What will be Indiana Pacers top offensive lineup next year? Defensive? Groups with Huff, Jones, more

What will be Indiana Pacers top offensive lineup next year? Defensive? Groups with Huff, Jones, more

Let’s explore some fun lineups for the Pacers this year. How can they incorporate Jay Huff the best? What new lineups will make sense? What small ball groups would I like to see? And of course, the best offensive and defensive group. We’ll get to all of it today on the Locked On Pacers podcast. You are Locked On Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. What’s up everybody? Happy Tuesday and welcome in to another edition of the Luckon 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 one of my favorite offseason shows to do, lineups. Diving into lineups. This is the second straight year the Pacers have made this one harder on me by not having as many new players to kind of work in and look at what worked for them in the past and how it might incorporate to a new team. But enough new players to do it. And of course, in the spirit of the conversation Kyle Taylor and I had on the Pacers play style this season, we can get zany today. Look at some new stuff. Aaron Eastmith at the four, what’s the best offensive and defensive group going to look like for the Pacers and so much more for the upcoming season. because on one hand they don’t have a ton of new players. On the other hand, they don’t have two starters from last year. There’s going to be some new lineups that play way more than they did last year. We’re going to start today with the Jay Huff experience, right? And I’ve heard a lot of So, there’s two things I wanted to start my Jay Huff research of lineups with. One is I’ve heard a lot of and I get why statistically this would be a landing point for everybody a lot of comparisons of not their ability but the skill sets of Jay Huff and Miles Turner, right? In terms of they both shoot or can shoot, they both can block shots, they both struggle and succeed at similar things, right? So what does that mean for the Pacers this year? Because if Talburn was healthy, the plugandplay of like, well, just play Huff the way that Turner played seemed very simple. That’s not reality. It’s going to be a different team. But still, looking back at last year, only three Pacers players who actually played, like there’s a lot of guys who barely played. Um, so of every Pacers player who played more than five minutes with Miles Turner this season, only three players had a higher true shooting percentage playing without Turner than with him, right? And that’s Ben Shepard, Jarus Walker, and Johnny Fury. Three guys who their shot diet is kind of doesn’t matter who they’re with. their ability to make shots. Their spacing doesn’t really affect what they do. And in the case of Fury, like he played garbage time exclusively. That’s just more so a consequence of rotation factors. That is to say, shooting centers have that kind of value to their team. This is not some new thing I’m breaking down, right? Everybody knows that spacing is important, especially guys who can pop or roll. And Jay Huff has some dunk package stuff like he could roll a little bit. So he is I J Huff going to have a similar boost to the Pacers in that way, right? He’s going to make in theory life easier for his teammates if he continues to make shots. I think that’s something else about Jay Huff that we all need to to talk about is Juff had a good year for Memphis last year. I think he’s a good player and a good fit and a nice idea for the Pacers. He has played 95 career games. like saying anything about what he is or what he could be with any sort of factual like this is this will be is like I get why you’re doing it but like maybe not. So for Jay Huff with the Grizzlies last year Santi Alama John Mar Desmond Bane Zack Edy Jaylen Wells and Marcus Smart all had better true shooting percentages playing with Huff than without him. The only two like real players for Memphis who didn’t were Jiren Jackson Jr. and Jiren played 90% of his minutes at least without Jay Huff and Scotty Pippen. they’re the only outliers. So in that that’s where you see their similar skill sets of Turner and Huff kind of overlap, right? And so you look back at the fiveman lineups with Jay Huff that were the best, right? What actually worked for the Grizzlies, you’ll very quickly see one name that is almost always on the floor with Jay Huff and his best group. So, of the lineups that played real minutes last year with Jay-Hoff, of the 13 like actual this lineup did stuff for the Grizzlies last year, every single lineup that Jay-Hoff was a part of that had a positive net rating. Every single one, included Santi Alama, a fourman who can kind of do a lot of stuff, but importantly is a decent defender and a decent offensive player, has impact on both ends of the floor to cover for some of the stuff that Huff may not be as good at. A lot of those groups obviously for Memphis had other star players. Very rarely, by the way, do those groups have both of Bay or Moran. It’s not like these rating lineups are being boosted by just having terrific talent elsewhere. Like Huff actually boosted other bench groups. I only bring that up to say I think that Huff plus skilled four is going to be much better than Huff without a skill four. That’s been the history of what he did last year. Uh, and so not that’s not to say that Huff Toppin is going to be a bad duo, but I find the Pacers would not give that group serious minutes. I don’t think there’s enough pick and roll coverage there. There’s a lot of duplication on offense. We’ll talk about it. I do think there’s a way it makes sense, but the Huff groups that I, if I’m the Pacers, would like to see the most of mostly include Pascal Seakum. In fact, going through this exercise, I still probably think I tip a little bit towards Isaiah Jackson, but going through this exercise to build these lineups made me think that Huff starting might actually end up being the better answer for the Pacers. We’ll see. That’s not a conclusion I landed on. I just wanted to bring that up. But the Huff groups that I think for the best result would be something like Huff, Seakum, Nissan, The Nem, Hard Mather, which might just be the starting five, right? You get a good four next to him and then you get three players with enough ball handling and shooting to capitalize on the spacing. he provides or to use him as kind of a fulcrum point to to become a shooter themselves or whatever that may be because he can occupy somebody in the interior too because he’s so tall, right? He’s 7 foot, 71, whatever he is. I mean, whatever he’s listed as, subtract an inch or two for actual basketball heights, but you get what I’m saying. He’s very tall. So, the the starting five with Huff does make sense to me. So, does Huffaka Matherin McConnell Nemhard that’s smaller, right? There’s not a real three there. Matherine can be a three. He started at three last year with great success. That group just has a lot of ball handling and really capitalizes on the spacing that I think Jay Huff can provide and still pairs him with a four that makes the front court complete. Those kind of groups were very successful for Memphis last year. Some of the best net rating groups with that Aldama Huff pairing had like smart Lavia Bane. That’s it’s like three guardy ball handler types. The next highest group had Pippen and Morant and Larabia, right? that’s like sort of adjacent to what I’m saying here. So that is the kind of two bad and I get that this is like huff plus good players equals good. Like obviously that’s the case but I specifically think his skill set fits well with some of the players that will start for the Pacers. There’s a very small amount of that second group I just said. So Saka Mather and McConnell Nemhard there’s a very very very small amount of that group with Miles Turner last year. Like a shockingly low amount of minutes. So much that I couldn’t really dive in to see how well it went. Obviously with Halburn around that’s not the three ball handler combo that Carlile would ever choose which makes sense right you would rather have Hallebert out there than one of those three guys in most cases they don’t have Terry Halleurn this year that’s why I think that’s possible that that group will be seen more if the Pacers are just trying to get as much ball handling in the back court on the floor as possible at any one moment it would be that trio right so that plus Yakamhuff makes good sense to me I’d like to see those groups right I think it’s the best way to make Jay Huff an additive role player for his teammates. So, I bet by the end of the year, Jay Huff’s best onoff teammate in terms of net rating with the Pacers is going to be Pascalakum, which intuitively makes all the sense in the world, but I think that especially after diving into what he did well for Memphis and what worked well for the Pacers last year, makes even more intuitive sense. And also, Pascalakum is really good. Um, the other fun thing that the Pacers could do with Jay Huff is just go all in on the offense, right? Clearly this guy has some skill on the end of the floor with what his you know percentages suggest with what his skill set became last year over 40% from three for his career albeit not on a crazy high volume right the funny backwards dunk thing that he does you know we’ll talk more about him pretty soon on this show with somebody who covers the Grizzlies so Jay Huff like any blazing offensive group would be just kind of sick right McConnell Matherin Smith top and Huff like that group is just ma McConnell and a bunch of shooters go crazy put Nehorn out there for more shooting but a little less just like rim pop, right? So that would be fun too. I don’t know how many stops that group is getting. N Smith, can you guard all five guys, but that would be fun to see that group kind of paired together and really just use Jay Huff as a blazer. Go out there, help a help a bench, a heavy bench, maybe not heavy bench, whatever you want to call that group, score some points. So my huff answers were after diving into this a the best the best best lineups he’ll be a part of where is he is option five and he is completely additive just by being that fifth existing person that occupies the mind of a defender and his defense is complimentarily enough and then the second way to use Jay Huff that I think would be smart and enjoyable from a viewer experience is just like rip it on offense to make it happen. I’m very curious what defensive group focused groups will look like with him. Right. Despite very very very r very very excuse me I can’t talk rarely playing with Jiren Jackson Jr. Memphis’s onoff defensive stats with Jay Huff are like very negligible like almost the same defensive rating with him on or off and they had a defensive player of the year candidate as like his pure sub at his position. I think Isaiah Jackson’s probably the better defender, which is why I didn’t have a ton of Jay Huff defense lineups here, but we’ll see post Achilles if that’s the case. So, there’s an argument to be made for some fun Jay Huff defensive lineups. But, I think offense and being that sort of connecting additive spacing provider pieces where he will have the strongest to most obvious impact for the Pacers this year. Let’s get to some zany stuff, some Cam Jones, Taylor Peter Fitz stuff, and see where else we can find some fun lineups for the Pacers this season because they do have two other new players. Although, albeit with rookies, I don’t want to just read boom stuff. Anyway, let’s talk about Cam Jones, Taylor Peter, and more Pacers zany lineups. Before we do that, talk about Five Hour Energy. It’s time to fuel up and turn it up with five energy transfusions. It brings the bold grape ginger and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink minus the alcohol into a quick energizing shot. 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Cam Thomas is a decent player and I understand the warts of his game, but some of the discussion of him is crazy. locked on Nets. We’ll have a much more nuanced discussion of Cam Thomas, I’m sure, in their recent or upcoming episodes. Okay, let’s keep it rolling here. Lineups for the Pacers. Before we get to Cam Jones and Tailen Peter, I want to talk about the zany thing that I want to see more than anything this season. Both because I think it’s good and because I think it’s valuable experimentation for the future of the Pacers, who don’t really know what they’re going to do at center and their future of the front court might require a lot more Seakum top and combos or smaller groups in general. and smaller groups in general makes me wonder as I’ I think I’ve said this for two years and it’s happened a few times. The sprinkles happen but never with any sort of serious consistency and I get why the Pacers have other talented players at this position. Show me some Aaron Neith at the four. It just works, man. 73 points on 56 possessions last year. Anyone with any analytical brain is laughing so hard that I just read a 56 possession sample is something serious. It’s 130 offensive rating. It’s a comically low amount of time on the floor. Uh that is with excuse me the query I did was any one front court player any four or five plus Nmith plus three guards on the floor. So that is my query of Nmith is clearly the four. That’s a lot of points per possessions on 73 trips on the floor. You might have a different definition of Nmith of the four but like Turner Nemhard Hallebert and Nmith Matherin last year that was a great group. a lot of points. Big problem. Two of those guys were not playing this season, right? A little bit hard to replicate, but get get T.J. McConnell and Jarus out there and run it. Like, make it happen. Like, I think there are ways to do it. You might call Jarus the four in that case. Okay, fine. Do somebody else, Ben Shepard, whatever. Just try it. Like, I get that he might be a little underized to be a four, but there’s a point of ability where you get you you become such a good player like your position starts to matter a lot less and you can just do things no matter where you are. you need can play the two just fine for all I care like I just want to see it more I think it could be another card for the Pacers to play and if they don’t end up finding a solution at the five this season or next season or whatever having the outlook of well they could go top and seekum and then N Smith or Nith and a center and that like that’s your that’s four of your top five in the front court that would be good to know or be like hey this can’t defend well enough or whatever right um they had 391 possessions last year of that same query of three guards, one front court player, but Jarus Walker on the floor, that’s him at the four. That’s good. I think they should do more of that this year. E, even though they spent a lot of time kind of changing him to play the three last year, I don’t know how much functional difference there is in positions on the wing for the Pacers. But like it worked. It worked fine. They were trying to make it work with Walker as a three and they tried it with the three. Like you could do both. Try one of the four, try the four. The pro of small ball is speed and skill. And McConnell, Nemhard, Mather, and Nith Yakum sounds awesome. That’d be sweet. You could even do Walker in there for Nith. You could put Shepherd in there for defense. You could put Walker in there for more sides of there, too. Whatever. Like, just try it. I think it can work. I think you can get enough skilled size in the and speed on the floor to make up for whatever you lose in size by not having a center or or a four if they go with a five instead of Seakum. That was just my idea, for example. Okay, let’s talk about some rookies. Jay Huff deserved a lot more discussion. There’s actual NBA sample of what he’s done, what he fits with. Clearly a skill set established that I could say, “Okay, let’s look what Miles Turner did. Let’s see how Jay-Huff could apply that.” There is nothing for Cam Jones. There is nothing for Tailon Peter. This is all conceptual, right? And so it there’s kind of a a push and there’s very different answers of a push and pull on what makes sense for them. One of them seems like they’d be malleable with just about any other four players. The other one seems like how they’re deployed will be very telling of what the Pacers think of them this season. And I think it’s very clear which one’s which. So let’s start with Cam Jones who in his one summer league game as the lead guard had 20 and 10. And in all the rest of the summer league games was playing with someone else who was the primary ball handler. Usually Ray Jay Dennis for one half it was Quinton Jackson. a lot of times um it was other guys but there’s that one game with no Dennis no Jackson and it was go ahead Cam Jones be the guy had 20 and 10 and I’m not saying that to say that he should always be the lead ball handler it’s just at his final season of Marquette which is where he worked his way to becoming the 38th pick he was always the lead ball handler right so on one hand from an observer perspective if you’re the Pacers you’d like to see some lead ball handle reps for Cam Jones how does this look what’s he ready for how do you get Kim Cam Jones lead ball handle reps against like real lineups that matter, right? You can’t. You kind of can’t. You have to, especially if you’re trying to win. So, it’ll be hard to do that, but they need to try, right? It’d be nice to see them pop them out there with like Nemhard. This is the group I came up with, Nemhard, Shepard, Toppen, and Any Big and work. Like, give him the ball, let him work. Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, Nehard, wouldn’t he be the ball handler?” Like, maybe. I only chose him because he’s a natural two. Um, or excuse me, he can be a natural two. I think he’s more naturally a one. And so that pairing does make good sense. And then there’s like enough ball handling if Cam Jones can’t do it or whatever to make it work. But it should be kind of a goal honestly to me to put Cam Jones on a Nemhardy path, right? Nemhard comes in as a pure one from Gonzaga and they’re like, “Hey, you’re playing the two in your second game and this is going to be like your permanent thing.” Maybe that’s the Cam Jones path that makes the most sense. He is bigger for a guard. He’s got some stock to him. if his path to minutes is most obvious on a team with Hallebert and Nemhard and McConnell by doing that by being a combo guard who can play both spots. You can plunk him out there with McConnell and Nemhard and Z or you could play him by himself, whatever. So I think that I would like to to see the most of that group I said where Cam Don just kind of lead ball handler but not in a winning context just to like learn the most about what he’s good at. But I think for his development and for the Pacers to be as good as possible for as long as possible. Him becoming good at at being a Nemhardlike guard positionally not skill set wise would be the best thing for the Pacers. But the best stuff to put around him big wings big guards you know bigs in that case right sakum plus any big and any wing with Cam Jones would work. Doesn’t even matter who the the fourth player is. Um and I can’t wait to see him in garbage time with Fury the early seconds of the last year’s the Pacers quasi first let him cook. Taylor Peter’s kind of the opposite where it’s like Cam Jones, not a development project. They’re both older, but Cam Jones is like there’s kind of two roles this could go and there’s like sort of some specifics you’d want around him when it comes to like shooting and defense. With Tailon Peter, I’m kind like it’s boring. I mean, like does it matter who he plays with? Like if he’s making shots and is a heady defender, great. If everybody’s playing their natural positions, like his theoretical skill set fits with anyone. Tayen Peters does, right? Two ball handlers. Pick your two. Maybe one of them’s a better get in the paint initiator type that would help Tayen Peter. Two bigs. Probably one of those ball handlers or bigs as a scorer. That makes the most sense. There you go. Right. A point guard. Matherin Peter Seakum and a big man. That group seems like I mean to the extent Taylor Peter’s going to play real consequential minutes. Like the answer might be zero. But that if they have to seems like it would be how they do it. Maybe one of Matherakum does not need to be there. But he talent Peter’s not providing you a ton of rim pressure. At least probably not. Rookies typically aren’t very good at that in the NBA. So, that’s kind of how I would handle his minutes. I think uh most of his minutes and honestly, most of Cam Jones in a in a in a world where the Pacers are as healthy as they hope to be would come with the boom. The boom. It’s so weird to say that still. Uh but with the NBA group, that’s kind of I think the best way for their talents to shine, for them to click, for them to be a piece that is both helping win and help develop those players. Best offensive group, what’s it going to be like? Best defensive group, what’s it going to be like? and some other little tiny tidbits and a homework assignment for you, the listener, to close out today’s lineup centric version of Locked On Pacers. Back here on Locked On Pacers. Thanks for making your first listen today and every single day. Make your second listen. Lockdown Clippers. Chris Paul is back in LA. An introductory press conference on July 28th. Good job, Clippers. I love that. U Chris Paul explained why he signed there. Darn visi our lockdown clippers hustle have more and not a lot going on in the NBA these days. So intro pressors are a good way to for me to get into something and learn what is going on in places where things are actually happening. Uh okay let’s talk about this best offensive group of five for the Pacers. I started at first I typed 543 21 and I said okay who’s the five? Oh wait yes I already did this discussion in many ways it’s a top yakam group right there’s no five or there’s no traditional five. There’s two very talented offensive players there. I think in the Pacers best offensive group, Ben Nathan’s in there. I think Aaron Nmith is in there. And I guess Andrew Nard’s there. TJ McConnell probably has the most like specific one skill pop that would help an offensive group. But Nhard’s got to be the answer. He needs to be the answer. He in the playoffs has been a playoff riser every year. If he could translate that to any sort of regular season consistency, it’s easily him as the answer. So, if the Pacers need a bucket or if they’re like down eight in the fourth quarter or even if they’re just trying to see how effective this group can be, that’s what I think their best offensive group likely is is close to their starting five. In fact, it might actually be their starting five. I don’t think Tophin will start, but uh top end for a center, I think, is the answer to that. And then, you know, interchange if you think McConnell should be out there because he obviously does have scoring ability. There is a a world where I will squint and say like James Wiseman sneaks into some lineups where the offensive rating is just bananas but I don’t foresee that being a very common occurrence. Not because he’s not a talented player just because of how the pacers are. Would Jay Huff be in there instead of topak? I mean he provides spacing. U Shepard provides spacing too. I guess in theory not maybe not quite as much. So probably not probably nobody else. The only ball handle only the ball handlers are up uh for debate. the best defensive group. This was a lot harder than the offensive group to me because Tophin’s definitely not there. So, Seakum is there. By far their best forward defender. Is it Jackson? Is it Huff? I think it’s going to be if if injuries really hurt Jackson, then it wouldn’t be him, but I think it’d be him. He can switch. He can jump out of the gym and block shots. Sometimes he jumps too often. Aaron Eastman is definitely in there. Andrew Nehard’s definitely there. I would say Ben Shepard’s in there. And this group of five like does make good sense. There’s a ball handler who can initiate. There’s Pascal, Saka, a play finisher. There’s a lob threat. There’s one good shooter and one like maybe shooter that I think can shoot and still never makes them. But I think Jackson, Saka, Nith, Shepard, Nhard is the best defensive five, especially has a pure lineup. Matherin obviously has the dog in him aspects of good on ball defense. TJ McConnell is feisty but six feet tall. Jay Huff shrug, we’ll see. I mean, honestly, of their core 10 rotation that Tyler Smith and I laid out yesterday. Literally, all of them except for Obin, I guess you could make a p case for, you probably can’t make a case for Jarus Walker right now. It’s so wild to me that even all last season people were like, “Oh, they need a defender. Put Jarus Walker.” And I’m like, “Jarus still hasn’t really defended that well in his career.” By the end of this season, I think the Pacers would love it if Jarus Walker was in one of the last two groups that I just described. if he was at either the best offensive group because he’s such at his size, his ball handling or his shooting is just so valuable to the Pacers, they have to have him out there with this guy or that guy. And look at that, they score so well when he’s out there putting pressure on the cup or making floers or making threes or he’s in their best defensive group, which duh, he was such like a menace of a team defender at Houston and has had so many good moments as a defender in the NBA, but also so many just like very floaty and not so great moments. And consistency is something that he is still chasing. If he is in either group by the end of the year, I think that’s a huge monumental thing for the Pacers because that means Jarus Walker is on a very obvious and successful trajectory path. And that is your homework assignment, right? I felt like going through this that it was very clear where every single rotation player would have a niche in some way. Yakam’s obviously awesome. Nehard’s awesome. N Smith is awesome. McConnell’s in a lot of groups that’s like this is the best of that type of play. Uh, Obie Toppin’s in the best offensive group. Ben Mather’s in a lot of groups where it’s their best scoring group. It’s their best room pressure group. Whatever. Jackson’s in their best defensive group. Shepard’s in their best defensive group. Huff might be has a good case for the starting five. We’ll see. Like maybe he’s in none of their absolute best groups, but he’ll fit with a lot of groups. I couldn’t like get through anything where I thought the best of this, the best of that, where I was like Jarus Walker has to be in this lineup. Now, that’s not to say Jarus Walker isn’t good. In fact, he’s pretty solid for where he’s at in his career on both ends of the floor. He’s just not among their best five players on either end right now. And this was sort of the issue with him last year. Issue is the wrong word. That sounds so harsh where it’s like you want Jarus Walker to play and develop, but a lot of the onoff numbers aren’t particularly good. And there was no role last year where was like Jarus is the best answer, right? They if they needed forward defense, the answer was usually N Smith or Seakum. If they needed more ball handling on the wing, the answer was usually N Smith or Matherin. You know, it was very rare that like Jarus Walker is among the best five guys for the very current specific situation the Pacers are in. And that that’s what why I said what I said at the end of the defense group. Like Jarus needs to, not needs to, like he can be a good player without this being the case, but like he probably needs to end the season where it’s like one of the five, one of the best fives on offensive defense includes him, but you know, and he obviously got much better mid-season. Like I wrote the story in like early January about him talking about the ups and downs of his season. Like he said that, you know, I talked about his inconsistencies and people were like, “That’s a narrative.” I’m like, “No, he said it right.” But after that moment from like January to the end of the year, he was much more reliable and consistent. He had like occasional games where he would do that lazy pass thing and his defense wasn’t like totally locked in all the time, but then it got there, right? And I thought, but he was much more consistent from January on by the end of the season. That’s a good launching point for next year. It sucks that the ankle injury happened. He didn’t get to play in the finals. So, he got much better mid-season. What is the best This is your homework assignment. The best fiveman lineup that includes Jarus Walker, right? And and how does that help him develop and how does it help the Pacers win? My answer is because I can’t just give you an assignment without doing it myself. He the best way for him to be developing and helping the Pacers is have him being the third ball handler in like a real third ball handler role. Not with two dominant scorers. He should not be playing with both Matherin and Seakum because then he’s reduced to just spacing guy Jarus Walker. Like he shoots it well. His percentages are good. But that’s like no defender has yet to be like oh crap like I I got to get out to him. you know, it’s not a spacing clog, but you know, it’s not ideal. So, one of those two guys plus a point guard and then Jarus Walker is ball handling option number three with some play finishers elsewhere. I think that is the best way for him to be used. And then defensively, like he’s just such a sizable guy that it doesn’t really matter. He can guard one he you could I’m not saying he can guard one through four like he stops with positions, but like you could put him on a one through four and be like, “Yep, got it.” So any point guard Shephard Walker Seakum in any big man or any point guard Matherin Walker topping in any big man. That would be my way of getting Jarus Walker on the floor with a lineup that makes sense considering that I expect him to come off the bench. Um and they pulled Seakum first last year in their sub pattern. My guess for what they would have is it would be that latter one where it’s any point guard either Nehard or McConnell and then Matherin Walker and whichever big man has to be part of the bench group. Then Jarus is in this rotation firmly like he’s going to play. They have to find the best lineups for him to be a part of. He’s got to find ways to impact any group he’s in and end the season where it’s like yes Jerus can do this role this thing. We’re psyched about this or that. He is an interesting guy in this lineup discussion. That is today’s wacky fun lineup podcast for the summer. Talked about all the new guys. Man, in the past they would like get six new players, make trades in a bunch of signings and I was like this guy with that guy. this it’s like that’s not the two years in a row where smartly for the right reasons that’s not been the case for the Pacers. Uh tomorrow is the first I have literally not written down any idea for a podcast day of the summer. I’ll be talking about something Pacers related and then Thursday and Friday fun shows planned and then officially it’ll be August and next month will be the deep off season of people have suggested show topics to me. I have lots of recurring stuff every summer that we’ll get to. So if you have something you want to hear about tomorrow, let me know. Thank you guys for tuning in today. You can find me on Twitter at Tony R East and Blue Sky under the same handle. This podcast is on Twitter, lockdown pacers and on Instagram under the same handle. Thank you all so much for listening. Back tomorrow talking more Pacers. Till then everybody have a wonderful day.

What is the best way for the Indiana Pacers to use Jay Huff this season? What will be the team’s best lineups in 2025-26 on offense and defense? Host Tony East breaks that down and so much more.

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