The 2026 Indiana Pacers have to be concerned that the NBA’s Eastern Conference has transformed from wide open to highly contested in the span of a single offseason. While the reigning Eastern Conference and NBA champs still reside in New York, numerous other contenders have added significant firepower this summer.
The 76ers’ additions of LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, and much-needed bench depth have catapulted them into true-contender status. Miami’s acquisition of Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks gives the Heat arguably the best defensive duo in the league, and the Toronto Raptors are in the process of adding superstar Kawhi Leonard to a strong core of young players.
Add to the mix a group of established playoff contenders like the Celtics, Pistons, Cavaliers, and Hawks, and youth movements in Charlotte, Brooklyn, Chicago, and Washington, and the East is shaping up to be the strongest it’s been in years.
It’s easy to forget that just a year ago Indiana represented the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals and pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven hard-fought games. A Game 7 Tyrese Haliburton Achilles injury derailed not only the Pacers’ Finals hopes, but also their 2025-26 season. Without their superstar point guard, the Pacers had the second-worst record in the NBA last season and their lowest win total (19) in team history. A year removed from that painful Game 7 loss, the Pacers are a different team. Players have come and gone, trades have been made, and Indiana will have to forge a new identity.
2026 Indiana Pacers Season Outlook
There is plenty of reason to doubt Indiana’s chances of returning to the NBA Finals. Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, two major contributors to the Pacers’ 2025 Finals run, have left Indiana. Haliburton hasn’t played basketball in over a year and may need an entire season to return to form, and a 32-year-old Pascal Siakam isn’t getting any younger. If the Pacers want to have any chance of making a deep playoff run, they will need to fall back on two competitive advantages: familiarity and identity.
On opening night, four out of the five players who started in 2025 will do so again: Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, and Pascal Siakam. In addition to the roster, Rick Carlisle is entering the sixth season of his second stint as Indiana Head Coach. He has managed this core for as long as they’ve played together, and while familiarity and chemistry may be hard to quantify, they are intangibles that teams like the Heat, Celtics, and Sixers can’t match. For a team that embodies a “greater than the sum of its parts” mantra as intensely as the Pacers, this level of cohesion is critical.
The Pacers’ offense is proof of that. Indiana’s offensive strategy is predicated on getting the best shot possible regardless of who takes it. The team has consistently ranked in the top five of ball and player movement rankings since Rick Carlisle took over, and boasts some of the narrowest shot distribution numbers in the NBA. As the leader of the offense, Haliburton has been perfectly content to be a distributor and set the rhythm of the team’s attack – with a usage rate of 21.6% for the 2024-25 season, he didn’t even crack the top 50. In a league filled with heliocentric offenses that put the burden on their superstars to score, the Pacers are unique.
Indiana’s two major additions, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Ivica Zubac, provide the Pacers the opportunity to evolve as a team. Oubre Jr., who features in Maxwell Solomon’s list of “Under the Radar” free agent signings this summer, is an athletic wing who will bring energy and dynamism off the bench. He will fit well within a system like Indiana’s that likes to push the pace and get easy buckets in transition. Zubac’s fit is less straightforward; the Croatian center is a more traditional five than Myles Turner, feeling more comfortable in the paint than outside it. With one three-pointer to his name over the course of his entire NBA career, the Pacers will miss Turner’s outside shooting.
Zubac brings to the Pacers a profile they have sorely missed over the last few seasons. A second-team All-NBA defender in 2024-25, he’s one of the more underrated rim protectors in the league. Zubac’s inclusion in the starting five could help the Pacers’ defense go from average (ranked 13th in 2024-25) to top ten. He is also a much better rebounder than Turner and presents the Pacers with a more diversified interior scoring repertoire.
Oubre Jr. and Zubac have the advantage of entering a clearly defined ecosystem. If they make the right pass, see the right cut, or make the unselfish play, they will be rewarded. It’s hard to assign value to intangibles like chemistry, reps, and continuity, but Indiana is as strong as any in those departments. It may be hard to imagine them contending with the Sixers or Knicks, but the last time this team was fully healthy, they made the NBA Finals. They were underdogs in 2025, and it would be foolish to count them out again this season.
