Season Wrap: The 2025-26 Indiana Pacers

Last Updated on April 28, 2026 11:24 am by Mike Passador | Published: April 28, 2026

Nobody gave the Pacers nearly enough credit last year. They went to the NBA Finals, took the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7, and had a real shot at a championship before Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles gave out in the first quarter. That team earned its flowers eventually. This one did not give us much to work with.

How’d It Go?

The short version: the Pacers finished 19-63, second to last in the Eastern Conference, one year removed from taking the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The longer version involves Tyrese Haliburton’s torn Achilles, Myles Turner’s departure to the Bucks, and one of the more relentless injury pileups a team has seen in recent memory.

The hopeful framing entering the season was that a team built with real depth, coming off two straight Conference Finals appearances, could absorb Haliburton’s absence and stay competitive in a manageable Eastern Conference even if they weren’t a title threat. Andrew Nembhard was going to take the keys. Bennedict Mathurin was going to be the scoring engine. Aaron Nesmith, fresh off a strong postseason, was going to anchor the wing. Pascal Siakam was still here. On paper, there was a reasonable case to be made.

Then Nembhard missed the first 10 games with a hamstring problem, and the team went 1-9 without him. TJ McConnell had a slow start because of hamstring problems. Mathurin missed significant time early. Nesmith sustained a left MCL sprain right as the point guards were filtering back in, costing him 19 games in the stretch that mattered most. Obi Toppin needed foot surgery. Ben Sheppard had a calf strain. The injury report read like a roster at some point, and the tank was set in motion before the season had really begun.

By February, the front office made the sensible call to stop treading water. Indiana sent Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, two first-rounders, and a second-round pick to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown. It was a meaningful haul of assets to move, but the season was long gone by then, and Zubac gives the team a real starting center after Turner left. From there, Indiana leaned fully into the tank, shutting Zubac down after just five games, letting the young guys play, and accepting where things were headed. The second half of the season became a development exercise, which at least gave Jarace Walker a real runway and showed the organization some things worth building on.

The honest takeaway is that losing Haliburton is simply too much to absorb for a team built so specifically around his playmaking. Every system the Pacers had constructed — the pace, the spacing, the ball movement, the late-game decision-making — ran through him, and without him, none of it worked the way it was supposed to. That is not an indictment of the roster. It is just the reality of what Haliburton means to this team.

The one thing a 19-63 record buys you is a real shot at a franchise-altering draft pick. The Pacers finished second to last in the NBA and will have some of the best lottery odds in the league, putting a top-2 or top-3 pick well within reach. With Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, and AJ Dybantsa all potentially available in those first three slots, the bounce-back timeline could be shorter than this season makes it look. Add a healthy Haliburton and a full season of Ivica Zubac back into the mix and suddenly the offseason conversation looks very different from the season itself.

Coaching

Rick Carlisle has earned enough goodwill over the past two seasons that one historically bad record is not going to define him, and that is probably appropriate. He was dealt an impossible hand. Managing a 19-63 team while developing young players, keeping veterans engaged, and processing a trade deadline sell-off is not a job anyone signs up for, and Carlisle navigated it with the kind of professionalism you would expect from one of the better coaches in the league.

That said, there were real questions about whether he was aggressive enough in giving younger players the rope they needed early in the season. With the season effectively lost early, you would have liked to see more development minutes for Walker and some of the younger pieces right from the jump. On one hand, those young players didn’t do very much to force the coach’s hand, and perhaps they all struggled because of Indiana’s lacking guard play. On the other, by the second half, the minutes were there and players like Walker responded to them. The bigger test comes next year when Haliburton is back and the Pacers are supposed to be competing again. Carlisle’s track record gives every reason to expect him to handle it.

The Players

Pascal Siakam

PF, Indiana Pacers

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
25-26	IND	62	62	33.2	9.0	18.6	48.4	4.2	6.1	69.3	1.7	4.7	35.8	24.0	6.6	3.8	1.1	0.4	2.2
24-25	IND	78	78	32.7	7.9	15.2	51.9	2.9	3.9	73.4	1.6	4.2	38.9	20.2	6.9	3.4	0.9	0.5	1.4
23-24	IND	80	80	33.2	8.5	15.9	53.6	3.6	5.0	73.2	1.1	3.1	34.6	21.7	7.1	4.3	0.8	0.3	1.8

ADP: 30.3 / 18.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 98/112 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 86/105 (8/9-cat)

Siakam delivered a mixed bag in 2025-26, falling well short of his expected output but still putting up a new career-best in scoring. The counting stats were good but Siakam also shot .693 on over six free throws per game and was mostly absent in the second half of the season, so the positives did not outweigh the negatives.

Coming into the year it was expected that Siakam would make some slight volume gains across the box score while suffering a bit in efficiency in the absence of Tyrese Haliburton. That is more or less what we got, though the disastrous free throw shooting ended up turning Siakam’s stat line into top-85/105 value in 8/9-cat leagues. He jumped to a top-45 guy in punt-FT% builds — still short of the ADP but at least defensible. The other big problem is that the Pacers were much, much worse than anticipated. Of Siakam’s 20 absences, 16 came after the All-Star break as the team started tanking hard. He played a lot whenever he was available, but Siakam could only muster top-75/120 value in 11 games after the break. Everything was looking on track besides the free throws, and Siakam’s crawl to the finish line can be attributed to factors outside his control. It’s hard to come away from this season happy with Siakam’s performance, but it was at least respectable if you were able to pivot to a punt-FT% build.

Andrew Nembhard

PG, Indiana Pacers

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
25-26	IND	57	57	31.3	5.8	13.2	44.2	3.4	4.1	82.5	1.9	5.2	36.1	16.9	2.8	7.7	0.9	0.1	2.4
24-25	IND	65	65	28.9	3.8	8.3	45.8	1.7	2.1	79.4	0.8	2.7	29.1	10.0	3.3	5.0	1.2	0.2	1.7
23-24	IND	68	47	25.0	3.8	7.7	49.8	0.7	0.8	80.4	0.9	2.5	35.7	9.2	2.1	4.1	0.9	0.1	1.5

ADP: 73.0 / 87.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 117/144 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 94/130 (8/9-cat)

Andrew Nembhard put together some career-best numbers in 2025-26, averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 assists to go with 1.9 threes and 0.9 steals in 31.3 minutes per night.

It was pretty obvious Nembhard would be required to handle a greater offensive load with Tyrese Haliburton out for the season, and he responded with those career-best numbers. His efficiency did not drop off too much either, holding at 44.2 percent from the field, which is respectable for a guard carrying that kind of offensive load. An early injury slowed him down and might have had a huge ripple effect on the team’s season overall but when he was around, you got the leap you were expecting. Nembhard was not immune to the Pacers’ tanking efforts but still played in 57 games overall, a higher total than one could have expected given the circumstances. Nembhard will most likely take a step back next season with Haliburton returning, but his assists and steals profile makes him a sharp mid-to-late round target depending on where the role shakes out.

Ivica Zubac

C, Indiana Pacers

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
25-26	IND	48	47	30.1	6.0	10.0	59.8	2.1	3.0	71.1	14.1	10.6	2.2	0.4	0.8	1.8
24-25	LAC	80	80	32.8	7.4	11.8	62.8	2.0	3.0	66.1	16.8	12.6	2.7	0.7	1.1	1.6
23-24	LAC	68	68	26.4	5.0	7.6	64.9	1.8	2.4	72.3	11.7	9.2	1.4	0.3	1.2	1.2

ADP: 40.4 / 49.3 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 171/170 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 103/109 (8/9-cat)

Zubac slipped slightly in 2025-26 after a career year, totaling 14.1 points on nearly 60 percent from the field, 10.6 rebounds, and less than a block per game in 30.1 minutes across stints with the Clippers and the Pacers. Most of his counting stats dropped compared to his career-best 2024-25 season and while that can be partially attributed to his minutes dropping from 32.8 to 30.1 per game, his per-possession numbers also show a decrease. Coming off myriad injuries, including a fractured rib that ended his season in Indiana and a left ankle sprain that held him out for roughly a month while still with the Clippers, his range of outcomes heading into 2026-27 feels wide. We expected some steps back and although Zubac wasn’t necessarily hurt by the presence of a competent backup in Brook Lopez, he lost some steam as LA struggled for the first couple of months. He was a total non-factor after the trade deadline as the tanking Pacers only had him suit up in five games, and that was without most of his future teammates flanking him. None of that changes what he represents going forward for Indiana. The Pacers gave up a meaningful haul to acquire him, which signals genuine organizational belief, and he fits the system well alongside a returning Haliburton.

Jay Huff

C, Indiana Pacers

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
25-26	IND	82	47	21.0	3.5	7.5	47.6	1.0	1.2	82.8	1.5	4.5	31.9	9.5	4.0	1.5	0.5	1.9	0.9
24-25	MEM	64	2	11.7	2.5	4.8	51.5	0.7	0.9	78.6	1.3	3.1	40.5	6.9	2.0	0.6	0.3	0.9	0.5
23-24	DEN	19	0	2.6	0.5	0.8	60.0	0.1	0.1	100.0	0.2	0.5	33.3	1.2	0.6	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1

ADP: 141.7 / 140.1 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 60/45 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 137/100 (8/9-cat)

This is just a sneak peek of the Season Wrap. The entire roster is covered, as well as the Fantasy Star, Letdown, One to Watch and One Burning Question for this team. You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required