Indiana Pacers Ran It Back on Purpose, and Now It All Rides on Tyrese Haliburton

A Pacers front office source put the whole summer in one sentence to Spotrac's Keith Smith this week: Indiana was always going to run it back. After a 19-63 season that was the worst in franchise history, that sounds like denial until you remember why it happened. The Indiana Pacers lost Tyrese Haliburton to a ruptured Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 Finals and never replaced him, because there is nothing on the market that replaces him. So the plan was never a teardown. The plan was to survive a year, keep the core intact, and get their point guard back. As of the last week of July, the plan looks like it is working, with one very large asterisk attached to a tendon.

Indiana Pacers news: the week that was

General manager Chad Buchanan spoke at length on July 23 and covered most of the open questions. He shut the door on the sport's biggest free agent with unusual directness, saying that if you are waiting for the LeBron-to-Indiana announcement, "it's not coming." Indiana made a pitch. James went to Philadelphia. Buchanan also explained the Kelly Oubre Jr. signing, defended taking Larry Nance Jr. over Micah Potter, and laid out a two-way situation that is more crowded than it looks.

Two days earlier, Indiana agreed to a two-way deal with Jalen Slawson after he was the best player on their Summer League roster. That leaves the Pacers with Slawson, Kobe Brown, Ethan Thompson and Taelon Peter in the mix for three two-way slots, with second-round pick Braden Smith also expected to land in one. Buchanan acknowledged the squeeze, noting that Indiana is operating near a first-apron hard cap, which complicates what they can do with the 15th standard roster spot. On July 22 he singled out one young wing as the player he wants to develop into Indiana's version of OG Anunoby, which is the kind of comparison that tells you exactly what this roster is missing.

About that Kelly Oubre Jr. confusion

This one needs clearing up, because it was reported both ways. Oubre agreed to a two-year deal worth just under $17 million with the Indiana Pacers on July 1, per ESPN's Shams Charania, and Philadelphia-side outlets covered it as a departure from the Sixers on the same day. Some league-wide offseason roundups listed him among Philadelphia's additions, which is wrong. He is a Pacer. Indiana used mid-level money to get him.

Buchanan's reasoning was straightforward: Oubre shot a career best last season, he should get cleaner looks in Indiana's system than he did in Philadelphia, and he can defend multiple positions. The 30-year-old averaged 14.9 points and 5.4 rebounds across 178 regular season games in three years with the Sixers. Indiana's wing depth was gutted at the February trade deadline, so the fit is obvious even before you get to the shooting.

What the roster looks like now

The core is Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Ivica Zubac, with Obi Toppin, Jay Huff, Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard behind them and Oubre and Nance added this summer. Nance signed a one-year veteran minimum deal on July 9 at roughly $3.9 million, only $2.45 million of which hits Indiana's books. Buchanan said Nance actively wanted to be here: "Larry really had targeted us, wanted to be here with the Pacers." Brown came over on a two-way at around $675,000. Potter, who had put up 9.7 points a game in relief duty, was waived to make room.

The subtraction that shaped everything happened on February 5, when Indiana sent Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks and a second to the Clippers for Zubac and Kobe Brown. Zubac is a legitimate starting center and Indiana had a hole there. The cost was steep, and it got steeper in May.

The draft Indiana did not get to have, and who stood out in Vegas

That 2026 first-round pick sent to Los Angeles carried protections covering the top four and picks 10 through 30. Only a selection landing between five and nine would convey. Indiana finished with the second-worst record in the league, drew fifth in the May 10 lottery, and watched the pick go to the Clippers, who used it on Illinois guard Keaton Wagler. A 2029 unprotected first went out in that same deal. Losing a top-five pick in a draft you are told is a good one is the price of a midseason win-now trade made by a team that then lost 63 games.

What Indiana did get was Braden Smith, the Purdue guard and Westfield native, at No. 38, acquired by sending Kam Jones and future pick swaps to Chicago. The Pacers also added four undrafted players on Exhibit 10 deals in the hours after the draft: Rienk Mast, Kowacie Reeves Jr., Keba Keita and Tamin Lipsey.

Indiana went 2-3 in Las Vegas, and the story was not the draft pick. Slawson averaged better than 20 points, finishing with 104 points on 45 percent shooting across five games while playing with real force at both ends, though he shot only 29 percent from three. Mast was the surprise, putting up 61 points on nearly 48 percent shooting and showing offensive feel that a Nebraska big man was not supposed to have. Yuki Kawamura averaged close to five assists and was consistently fun, with the obvious defensive problems that come with being 5-foot-7.

Smith struggled to score, shooting 26 percent from the field, but he averaged seven assists a night and passed like the player Indiana drafted. In the July 15 loss to Minnesota, 114-98, he had eight points, eight assists and six rebounds while Slawson went for 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists and four blocks with six turnovers. Smith is a long-term project, and that is fine at pick 38.

Haliburton watch

• Chris Haynes reported on July 13 that Indiana is extremely hopeful Haliburton is available for the 2026-27 opener. He has progressed from a walking boot to full five-on-five scrimmages.
• He added roughly 30 pounds during the rehab, going from about 180 on the last game day of 2025 to around 210, and has said he wants to keep some of it to play more physically and get to the free throw line more often.
• He also dealt with a bout of shingles on top of the Achilles work, which is not a normal item on an NBA injury report.
• Aaron Nesmith, asked in mid-July about expectations, went with "I'll see you in The Finals." Read that however you like.

Cap sheet, roster battles and what is next

The financial picture is the constraint on everything. Nance over Potter pushed Indiana closer to the luxury tax, and this is an ownership group that has not paid the tax in more than two decades, so a salary-shedding trade before the season is realistic. The hard cap limits the tools available for the last roster spot. The backup center job is genuinely open, with Buchanan calling it "an open competition" between Huff, Nance and Toppin in small-ball looks. Walker and Sheppard both hit restricted free agency next summer and now have Oubre in front of them, which makes their minutes this season a real financial question rather than a developmental one.

Training camp opens in late September and the 2026-27 season tips in October. Every bit of Indiana Pacers news between now and then is a subplot to the same question, which is whether Haliburton walks into camp cleared and looking like himself. If he does, a team that returns four starters, adds a real center for a full season and gets its franchise guard back is not a 19-win team or anything close to it. If he does not, Indiana has spent a year and two first-round picks waiting on an answer it still does not have.