{"id":260445,"date":"2025-08-31T22:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/260445\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:48:10","slug":"brian-windhorst-names-the-erratic-indiana-pacers-player-to-watch-next-season-in-tyrese-haliburtons-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/260445\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Windhorst names the ‘erratic’ Indiana Pacers player to watch next season in Tyrese Haliburton’s absence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Indiana Pacers will be an interesting team to watch in the 2025\/26 NBA season for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

The Pacers made the Finals last season<\/a> thanks to a magical playoff run led by superstar Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Haliburton ruptured his Achilles tendon in Game 7<\/a> and will spend an entire year on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

While the Pacers<\/a> no longer have title aspirations, they will remain optimistic about making the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Head coach Rick Carlisle<\/a> will be relying on significant contributions from several role players for that to happen.<\/p>\n

\"2025Photo by Maddie Meyer\/Getty ImagesBrian Windhorst names Indiana Pacers player to watch<\/p>\n

Windhorst assessed the Indiana Pacers\u2019 situation heading into next season on The Hoop Collective podcast.<\/p>\n

Expectations are low without Haliburton<\/a>, but the Pacers can still make some noise in the Eastern Conference if certain players step up.<\/p>\n

Windhorst named Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> as the Indiana player to look out for after an up-and-down 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big name would be Bennedict Mathurin,\u201d he said. \u201cMathurin is interesting for two reasons. Mathurin is extension eligible, and it\u2019s unclear how much more the Pacers are going to invest in this roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly drew a line in the sand on Myles Turner, and that sent a message. Of course, because they didn\u2019t spend money on re-signing Myles Turner, in theory, they could have money to extend Bennedict Mathurin.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, Rick Carlisle has come out and said, \u2018Bennedict Mathurin will be in the starting lineup.\u2019 He will get this big boost, and so, if he has a big step forward\u2026 He may even want to wait to sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may have a breakout year. He\u2019s a player who has been a bit erratic. We saw in the Finals last year that he had a big game in [the Finals].\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennedict Mathurin must earn head coach Rick Carlisle\u2019s trust<\/p>\n

Windhorst\u2019s co-host, Tim McMahon, then pointed out that Mathurin had a limited role in the NBA Finals<\/a> against the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

Despite scoring 27 points in Game 3, Mathurin barely played in Game 4, so it\u2019s hard to believe that Carlisle actually views him as a key player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw was Rick Carlisle didn\u2019t fully trust him because he had the huge game in Game 3 when he was 9-12 from the floor and scored 27 in 23 minutes,\u201d McMahon explained. \u201cHe only played 14 minutes in the next game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, listen, actions over words. Rick can say he trusts him all he wants, but the guy had a huge game and was a massive factor in a Finals win that gave them the series lead and regained home court advantage, and then, in the very next game, he didn\u2019t play a whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Pacers will be an interesting team to watch in the 2025\/26 NBA season for obvious reasons.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,363,2949,1409,113,126,3866,6,114,1714],"class_list":{"0":"post-260445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","10":"tag-brian-windhorst","11":"tag-eastern-conference","12":"tag-indiana","13":"tag-indiana-pacers","14":"tag-indianapacers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-pacers","17":"tag-rick-carlisle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115125820034611753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}