we have, not what we don’t have. So these are the guys we have. That’s how we’re moving forward right now.”

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