{"id":866168,"date":"2026-10-24T00:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/866168\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T00:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:36:22","slug":"pacers-ben-sheppard-suffers-torn-left-meniscus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/866168\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers&#8217; Ben Sheppard Suffers Torn Left Meniscus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pacers shooting guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sheppbe01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ben Sheppard<\/a> has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee, the team confirmed in its latest injury report (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pacers\/status\/2113755545869983887\" rel=\"nofollow\">via Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Ben-Sheppard-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright wp-image-495714 size-medium\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Head coach Rick Carlisle said prior to Friday\u2019s home opener vs. Dallas that Sheppard, who suffered the injury in Wednesday\u2019s win over New Orleans, will be sidelined \u201ca little bit,\u201d but a definitive return timeline has not yet been established, per Tony East of Forbes and Circle City Spin (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TonyREast\/status\/2113742326078074922\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Carlisle tentatively said Sheppard could be out \u201ca few weeks,\u201d East adds.<\/p>\n<p>The 26th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Sheppard has been a rotation player for Indiana over the course of his first three NBA seasons, which included a trip to the Eastern Conference finals as a rookie in 2024 and an NBA Finals appearance in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In 65 games last season, Sheppard averaged 7.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 21.4 minutes per contest. The 3-and-D guard\u2019s shooting slash line was .434\/.362\/.765.<\/p>\n<p>Sheppard, 25, holds career playoff averages of 4.1 RPG, 2.4 RPG and 0.7 APG in 16.5 MPG across 38 appearances, with a shooting line of .451\/.386\/.846.<\/p>\n<p>The former Belmont star was eligible for a rookie scale extension through October 19, but didn\u2019t reach a contract agreement with Indiana. Sheppard, who\u2019s earning approximately $5MM this season, will be a restricted free agent next summer if he\u2019s tendered a qualifying offer.<\/p>\n<p>While Sheppard was out Friday, wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nesmiaa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aaron Nesmith<\/a> returned to action after missing Wednesday\u2019s season opener due to a hamstring injury. He didn\u2019t take his normal spot in the starting lineup though, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkeja02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-23_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jarace Walker<\/a> opened with the team\u2019s initial group with Nesmith easing his way back into action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pacers shooting guard Ben Sheppard has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee, the team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[280,7,642,113,126,3866,643,6,114],"class_list":["post-866168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-aaron-nesmith","tag-basketball","tag-ben-sheppard","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-jarace-walker","tag-nba","tag-pacers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117493090455382012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866168","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=866168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}