What should Indiana Pacers rotation be next season? Who starts sans Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner?

What should Indiana Pacers rotation be next season? Who starts sans Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner?

Let’s build the Pacers rotation for the coming season. How does their air quotes gap year influence who should and shouldn’t play? How much should play? Any surprises? How does this all work for the Pacers this year? Tyler Smith’s going to join us to break it all down today on the Locked On Pacers podcast. You are Locked on Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s up everybody? Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend and welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always. My name’s Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and today let’s build the Pacers rotation player by player minuteby minute who should lead the team in playing time this year. It’s not who you think for different reasons that I think Tyler Smith and I will get into today from Indie Sports Legends covering IU covering the Pacers and has for so many years because the obvious answers aren’t the right answers when it comes to how the Pacers should do this. They have a lot to prioritize. They have a lot to consider and every single year there’s a surprise. Who should start at the two? Who should start at the five? How should the Pacers and Rick Carile put this all together? We discuss every position one by one and get into who we think should start and why with Tyler Smith. You know what? Let’s just get right to it. Last year, the Pacers ran it back. Building their rotation was fairly easy. This year, they lose Miles Turner. Tyresese Hallebertton is out. They have new centers. They have a shooting guard moving to point guard. There’s some clarity. There’s also some not. A lot of people want to see Johnny Fury out there. Let’s build the Pacers rotation and see what makes sense, how they can get the right amount of minutes for the right guys heading into a season of something of trying to win, but also like developments maybe a little bit more important than they would hope in a year after they made the finals. I don’t want to do this by myself because my ideas only carry so much weight. Tyler Smith, the best there is, is here. He nailed predictions for the Bucks series the last time he was on here as the Pacers rolled through the Bucks in five games. Tyler, how are you? How are you enjoying the off seasonason to the extent that that’s even a thing? It’s going quick. I mean, uh, we got media day in two months. So, uh, but I’m I’m enjoying say that it’s kind of crazy to think about. It’s so fast. It’s like am I It feels like it’s shorter every year. Maybe that’s just because the Pacers are playing for longer obviously, but like man, for a while there I was like, I have like four months now. What do I gonna stretch, get a new hobby, you know? I’m like, wait, it’s already almost August. What’s going on? How did this happen? It’s cuz we’re getting old and time just kind of, you know, too. That too. Like I feel like in my head free agency just started and like the team like Tayen Peter for those of you listening, we’re recording this on last Thursday. Tylen Peter just got signed. Like they’re still building their team. Okay, let’s talk about the rotation. Um, and the thing that I found interesting, Chad Buchanan just went on setting the pace. He was talking about camp battles. this team two years ago, Jarus Walker’s rookie year, the year they they had kind of like a blank slate of expectations before making the conference finals. They had all these camp battles and he kept talking about earning it with minutes and guys would have to do this or that to play and then they clearly slanted towards their better players that year and it worked. They were a good team. Um, but that was the last time that there was like actual question marks about who would play, which is really interesting going into this year because there is a lot of change because Miles was gone, because Tyrese is here, and yet I still felt like it was pretty easy to kind of slot in four of the starters and all 10 of what I would expect the rotation players to be. Did you have that same experience or was there any like, man, like 10, 11, 12th guy, I don’t know who it’s going to be? I think uh the four that you mentioned, I think the five is wide open. Yeah, maybe it wouldn’t be as wide open if the guys weren’t weren’t coming back from Achilles injuries. So, there’s a little uncertainty there, but um I do think even with your typical 10 or so, there are a couple guys that they would like to see in the rotation. So, trying to balance that. I think it’s a year to have one eye on competing, one eye on development and kind of throwing some stuff at the wall, seeing what sticks and seeing who who steps up. There’s a lot of guys that have a lot to prove, which is a good thing. Um, but also the front office and coaching staff, they’re going to need to see what guys are part of the future and there’s going to be plenty of opportunity. Whoever starts in that that first 10 or 11, whatever it is, there’s going to be some guys that have a chance throughout the year to to prove themselves. But yeah, it’s my my initial crack of the rotation is, you know, a basic 10 who I think will start, but I think there’s going to be opportunity for a lot of guys. We’ll get we’ll certainly get to those guys. The interesting part of what you said about one eye on both development and and winning is like when I was building this, I was like, do I tilt towards the younger guys a little bit more than I would have expected? And then when I was done, I was like, their advantage is that most of their young guys are at least already good, right? They’re not like throwing some I guess you could count Fury as this cuz it’s his second year and he played, you know, 30 games of garbage time in 20 real games last year. Like he’s inexperienced, but most of the young guys they would want to put on the floor to actually develop are like good, right? So like it’s not like that is so much detracting. Maybe maybe if Fury is not as good as anybody thinks, maybe he would be in this group, but it’s not like that’s detracting from their winning goals. So it actually became easier than I thought to do that. All right, I’ll start with this. So the I three sharp starters no doubt undeniable Andrew Nehard starting uh Pascal alchemist starting Aaron Eith is starting. Uh then we had Buchanan earlier this week talking about competition at the two which certainly was an eyebrow raiser for some I think and a five which I think everybody kind of expected. Um I penned in Benedict Matherin at the two and Isaiah Jackson at the five. Did you do the same? And then we’ll go through the minutes load for all these guys. Yeah, absolutely the same. And I think recently Isaiah said he’s about 90%. He’s still got three months. So assuming he’s healthy. Um maybe they want to kind of slow play it a little bit depending on how he’s feeling. He’s healthy. He probably gets the first crack. He’s who I’m predicting to get the most minutes at the five for the season. And then for the two spot, I would say to me to me it’s a no-brainer. I’m not sure why we’re kind of doing this uh this little dance with Matherine and well there’s competition. I don’t know if they think that motivates him but to me he doesn’t need much motivation um coming into a contract year but um yeah I would I would definitely assume that Matan will be the guy of the two. So I would too because of that development part and like figuring out his value either to the Pacers or on the open market is like critical thing for the Pacers this year. He should start to me. I thought he should have kept a starting spot last year when N Smith came back and that was wrong. N Smith was much better than him the rest of the season, but like he played well as a starter, albeit with Tyrese Hallebertton playing. So here’s why it could not happen. I don’t think this will happen, but let me let me put the pin in this. Celtics Pacers 2024 Eastern Conference Finals. Tyresese Hallebertton goes down with an injury. And who is the fifth starter for the rest of that series? It was Ben Shepard and it was Nemhard Shepard, Nith, Seakum Turner the rest of the way. And like they actually scored pretty well with that group, but I think that because of what you said, the that this is the first time that you get to this point, which is interesting because Ben Shepard is is young, but he’s actually older than Matherin, I believe. Like the eye on development and winning thing here means to me it has to be Matherin. Not not even just because like even if you think Ben Shepard makes the starting five the best, which I don’t, like you have to figure out the Matherin part of this year. And so e not not only am I giving Mather the starting spot I’m giving him way more minutes way more minutes at the two which we’ll get to the minutes distribution part of later because of that like even if he doesn’t develop this year that’s still huge to know as the Pacers and like that that’s a stupid assumption every young player gets better and he’s going to be in a new context so I I I think when Chad was talking about it he also mentioned Jarus and Fury and even Aaron Nmith and like maybe there’s some like squinty Aaron Nith Jarus Walker starting five that could happen which would be hilarious because he talked talked about ball handling and they’re replacing Nemhard at the two. Well, guess what? The best ball handler of all their wings is still Ben Math, right? So, there’s always going to be that push and pull of the fit versus talent debate with him, but they’re going to play different this year and they have to figure out what he is, how he fits, all sorts of stuff. So, um I think I think that one is easily mathering to me. Uh at unless you have any other thoughts, we can move to center starter. uh at center I pend in Isaiah Jackson and I don’t necessarily know that it matters like if they start him or Huff I’m like okay I like I understand the argument for both in a way that I would get it I think Jackson is better that’s like reason one to start him and he’s younger great that’s reason two he’s also coming off an Achilles tear and I think you could and pretty easily could make the case that Jay Huff’s a better fit with the starters uh but Isaiah Jackson does have a good pairing with Nemhar dating back when they played together kind of with the second unit a bunch two years ago. So, uh I think you can make the case for both and I will actually make more of a case on this when we get to the minutes breakdown at the center spot. But I think that especially given the contract they just gave him, Isaiah Jackson has the inside track to be the starting five and that makes a lot of sense with with Huff being his backup, but I don’t think their minutes will per game will look that much different when all is said and done this year. How did you land there? Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, Huff was not brought here to sit. I think he’s agree. I think he’s I think he’s a good backup, but I could also see the argument that he’s kind of, you know, Turner light in some ways with the the shooting and the block shots. Um, so maybe again, as you said, if if I if Isaiah is slowed and they think, you know, Huff fits well with the starters, maybe he maybe he does get a crack at starting. I’m not sure the heavy minutes and the way this team likes to run. You know, they may not run as much obviously, but they’re going to run and, you know, he’s used to playing 11 or 12 minutes, I think it was. So, you know, that could be something where he’s he starts and then gets a quick sub and then kind of they mix and match from that point on. But, yeah, I would say especially that three-year deal they gave to Jackson, they they believe in him. They’ve believed in him since they drafted him. Uh, so again, if he’s healthy, I think he’s the guy. And then I also agree with you as far as the minutes. Um, the five is going to be all over the place, you know, probably on a week- toeek basis. So, I don’t I don’t think the minutes are going to be heavily favored. I don’t think anybody’s approaching, you know, 30 minutes like Turner had last year. Yeah. Even the biggest James Wiseman believers, like including the Pacers who signed him two years in a row, like you don’t sign Isaiah Jackson at three years 21 million to not play him in the rotation. And you don’t trade away a pick and a swap for a guy you’re not going to play. Like, they traded a swap for Thomas Bryant and they needed him to play last year. So, I think it’s clear by their actions who they expect their rotation guys to be, but the minutes part specifically is not quite as clear-cut and maybe we’ll talk about top and at the five uh as this show progresses. But I agree it’ll be when healthy those two. The thing about center that’ll be different than every other position because of the Achilles things is like on backtobacks is that like Jackson plays one and Wiseman plays the other and Huff plays both. Like maybe that’s how they break that out and obviously Tony Bradley is still on the team and like was fine in the playoffs. I don’t think that they are considering him for a rotation spot, but he keeps getting brought up. Everybody, quick breaks. We can talk about 5h hour energy. It’s time to fuel up and turn it up with 5h hour energy transfusion. It brings the bold grape, ginger, and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink minus the alcohol into a quick energizing shot. Whether you’re sinking birdies or just making memories with friends, this zone’s a hole in one for you and your energy game. Let’s be honest, some days on the course or off it, you just need that extra boost to stay sharp and energized. For me, golf’s all about the memories with my friends. Ridiculous bets, crazy wagers on every hole, crazy shots, the moments. That’s what makes golf funs. Good times with good people and good flavors. The grape ginger lime flavor gives you the best parts of your clubhouse go-to without chasing down the beverage card. If you go to fiveour energy.com today, that is the number five hourgy.com, you can use the promo code lockdown to receive 20% off your order. How about that? This offer is valid through September 30th on one order. Can’t be used other promotions. This code is not good on subscription orders. But whether you’re meeting up with friends or trying to turn 18 holes into 36, get the energizing boost you need to power through. Order transfusion flavored fiveour energy shots today. Okay, let’s get to actual specific minutes. Easy position. Let’s start it. Let’s just go one through five in order. Uh I at point guard for my two heaviest minutes players. Uh one is a point guard. I did 32 minutes for Andrew Mhard and 16 minutes for TJ. McConnell. Should I have considered anything else there or is that one easy peasy? That one seems easy. I I think this year it could just be a straight, you know, platoon or whatever you want to call it. Just like I don’t know that they’ll play much together. So, it could straight up be Nimhard is in and then McConnell’s in and that’s just kind of how it goes. And I think Nimhard might have he might average the most minutes of any player this year. I agree. I’m going to say either one or two um for that. So, yeah, I I you know, maybe maybe Jones finds a few minutes at the one or, you know, they they want to see what they have there a little bit, but I think uh I think it’s going to be more of a straight swap of the point guard spot than what we’re used to seeing. That’s an interesting position because and Chad was all over this like if they are asking Nhard to do what he did last year on defense and be the lead bellahander like that is exhausting. That is a very demanding 32 minutes. But at the same time like I’m not saying they can’t win anything this year but if their ceiling is much lower without Hallebertton like what do you really want to put on TJ McConnell? Like you don’t want to blast his minutes up either. So that would be the argument for like a sprinkle of Quinton Jackson, a sprinkle of Cam Jones or whatever at that spot. But I’m with you. I think it’s pretty straightforward. And they kind of need to like if they have a glut of any position. It’s like the wing guard spot. So like play those guys more often and figure out what they are and just you know what Mhard is. He can get better. You definitely know what McConnell is. Like that’s the easiest position to me. At the two I did my pendant starter Benedict Matherin for 30 minutes and 18 minutes of Ben Shepard. Although obviously like what we’re actually saying two and three are pretty interchangeable with the Pacers. Like those guys could play together. the guys we’ll get to at the three could play together. Like these guys could all be out there interchangeably, but like that makes good sense for both of those guys no matter who they’re playing with is that they play about that number of minutes. Do you agree with that one too? Yeah, I’m pretty close to that. I think Matan he actually when I looked he actually played more minutes per game than I even thought this past year just because of how it kind of tapered off at the end or there were some moments where he didn’t play as much. But um you know obviously if he’s given that starting two role um I think they’re going to kind of give him the keys and and play see I’d probably put him as I’d say maybe the third most minutes of of the team. Um so yeah somewhere in the 30 31 range and then uh thing with Shepard is he doesn’t like I’m not sure he has the ceiling that some of these other guys have. I think he’s got a a great floor. They kind of know what to expect. I’m not sure how much development is left in there. I think he’s like a solid rotational player, but at some point, do they want to, you know, Carlile loves him. He loves what he brings. So, I think he’s going to get quite a few minutes. Um, but at some point, do they also look a little bit with that one eye on the future and and some of these guys with maybe a higher ceiling? Do they give them more of a crack at the backup two or three? I agree that he would be the guy that would be chopped off in this case for some of those higher ceiling potential players. We’ve seen how Carla feels about Shepherd and my my growing castle on Shepherd Island that is taking over all the newly vacated homes. Um is is ready to keep growing. But yeah, I mean the thing is like it’s so interesting people talk about his ceiling because like three and D players are super valuable. Like that’s a high ceiling. It’s just that it’s two skills. Like it’s not a like that’s what that’s what people mean by that. So I think he will obviously be in their opening night rotation I would say. But uh we’ll talk about him in the third segment certainly. Uh at the three I have my second highest minutes player. Surprise it’s not Pascal Syakam everybody. It’s actually tied with Nehart here. I did 32 minutes of Aaron Smith and 16 minutes of Jarus Walker which at first glance I was like man should I have put more Jarus in there? Like he’s actually one of their probably most three important players this season but like what what are you taking away N Smith minutes for? I guess if you’re like actively not trying to win you would do that but they are going to try to win with they have. So that’s just where I landed there. They clearly want Jarus to develop at the three. How did you feel? How do you feel about that? And again, those guys could play two, they might slide up to four at some point, but like that’s just those general minutes at that position is where I landed for those two. Yeah, that’s another to me it goes back to will they play small a little bit more? Will there be some OB at the five, which would open up a handful of minutes more maybe for Walker. Um, I think Walker it probably be wise if he gets close to, you know, the 20 or more if he’s playing well because I think it’s just a it’s just really important year for him to see what they have. So, I think between the three and the four, you know, I could see Walker um eclipsing the 20 minute mark, but um I kne Smith I think I had him I think about fourth in minutes but still pretty close to the other guys. I mean, it’s not going to be a huge discrepancy there, but um he’ll definitely get the bulk of the minutes and we’ll see how he does without Hallebertton. I think he’s still going to be a solid player, but we’ll see how that goes. Play Eith in some goofy situations, man. Put him at the two, put him at the four. I don’t care. Just like see what you can do with this, without Turner, without Hallebertton. Figure it out. Maybe there’s some other ways you could optimize him or make him a a more versatile player for future situations. That’s a way to play Jarus Moore. Ob’s minutes sliding up or down, which we’ll talk about him. he will be in in a big focus here in a second. Could be the way to play him more. And obviously there’s another guy that people want to see play, but those two like Nmith is like Nemhard where he’s good now and is young. So like no matter what eye you have on the team, I mean I guess N’s not young anymore. What is he 26? But like young enough that he has several more prime years. Like if your eye is on winning now or development, he’s playing a lot, right? He’s in that Matherin and Nhard kind of group. So that’s why I put his minutes so high. But Jarus is also in that group, right? That’s what I said at the beginning. like even if your eyes on development, Jarw Walker is a good player. Like you’re not like actively losing games by playing him more and they need to figure out really need to figure out what he is this year. So that that was kind of my biggest thing I I walked away from is moving from three to four is I put Nehard and Nith with more minutes than Seakum. And that might seem weird for a team that has stated they are trying to win, but as we’ve seen and as you keep bringing up last year, which I think is smart, that like they don’t ever hammer Seakum’s minutes. like they really really really build him up until the postseason and obviously their postseason goals or or their postseason outlook will look a lot different this year, but he he was like 48th in the NBA in minutes per game last season like they and for an all-star that’s so unusual. I think he was bottom two or three in minutes per game among allstars last year. I wrote that story before the season ended so I don’t know where it landed but it was close to that. Right. They that that’s clearly intentional, right? And part of that is that that thinking like they’re very long-term focused with their minutes and and things like that. The other part is that his backup is good in Obi Toppin and Obie’s the first guy that I’m going to have at two different positions on this depth chart. But the for power forward specifically, I did 30 minutes for Yakam at 18 for Tophin. Don’t think that’s my final number for Tophin. Just for now, that’s where I landed. But is that could that go differently for you? Where did you land on that one? And Jarus could steal some minutes at that spot, too. Yeah, I was thinking uh you know, Seakkum, I wrote down in my notes, one of the uh things that I would be most mindful of if I’m the Pacers coming into this year is to not run Seakum into the ground. And they really haven’t before, but the temptation will be there for a team that’s still trying to compete. He’s your clear number one guy. They’re going to turn to him, you know, to to lead in scoring and lead in so many ways. But they’ve got to save his legs. They got to find a way to to not burn this guy out. I mean, they they just played into late July, so it’s already going to be kind of interesting to see how that goes. But if they’re just running him into the ground, that’s not going to go well for the following year, which everybody fully believes is uh is much more of, you know, the year of having a chance uh for a deep run again. So, I would say, you know, definitely do not think he should be playing more minutes. And I think again, a lot of fans would look at that and say, he’s your number one guy, though. You got to play him. But there’s enough depth here. and and uh I would be very mindful, very careful of those minutes, but I would say around last year, maybe even a little bit less. I share that take with you and I think that was actually my biggest like one takeaway from this exercise. It’s like, oh man, like that makes a lot of sense. It’s going to be weird that he is clearly their best player. Like the guy they’ll turn to in the clutch every time they’re in a close game, they’re going to have him on the floor, all this stuff. And like he should probably be third or fourth in minutes. It’s like a totally reasonable place to land because I if he is if anything happens or next year his legs are jelloier or he’s just gets if he gets god forbid a major injury this year like they’re in a lot of trouble, right? They cannot have that happen. So I that is one way Tophin could play more than I thought is if they even subtract more from Sakov’s plate and give it to and then Jarish could play the four or whatever. Uh, but that I I agree with you is how kind of I would be approaching this with Pascal and maybe they want to see him at some five or oo Pascal at the three. Get some versatility going. But, you know, just any way to give him some more learning experiences, but also limit his minutes, I think, would be smart. That takes me to center. We talked about this a little bit, but here’s how I landed on this to make it nice and easy. 20 minutes for Isaiah Jackson, 20 minutes for Jay Huff, and eight minutes of Obie at the five because I think if their best actual best five to close games will be Seakum Topphen in the front court, it keeps those other two guys at the same number because I don’t think it really matters who plays more or less. Um, but Jackson starting there. Is that Did you just do the two guys? How did you land there? I kind of thought of in two ways. If they’re playing If it’s two guys, I was thinking maybe like 27 and 21. Jackson, Jackson at 27. Um, but you know, you mentioned the back tobacks. There’s going to be a lot of scenarios where it’s just, you know, daytoday who’s healthy, what’s the matchup, they want to play small. Um, Wiseman is a guy that, you know, we kind of think he’s third string coming in, but if he could come in and complicate things, I think the Pacers would love that if he’s kind of if he’s healthy and unleashing some of that talent and it’s like, oh, what do we do now? That’s that’s going to be a good problem to have. But if it’s two of them, 27 21ish, uh if it’s three, you know, especially with Jackson’s foul issues at times, maybe it’s more 23 24, maybe Huff is in the 15 18 range than handful of minutes for others. Yeah. And like if Tophin’s getting eight minutes there, that’s a chance to play Jarus Moore at a different spot or play who whoever of these young wings that they have to solve the future of or play a different guy that we haven’t mentioned at all yet. And yeah, Wiseman will certain like assuming no no injuries for the Achilles guys, which you never know. He will certainly play like even beyond that Isaiah Jackson’s coming off an Achilles tear. Center gets hurt more than any position, right? Like they’re just big and they bump and you know he’s going to play. But I would say in their entering the season core 10, that’d be the guy or that’d be the guys that I would expect to play. The other part of this is that some teams play 11 or 12. They just can’t. Like if you hear them Pacers say like maybe we’ll play 11. Like they won’t. It’s hard. It’s impossible. It just it doesn’t let anyone get any rhythm. The the 11th guys playing eight minutes and they suck and it’s like impossible. It’s not a good development context. The season that they’ll have will allow somebody will get hurt. Like they’ll be able to play everyone that they need to when they need to. I wouldn’t worry about that. But I I can’t go beyond 10 and no serious team like if you play 11 or 12, it’s because you’re going to win 20 games and you need the guys to play minutes, not actually try to win. So that’s why I limited it to 10. If you want to try to build out an 11man rotation that gives everybody the same amount of flow and time every game, be my guest. Good luck. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I agree. And again, gametoame stuff. So when they’re all healthy, you got some guys who are available, you know, for foul trouble and other scenarios. But um my question too for this year is like a a small ailment they played even safer this year in in that scenario. But the beauty of an 82 game schedule um sometimes you know the blessing and the curse of it there’s going to be plenty of opportunity for this entire roster. So whatever happens opening night in the first month you know it could be completely different. Uh sounds like the Pacers will also be lurking in the trade rumors. So, if if something like that happens, then you can throw this whole podcast out. We’ll have to redo it for a new rotation. Oh, we’ll do it again. Don’t worry. Yeah, but that’s uh that’s something to keep in mind as well. But yeah, I think they got to go with with 10 and uh on a given night, but those 10 could look different from night to night. Turns out when you have all your picks and lots of interesting young players that kind of not crossroadsy parts of their career, although in Maine’s case definitely, but like approaching that, yeah, you might be a dream that is uh lurking in the trade market. Uh, so we talked about Wiseman a little bit. I think the guy that people will be like, “Wait, they haven’t said his name yet is Fury certainly.” Um, of those back five guys that we haven’t mentioned, that’s Wiseman. They can’t play another center even. So, Tony Bradley, Cam Jones, we kind of talked about a point guard. That’s probably like a later season project thing. Fury, and I’m actually forgetting who the fifth Oh, the fifth player that I haven’t said yet is. That’s that’s alarming that I can’t remember. Um, but Fury is the guy that people will say the most about. Oh, Hallebertton. Obviously, he’s not playing. Um, so like they’ve mentioned his name and rotation in the same sentence many times. I think I think personally entering the season, it’s a little like Jerus last year where he is the guy that like if a two gets hurt, someone slides down to the two and Fury’s playing. Or he could even play the two. I guess why not? If a three gets hurt, you throw him in. If a four gets hurt, you throw Fury in there. If a five gets hurt, move top and up, throw Fury in there. Like there will be many chances for him to play. I don’t think naturally he’s in their top 10 and nobody in the top 10 is either old enough or bad enough for me to just be like, “Yep, chop them off.” I think if they had to, if they said, “We are we are demanding opening night for a few minutes, the guy they would look at getting rid of out of the rotation would be Ben Shepard.” Um, but I I just think he’ll be guy 11 on opening night personally. Uh, but there will be plenty of chances, I think, for him to get out there. Does that make sense? Would you be trying to find minutes for him? Would you be trying to cut somebody else out? Is there a different way to approach this? I think you nailed it. Uh, I would say Shephard or Walker, you know, depending on certain things. Obviously, if it’s up to me, I’m playing Walker as much as I can to see. Well, here’s the thing. I would say if you were playing Johnny Furfield over Jarus Walker, you should be trying to trade Jarus Walker like right now, like today. Yeah. Yeah. I’m just thinking for, you know, kind of this coaching staff. Um, I do think that, you know, camp and the handful of preseason games, like if if Murphy comes in is blowing people away, then, you know, maybe he forces their hand. Um, I also think even if he is in that role, the Jarus Walker kind of like looking for that opportunity and he gets a handful of of minutes here and there, guy goes out, he’s in the rotation. If he takes it and runs with it, then it’s a different situation. Jarus Walker didn’t always do that. Um, he would occasionally play well, then occasionally, you know, forget how to play ball for a few minutes. So, if if Furfeed is as good as what some people think that he is and is going to be, then um he could take either one of those opportunities and run with it and become a mainstay after that point. But I agree that he may not be your initial top 10 unless he forces that issue. Walker was honestly fine last year. He just never did what you said. He never like was so awesome or took it on the point they were like, “We have to keep playing you, right?” There was certainly a time in March when Ben Shepard couldn’t make anything where was like, “Yeah, they should play Jarus over Ben Shepard.” But that didn’t last long enough for it to be a thing. And so if Fury plays and is so good that it’s like, “Oh man, he has to keep playing.” Yeah, Shepard and Walk will be the two guys I think rightly that everybody points at is well their minutes have to go or be changed around because and even change it around doesn’t make sense. Like we said playing 11 is impossible. So he he’ll have to earn it, right? And on one hand I think it’s right that they will, you know, make everybody earn their minutes, but like last year going into camp, you were there, right? I asked Terry, “Hey, who’s impressed you this year going to camp?” He’s like, “Ben Shepard’s been Ballin, right?” Like that dude earns his, you know, they love that guy. Like I think he will certainly have the inside track to rotation spot over Fury and they need to play Walker. Like they just have to they’ve been given a chance with a departing player and an injured other player that like Jarus is firmly in a spot like like he he’s earned it with his play that he’s one of their top nine even now. But he’s got to play well. Like there actually is somebody breathing on his neck now that has had flashes like played a real game where he deserved to start the second half last year. Awesome. I would say Fury summer league that just happened was better than Walker summer league last year. Like Walker was good in summer league last year. He made the all summer league team but I thought that was kind of a little overblown and I thought Fury was better this year. So he is the only guy on the out that I think would like have a case to knock someone off that we talked about in the top 10. Maybe Wiseman could at some point, but Bradley know. Cam Jones know. Hallebertton know. So I would keep an eye on Fury, but I don’t I don’t know if there’d be any other surprise to me. Even though every year there’s a surprise. N Smith two years ago. Last year Jarus being a three. There’s always a surprise. But I think this year it’s a little harder to see that surprise given their kind of like conflicting need to play young guys and winning goals. a luxury for Pacer fans to think though that when you lose two starters, you come into this year and you’ve got, you know, Fury, Wiseman, Jones is kind of 11, 12, 13 in whatever order to still think like not much. You know, you’re not adding anything, but you still have the potential for depth. And especially in a year where you’re trying to figure out what you have and what sticks, you know, they’re they’re going to be they’re going to keep their eyes open for uh guys they could bring in, but right now they they probably feel pretty good about the depth they have as far as, you know, trying to figure some things out. So totally agree. I think Fury will certainly play more than last year. How much more in terms of minutes? We’ll see. He played 50 games, but maybe his games is up there, but his minutes will certainly be more funnier for the boom. A lot of these guys are going to be playing. A lot of development is going to be happening. If a trade happens, I’m calling Tyler again and saying we have to do this a second time, but I think for now we’ve got it down. So, my final totals, I don’t know if you wrote it down like this, my final totals were Nehart at 32 minutes, N Smith at 32 minutes, Seakam and Matherin both at 30 minutes, Tophen at 26, Jackson and Huff at 20, Shepard at 18, Walker and McConnell at 16. I think that is a default this makes sense kind of rotation for the Pacers. Yeah, I didn’t always have exact minutes, but I had Nimhard with the most, Seakum with a little bit more than Matine. Um, and then knee smith toppen Jackson Walker McConnell Shepard Huff and then Fury and Wiseman. Let’s go. Uh, if you disagree with us, send all comments to Tyler Smith_isl on Twitter. I’m just kidding. Uh, comment down below. Tweet at me as well. Tyler, where can people find you beyond that place that I just said and your coverage of the Pacers and as my hat suggests, the Hooers. Hoosiers. Yeah, that’ll be an interesting year as well. So, uh, indiesportsleends.com, but most stuff on Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it. The greatest place. Curt Signetti is making fun of the SEC. We’re so back. We are so back. Thank you guys so much for listening today. This is probably coming out on a Monday now because Taylor Peter has been signed till tomorrow. We’ll see. I have not planned next week’s schedule yet. So, uh, I promise there’ll be some fun pacer stuff coming this week. Thank you all so much for listening. Give Tyler a follow. Read all the things he has to say. We’ll see you very soon.

The Indiana Pacers will be missing Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner next season. They will have slightly different goals. How should they build their rotation for 2025-26? Host Tony East is joined by Tyler Smith from Indy Sports Legends to break it all down.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPacers?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

📲 Follow Locked On Pacers on Twitter
Locked On Pacers https://twitter.com/lockedonpacers
Tony East https://twitter.com/TonyREast

#Pacers #IndianaPacers #NBA #PacersPodcast #IndianaPacersPodcast #TyreseHaliburton #BennedictMathurin #PascalSiakam
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
5-Hour ENERGY
Time to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour ENERGY®️ Transfusion! Go to https://5hourenergy.com today and use my promo code LOCKEDONGOLF to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders.

Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)