As tinkerers, the Pacers are already back to being the Pacers

First impressions from Indiana's first preseason game

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Playing their first "game" of a season without Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers made 20 threes and scored 28 fast-break points. For frame of reference, Indiana only reached the former bench-mark three times in 82 games last season, and they only notched at least 25 fast-break points 12 times. Those two things never happened in the same game - until now. As such, it was a very preseason way to start the preseason, as Minnesota's upsized starting lineup didn't exactly look hungry like the wolf with regard to stopping the ball to start the game but could later be seen wearing street clothes while eating chips on the bench during extended garbage time at the end of the game.

Again, preseason! Ultimately, after leading by as many as 24 points, a small-ball bench lineup for the Pacers staved off a small-ball bench lineup full of former Pacers (i.e. Alize Johnson, Tristen Newton, and Enrique Freeman all made appearances!) for a 135-134 win in overtime. With plenty of pace, shooting, and back-court pressure, the Pacers looked like themselves in several respects, while also reorienting themselves in a few ways to not look like themselves.

Here's what stood out:

After the jump

For everyone (me) wondering whether Andrew Nembhard would still be in position to get a jump on snatching the opening jump, the answer is yes.

Tellingly, there's a lot of nuance to that specific nuance of Nembhard's game. Because he's in position to rundown the tip, he's also in position to immediately start pressuring the opposing team's starting point guard. That means he isn't in position to receive the ball as his own team's starting point guard. Instead, the place on the court where Tyrese Haliburton would've been standing last season is occupied by Pascal Siakam. Meanwhile, Bennedict Mathurin is assigned to the other team's best player, Anthony Edwards, which is a change from when the Pacers won in overtime with a starting lineup mostly composed of reserves this past March. Back then, Mathurin was assigned to Mike Conley with Nembhard taking on Edwards while also starting as lead initiator.

As Rick Carlisle indicated at Media Day, there's a very good chance that Mathurin's going to have to guard the ball in more situations. In order to lessen the load for Nembhard, keep an eye on whether Mathurin also guards the other team's best player on Saturday, when the other team's best player, being Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is also their lead initiator, requiring more herky-jerky screen navigation.

Pascal Siakam, "handling" the pressure

Last season, Pascal Siakam averaged 6.2 possessions as the bring-up ball-handler for the Pacers while playing 32.7 minutes per game. In this exhibition game against Minnesota, he likewise logged six such possessions, but in just 14 minutes of action. Any time the Wolves picked up the intensity on actually picking up the ball higher up the floor, Siakam was typically the release valve, as the expected secondary ball-handler, running alongside Nembhard.

From there, when he wasn't walking into pull-up threes (because, apparently, that's a thing he does now), he and Nembhard would flow into a flat, two-man screening action with the other three players lined up along the baseline, as detailed here. Of course, when the Pacers went to that action in the past, when Nembhard, Mathurin, Nesmith, and Siakam were on the floor, they would oftentimes put a guard in the dunker spot with a stretch-shooting big in the strong-side corner. As a result, the only player available to protect the rim for the opposing team would also be a guard.

Now, with Isaiah Jackson slotted in as the starter, he's the player occupying the dunker spot, which means that Rudy Gobert is the player lurking around the basket in the background.

Plus, while the 4-out alignment certainly creates a wider gap for Siakam to attack into, the gap isn't quite as wide as what would be the case with Haliburton flanking him at the wing, as Julius Randle can be seen taking extra steps to double the mismatch. Presuming that other teams respond similarly, it's going to be imperative that Mathurin continues to let the ball fly without any hesitation, just as he can be seen doing there against the long closeout from Gobert, when the defense is in rotation. This is good!

Crash course in crashing

For someone who is typically wired to catch-and-drive, maybe Mathurin will be goaded into immediately taking more of the catch-and-shoot threes that come to him by virtue of how much more often the Pacers seem to be looking to crash the glass (i.e. if he misses, he knows his team might still get a second chance.) Last season, the Pacers averaged 4.95 possessions with at least three players crashing the offensive glass, which ranked 26th in the league. On Tuesday night in Minnesota, they logged 30 such possessions. When the ball went up on above the break threes, there were typically at least three, and sometimes all five players, running at the backs of their match-ups (as was described in last month's mailbag with regard to Jay Huff's tenure in Memphis) to potentially create 50/50 opportunities while also staying matched up with those players, 5-on-5, in transition.

For the game, while it was certainly attention-grabbing that the Pacers racked up 28 fast-break points without Haliburton, it was almost more telling as to how they might need to play moving forward without Haliburton, that they finished the game with nearly more offensive rebounds (17) than fast-break points allowed (18). At the end of the third quarter, before both teams had gone full end-of-the-bench mode, Minnesota only had six fast-break points. To be fair, the Timberwolves ranked just 26th in fast-break points last season, but the fact that the Pacers managed to generate extra possessions on the glass without giving up extra points in a hurry the other way, especially when the league tends to play faster in preseason, seems to suggest that crashing could provide them with a means to avoiding crashing out in games when they don't make, say, 20 threes while also scoring 25-plus fast-break points.

That said, attention to detail will be of the utmost importance. When the shot goes up, the shooter absolutely has to stay with the player who closed out on them, and there can be no outrunning the coverage to chase rebounds, as Jalen Slawson can be seen doing here.

In that way, the Pacers can heighten their margin for error with regard to ball security by generating extra chances, but only if, in the pursuit of applying pressure on the backs of their match-ups, they also stay on the high side of those match-ups. Otherwise, just as they aim to do to their opponents, they could find themselves under pressure to avoid paying a fast-price without the ability to set the pressure that defines them.

Frontcourt Pairings

When Isaiah Jackson picked up his third foul with 9:38 to play in the first quarter on an illegal screen while unnecessarily sticking out his hip to make contact (yes, he still does this), the first big off the bench was Tony Bradley. Given how much time was left in the quarter, and the fact that the Pacers played most of this game with platoon-like substitution patterns (with five players replacing five players), it made sense to go with a third-string option over Jay Huff so as to maintain lineup continuity. Nevertheless, it seemed notable that Bradley, who is on a non-guaranteed contract, got first nod to play with the starters over James Wiseman.

More interesting than the pecking order, though, was the defensive dynamic between some of the various frontcourt combinations. When the screener got loose on an empty-side pick-and-roll with Bradley playing up at the level of the screen, Siakam was there at the ready as a secondary rim protector with Mathurin sinking to help the helper.

Now, look at the difference when, even with Johnny Furphy providing a gentle nudge as the potential help the helper defender, Toppin is in the same role as Siakam - only much later.

Ideally, Jarace Walker wouldn't lose his footing climbing over the top of the screen from Gobert, but that's also kinda the point, as far as monitoring how the Toppin-Huff frontcourt navigates compensating for flaws in screen navigation, especially while playing in lineups without most of the team's best screen navigators. Last season, Huff's average max screener defender depth while playing for the Grizzlies was 7.690 feet. In his first preseason game for the Pacers, that number was just 4.948 feet. He's going to be asked to defend further from the hoop, which means the on-ball defender needs to stay in the play, whether veering or chasing over. Otherwise, Toppin is going to have to be more on point with his rotations when the rim protector is away from the rim.

Needless to say, when (if?) Huff gets up to speed with the speed of how the Pacers play, there might be some reason to remain flexible on which center plays with which lineup, especially given his inflexibility as a defender, as well as Jackson's (current) inflexibility as a shooter.

Third-string center

By overtime, there was a whole lot of flexibility with regard to who closed at the five, as Jarace Walker re-entered to join a lineup comprised of RayJ Dennis, Taelon Peter, Jalen Slawson, and Gabe McGlothan. At that point, Wiseman had played more than 15 consecutive minutes in his first game back since tearing his Achillles, and the Timberwolves were small with old friend Enrique Freeman manning the middle for Minnesota. But, it was also fairly clear why Bradley was the first big off the bench in the first quarter.

There's just a lot of instances with Wiseman where, despite the fact that he can get to his spot at a rapid pace, he doesn't make the most of it, like here when he never looks for the high seal in transition to create what would've been a massive catch area with the corner empty and then proceeds to stand and/or roll behind various smaller defenders.

Or, gets back in transition but doesn't actually get back to the protect basket (twice!).

Maybe some of that can be written off as preseason, but preseason is also where he needs to distinguish himself from the other big who just managed to carve out minutes playing on a team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals and Finals. Wiseman has more upside than Bradley, but as long as he's gone from where he needs to be, the decision at third-string big shouldn't be a foregone conclusion.

To be fair, Walker also made some very preseason-like decisions when he re-entered with the Pacers ultimately opting to close small. As in, taking this shot while clinging to a one-point lead with 36 seconds to play in overtime was a thing that happened.

Still, he finished the game similar to how the Pacers started, with ball pressure impacting the flow of the offense for Minnesota, as the outcome of the game ended up hinging on a three from Freeman after Walker had put a cork on the drive.

All of which is to say that, from the start of the first quarter to the end of overtime, the Pacers did a lot that looked like the Pacers, while also teasing some new potential means by which to not look like the Pacers when they don't look like the Pacers. After all, they aren't always going to make 20 threes. Every opponent isn't going to finish games with their star eating chips on the sideline, and even more might be asked of Siakam in the ways specified if T.J. McConnell and Delon Wright both remain sidelined after sustaining injuries. There's more tinkering to do, with regard to who plays with whom and who guards who, as well as more to learn about players like Johnny Furphy, Taelon Peter, and Quenton Jackson, who all demonstrated some tantalizing flashes as well as a few limitations when pressed into larger roles; however, for a team that seemingly won via their usual characteristics, a lot of subtle tinkering, in finding others potential characteristics by which to rely on without Haliburton to lean on, has already started and (probably) only just begun.