Doyel: Pacers have rebuilt without tanking, adding Pascal Siakam to Tyrese Haliburton & Co.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
THE INDIANA PACERS HAVE JUST TRADED FOR A BONA FIDE NBA STAR.
Well, again. They’ve traded for a bona fide NBA star … again. The Pacers did it a few years ago when they acquired Tyrese Haliburton from Sacramento, and now they’ve added the perfect Robin to Haliburton’s Batman in the form of sweet-shooting, rim-swooping forward Pascal Siakam of Toronto.
Or maybe Siakam is Batman.
Maybe they both are.
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At 23-17 overall and sixth in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers’ rebuild was already ahead of schedule thanks to the ascension of Haliburton from bona fide NBA star to future MVP candidate – but adding Siakam almost completes the task. No, the Pacers shouldn’t now be considered among the favorite in the Eastern Conference. Almost, I said. Acquiring Siakam almost completes the task.
The Pacers are now one really good piece away from becoming an Eastern Conference contender, and who knows? Maybe that piece is already on roster. Bennedict Mathurin is only 21, and he’s a career 16-point scorer. Myles Turner, 27, seems to have reached whatever his ceiling is, and it’s a fine ceiling, but perhaps he has one more floor to rise.
The addition of Siakam, see, is going to make Turner even more dangerous. Because he’ll spread the floor and Turner will have more space and the same goes for Mathurin and who knows what it means for Haliburton AND I’M STARTING TO SHOUT AGAIN.
(Last time I shouted like this was March 2023, when the Colts acquired backup quarterback Gardner Minshew WHICH MEANT ANTHONY RICHARDSON WAS NEXT. I was right about that!)
(Well, I was.)
The only way this trade backfires on the Pacers – and for the record, the Pacers sent Bruce Brown (12.1 ppg), power forward Jordan Nwora (5.2 ppg) and three first-round picks to Toronto – is if Siakam decides he doesn’t want to be here in the long term. His contract expires after this season, which makes trading for him a dangerous proposition.
Unless.
Unless the Pacers already had an idea Siakam wants to stay. Can I let you in on a little secret?
The Pacers already had an idea he wants to stay here. Who’s reporting that? I just did. Pay attention.
Pascal Siakam will get to see how this town throws a party
This is the Haliburton Effect.
Tyrese Haliburton has been making this franchise better since the day he arrived, getting it done on the court and laying the groundwork for future deals like the one that brought Siakam from Toronto. You’ve seen the way Haliburton plays, right? The charisma bubbles over, and while he plays with pizzazz he does it humbly, walking a line that almost nobody can walk because it’s just so hard. How can a person be confident bordering on cocky, yet still be humble?
Don’t ask me. I’ve tried and failed for years, but my suggestion is this:
Watch Haliburton.
He’s Reason No. 1 why players want to come to the Pacers, recruiting at the 2023 NBA All-Star game and again this winter during the NBA In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas. Bruce Brown was happy to come here this past offseason, remember, as a free agent from Denver. Obi Toppin wanted to be traded here from the Knicks. Buddy Hield wants to stay, assuming the money is right. Myles Turner appears to be as happy as he’s ever been.
Common thread? Haliburton, and not just because he’s charismatic and unselfish on the court. He’s that way off the court, too, just a joy to be around, and that’s not so easy. Running an NBA franchise means managing and even massaging the egos in the locker room, but when your best player carries himself like Haliburton – setting up his teammates on the court, and off – everyone else gets in line.
Put it like this: Remember when Roy Hibbert famously said the Pacers had “some selfish dudes” in 2014? The best player on that team was Paul George … and everyone else got in line.
It’s contagious, the attitude of the team’s best player, and Tyrese Haliburton has infected everyone in the locker room. Soon Siakam will breathe that beautiful air, and the Pacers already had reason to believe – well, they knew – Siakam was open to signing a contract extension here after the season.
Just wait until he gets a load of Haliburton as his point guard, and Turner spacing the floor, and Mathurin spacing the floor, and Hield spacing the floor. AND JUST WAIT UNTIL ... sorry. Just wait until Siakam sees how this town throws the party called the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.
Siakam thinks he wants to be here?
He’s about to find out just how right he is.
Pacers are going to score even more
So what does Siakam bring to the team? I’m reminded of a quote from Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T, in Rocky III – and no, this is not a sentence I ever imagined writing. But there it is, and here comes the quote. Lang was asked for his prediction of what would happen the next time he stepped into the ring:
Pain, he hissed.
That’s what playing the Pacers will be like, now, with Siakam replacing Bruce Brown in the rotation. Brown was a tremendous person and a nice player, don’t get me wrong, but opposing teams didn’t worry about him. He was good for about 12 points, five rebounds and three assists per game. He could knock down the occasional 3. He was nice, you know?
Siakam’s nasty.
Siakam has been averaging nearly 23 points per game since 2020, earning a spot on the All-NBA second team once and the third team another time. One of the top 10 or 15 players in the NBA? Heady stuff, the Pacers now have two of those guys, and Siakam’s about to take off. He’s never played in a system that moves this fast, spaces the floor this much or has a point guard this good.
This time next season, Siakam (22.2 ppg) could be averaging 25 ppg. So could Haliburton (23.6 ppg). Mathurin and Turner are likely to go for 20 points on any given night, too, and until further notice Buddy Hield remains a walking bucket. The Pacers offense already was on a historic scoring pace before acquiring Siakam. NOW THEY'RE GOING TO ... well, they're going to score even more.
Defense is a whole other thing. The 2023-24 Pacers haven’t been terribly effective on that end, and Brown was their most decorated perimeter defender, but Andrew Nembhard is becoming a defensive force, and Turner still protects the rim, and Siakam does something Brown couldn’t do – guard the longer wings in the NBA.
Brown was a nice defender, but limited. He’s 6-4, you know? A bulldog, tough as all get out, but that and 25 cents will buy you, um, nothing when you’re trying to guard someone like George or Jayson Tatum or Kevin Durant. Siakam won’t shut those guys down – please – but at 6-8 and with a 7-3 wingspan, he gives the Pacers a long body to throw at players like that, and a long body for players like that to worry about at the other end.
The Pacers are really doing this, rebuilding on the fly without tanking, without hoping for a lucky bounce of the lottery ball. They have a superstar in Haliburton and a second star in Siakam, and now need just one more.
Could be Mathurin (14.6 ppg), whose ceiling we’ve not seen. Could be Jarace Walker, the rookie putting up huge numbers with the Mad Ants in the G League (24.4 ppg; shooting 50% from 3-point range). Could be a high-scoring wing the Pacers acquire in a deal centering on their glut of available big men – some combination of Jalen Smith, Obi Toppin and Isaiah Jackson.
Imagine a lineup where Myles Turner (17.2 ppg) is the Pacers' fifth-most dangerous offensive weapon.
This is happening. First the All-Star game comes Downtown, now a second All-Star comes to the Pacers. What next? Throat lozenges all around.
BECAUSE THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET LOUD AROUND HERE.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers rebuild almost complete after trading for Pascal Siakam