As the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers snapped a drought of 10 years without an NBA Playoffs series win by topping Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks this postseason.
After being swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, Pacers GM Chad Buchanan spoke to the media on Tuesday, and he addressed avenues for the team to get better – per Evan Sidery of Forbes:
“Pacers GM Chad Buchanan said today they’re comfortable running it back with their roster, but if the right opportunity presents itself on the trade market, they will get aggressive. Indiana’s young core of talent could potentially get them into most conversations for star-level players this offseason, if they decided to go in that direction.”
While the priority for the Pacers must be re-signing Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin, the team does have an intriguing group of young players. Players like Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, Jalen Smith, and Bennedict Mathurin are all under the age of 24 and likely will have value around the rest of the NBA.
While the wisest course of action for Buchanan may be to run things back after re-signing Siakam and Toppin and relying on internal development from their youngsters, if the right opportunity presents itself, the Pacers would be well served by listening to offers.
Pacers fall to Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals
Despite never having been the playoffs with this core, the Pacers overcame the Bucks and Knicks to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they met the Celtics. Boston was the NBA's most dominant regular-season team and a group that – unlike the Pacers – have been deep into the postseason multiple times.
Despite holding leads late in three games, the Pacers could not hold in any of the games, with Jaylen Brown's forcing of overtime in Game 1 acting as a fitting preview for how the series would play out.
Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who made as surprising of an impact this postseason as possibly anyone, said the team gained valuable experience in these playoffs.
“For a young team like us, this experience in the playoffs is second to none,” Nembhard said. “A lot of our first times. A lot of little things we maybe wanted to do better and we learned how these games go and what being in a series feels like.”
But Pascal Siakam, the rare veteran with previous playoff and championship experience, knows all too well that harsh losses like the ones Indiana suffered doesn't automatically translate into success down the line.
“I can tell you like, yeah, we're going to learn from it and it's going to happen, but it's not guaranteed,” Siakam said. “I know how hard it is to get to this point. It's unfortunate. You want to give credit to the other team because they took advantage of every mistake that we made. They did well.”
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