{"id":860738,"date":"2026-10-16T22:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860738\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T22:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T22:57:18","slug":"pacers-notes-haliburton-zubac-nesmith-mcconnell-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860738\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Zubac, Nesmith, McConnell, Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pacers are banking on the return of star point guard Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> and the addition of starting center Ivica Zubac<\/a> to help them return to contention, Jamal Collier writes in a feature story for ESPN.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indiana advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in 2024 and led in the first quarter of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals before Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon. The Pacers lost that championship-deciding game to Oklahoma City, then were ravaged by injuries last season while Haliburton recovered from his own serious ailment, ultimately winning just 19 games, the fewest in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Oddsmakers are somewhat lukewarm on the Pacers entering 2026\/27 \u2014 at the beginning of October, they were projected to win<\/a> 44.5 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can take [our preseason rankings] as disrespect, but at the same time, you got to understand we put ourselves in that position by the way we played last year,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cThere\u2019s standards that we didn\u2019t meet that we got to get back to. And there\u2019s no secret that there was a drop-off last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Indiana is used to being counted out, and Haliburton says the team\u2019s championship ambitions have \u201cnever wavered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding that magic again, that\u2019s no guarantee,\u201d general manager Chad Buchanan told ESPN. \u201cBut our core guys believe in each other. They feel like people have written them off already. That\u2019s what\u2019s happened those two years we made runs \u2014 people just kind of discarded us. That\u2019s what fuels them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Pacers:<\/p>\n

Indiana recognizes it will take some time for Haliburton and Zubac to develop their pick-and-roll chemistry, but the team is confident head coach Rick Carlisle will find solutions if the duo runs into any issues. \u201cWe have a great coach who figures things out,\u201d Buchanan told ESPN. \u201cThat\u2019s a strength of his. If things aren\u2019t going well, and we aren\u2019t playing well \u2014 or [Zubac\u2019s] not fitting well, he adapts.\u201d
\nWhile Aaron Nesmith<\/a> was able to return to practice on Thursday after suffering a hamstring injury during the Pacers\u2019 second preseason contest and appears likely to suit up next week in the regular season opener, the status of T.J. McConnell<\/a> is less certain, per Zion Brown of The Indianapolis Star<\/a> (subscriber link). The veteran guard been sidelined for the entire preseason due to an undisclosed injury, and Carlisle said \u201cI hope so\u201d when asked whether McConnell would be active for the October 21 contest vs. New Orleans.
\nThe Noblesville Boom \u2014 the Pacers\u2019 NBA G League affiliate \u2014 has announced its coaching staff<\/a> for the 2026\/27 season. Former Boom assistant Bryce Taylor is the team\u2019s new head coach, and he\u2019ll joined by assistants Herman Mandole, Connor McCaffery and Kelly Faris as well as second-year coaching associate Christian Siakam,\u00a0the older brother of star forward Pascal Siakam<\/a>.
\nIn case you missed it, 2023 first-round picks Jarace Walker<\/a> and Ben Sheppard<\/a> are eligible for rookie scale extensions through Oct. 19. More details can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pacers are banking on the return of star point guard Tyrese Haliburton and the addition of starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[280,7,92258,101115,2621,101116,113,126,3866,532,101117,6,114,3886,278],"class_list":["post-860738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-aaron-nesmith","tag-basketball","tag-bryce-taylor","tag-christian-siakam","tag-connor-mccaffery","tag-herman-mandole","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-kelly-faris","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-t-j-mcconnell","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117453064987992728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860738","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=860738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}