The blossoming of the Indiana Pacers

If there is a lagging understanding of who the Pacers are in the league, there won’t be for much longer. People are going to have to notice; most importantly, advance scouts from rival teams. With the margins on their victories already narrow (they’ve got a perfectly even, 0.0 point differential), and their schedule the seventh toughest going forward, the team is about to be tested. Out of the Pacers’ next 15 opponents, nearly half of them are title-contenders. By the Feb. 9 trade deadline, they will have a more meaningful body of information to draw from when deciding how to move forward with the roster, a quandary that bears mostly on Turner and Hield.

Turner is a free agent this summer and has already made conspicuous overtures to other teams. Hield has one more year on his deal but would fetch a good return from a crowd of stressed teams all in need of more three-point shooting, which he does at a higher volume than almost anyone in the sport, at 43 percent accuracy. Whether the two would be packaged, sent out separately, or even if the Pacers moved one and not the other—Turner, more likely—there’s certainly an argument that their future, long-term and immediate, is best served with more draft capital or younger talent given how well they’ve selected and developed players in the Carlisle era. Smith, Nembhard and Nesmith are all important contributors after being disregarded by most of the league; imagine what they could do with another high-lottery talent or two.

The Pacers’ need for a veteran presence, a cliché about young teams that’s somehow as true as it is hollow, is lessened when you understand that Haliburton is the most mature and deferential of the bunch. A rare type, he is himself reason enough to believe in what’s happening in Indiana, regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, on the floor and in the front office. The Pacers may not remain a top-10 team this season (at the moment, they're ninth best by record), but guided by the continued evolution of Haliburton and their many talented scorers going forward, they will surely become one in a more permanent way. Whether Indiana decides to double down on its youth project or supplement Haliburton's already brilliant floor game with more veteran talent now is not immaterial, but neither choice seems like it could stop this team from its true blossoming.