Indiana won 10 more games last season than they had won the previous year and when Tyrese Haliburton was healthy (he played 56 games), the Pacers were quite competitive showing that their trade with the Kings was a success for both teams.
The Pacers used a transition based offense that focused on both attacking the paint and settling for threes – a modern offense. The main problem with the team was on defense. Their defensive scheme simply did not work. They tried to prevent teams from shooting threes (#8 in the league at 3pts volume% allowed) but they fell apart in every other aspect: #30 on defensive rebounding rate, #28 on Free Throws rate allowed and #28 in shots allowed at the rim. It is impossible for a team to have a good defense while being poor in these three areas.
2023/24 OUTLOOK:
Indiana’s lack of size and poor perimeter defense was noticeable last season. In order to fix these issues, the Pacers signed Bruce Brown from Denver and Obi Toppin from the Knicks. These two players will give the team bigger versatility on the perimeter while they should also help the Pacers improve on the defensive end.
The team hopes that Bennedict Mathurin will continue to develop after a solid rookie season and the same can be said about Andrew Nembhard. However, the team still needs more quality solutions on defense to be competent in this area. Rookie Jarace Walker might be the key for that if he is able to make an immediate impact in the league, something that is hard for any rookie to achieve.
