Pacers Predicted to Drastically Change NBA Landscape

The Indiana Pacers, despite being a small-market franchise, are completely changing how teams build their rosters, setting the new standard for roster building.

The NBA is a copycat league; teams follow whatever trends and strategies the NBA Finals organizations used to build their roster.

This season, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Pacers are the standard for the rest of the league, successfully building a roster that has quality depth throughout.

Both teams built around their young stars, adding complementary players and having them be the engine of the team. The vast majority of the rosters were home-grown, well-scouted draft picks.

Then, the front office would look around for veterans who added meaningful experience and fit the play style.

The rosters also emphasize a specific skill set, which Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report labeled as the focus of all 30 NBA teams.

"Any potential contender in 2025-26 has to put itself together with an eye toward beating those two teams—or at least competing with them on somewhat equal footing," Hughes wrote in an article on Bleacher Report.

"That'll mean looking for speed, offensive dynamism, high-pressure defense and the depth to make all that calorie-burning sustainable. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the 2025-26 offseason will be partly defined by teams trying to copy what worked for OKC and Indy."

In the past decade of basketball, teams were obsessed with acquiring star players, trying to form a "Big Three" that sees three different superstars come together to play on a team with replacement level players.

The Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, and Los Angeles Lakers all went through teams built around a pair or trio of stars, giving up several promising young players and draft picks to add top-tier talent and filling out the rest of the roster on the margins.

The success of the final two teams left in the playoff race is set to radically shift the landscape of the NBA, and which kind of players targeted in the roster-building phase.

More Pacers news:

Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton Drops Epic Quote After NBA Finals Game Winner

Pacers on Track for Special Postseason Run With Thunder Victory

Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton is Having a Better Postseason Than Prime LeBron James

Pacers' Shocking Turnaround by the Numbers Proves They Can Win It All

Fans in Awe of Bonkers Korean Broadcasts of Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton Game Winner

Pacers Were One Wrong Move Away From Total Disaster

For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, head on over to Indiana Pacers on SI.