Back in September, one of the most interesting questions on the board was what the Pacers had in store as an encore to build on their breakneck, breakthrough 2023-24 season. Twenty-five games into the new campaign, though, the answer appeared to be, “Um, not much.”
The Pacers sat a dismal 10-15, about as close to last place in the East as they were to the top four. The league-leading offense that had carried Rick Carlisle’s club all the way to the Eastern Conference finals had plummeted near the bottom third of the NBA; the permissive defense that offense had to carry like a grudge sunk even further, a bottom-five anchor.