It was a scary leap of faith when Indiana finally took the plunge into a rebuild.
It’s brought the Pacers here — into the second round against the Knicks, their first Eastern Conference semifinal in a decade. And they’re not content.
“You talk about getting to the playoffs, and it’s like in college when you have a really good team and you talk about getting to the Final Four. And then all of a sudden, just getting to the Final Four is where your expectation was, you’ve got to think bigger than that,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “I’ve said for two years now we’re a franchise with big dreams. And we don’t know exactly where this is going to go from here … [but] you have to have big dreams and aspirations to continue to grow and to continue to push yourself.”
Those dreams required letting go of their delusions.
Rebuild is a four-letter word in the NBA, but the Pacers president Kevin Pritchard and general manager Chad Buchanan acknowledged that’s exactly what they needed.
At the 2022 trade deadline the Pacers dealt big man Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento for Tyrese Haliburton.
The following summer it was Malcom Brogdon to Boston for Aaron Nesmith and picks.
They kept adding pieces to holdovers Myles Turner and TJ McConnell, and they quickly went from rebuild to build faster than even they could’ve hoped.
“This has been great. Look, when we had to basically squash this thing 2 ¹/₂ years ago and start over, when you start using the ‘R’ word, it can get ugly. There are teams that were rebuilding for nine years,” Carlisle said. “Kevin and Chad struck gold with Tyrese and it turned out to be a great trade for Sacramento. And then the Nesmith trade was another important piece.
“The [Obi] Toppin acquisition was big; then we had to figure out which guys were the guys to stay. Myles and TJ were obvious, and then [Andrew] Nembhard in the second round, [got Pascal] Siakam in the deal in late January … it’s been super fun with this group. When you work with a guy like Tyrese Haliburton on a day-to-day basis, there’s nothing better.”
Except winning with a guy like Haliburton.
The point guard showed not just ability, but leadership very quickly. Instead of continuing to tank the Pacers pivoted to finding winning pieces to put around him.
Cue the additions of ex-Knick Toppin, Nembhard, and — now that they’d become a winning team — former champ Siakam to try and become a contending one.
“One of the reasons we acquired Pascal Siakam was to have a chance not only to get to the playoffs,” Carlisle said, “but to advance in the playoffs.”
And now try to advance through the Knicks.
“I’ve seen the highs and lows of this, and I know the fans have seen the highs and lows of this over the past 10 years. To finally get a little bit of fruit of your labor with this is incredible,” said Turner, adding, “We still have a lot of work to do.”
