Even without Haliburton and Turner, the Pacers are going to surprise -- again

There will be a lot of players accepting new roles, but the culture and the style of play will remain largely the same. Just watch.

It’s been several months, and Tyrese Haliburton has not yet gone back and watched the remarkable NBA playoff run to Game 7 of the Finals. It’s still too painful, wondering what might have been had his Achilles not tear early in that final game after a 3-for-4 shooting start. He hasn’t sat down to watch his heroics throughout the postseason, the game-winners, the buzzer-beaters, the magic he created last spring and summer.

At some point, he said, he will allow himself to bathe in the glory of that Pacers’ Finals run, but not just yet.

“I haven’t taken a ton of time to reflect, honestly,” Haliburton said recently. “It’s been hard for me to look back, watch old games from the playoffs. I haven’t watched a single playoff game since Game 7. It’s been tough. It’s been tough.

“...What we did was very special and something I’ll cherish for a long time. I don’t think I’m quite yet prepared to go back and watch games, just because it’s been hard for me because of the way it ended. It’s something I think about a lot, something I’ll cherish for a long time.

“It’s not something I want to forget necessarily --- not at all. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. That was the most fun I’ve ever had playing basketball in my life. We did some historic things and I think the goal for me is to create many more memories for Indiana sports fans and myself personally that surpass this...”

At some point, Haliburton will sit down and binge watch the post-season the way he would a Netflix show, but for now, both him and the team are looking ahead, having begun training camp this past Tuesday. For now, though, it’s all about rehabilitation and what’s next. And for his teammates, who not only lost Haliburton but saw Myles Turner exit the premises, it’s time to forge ahead, to find people who can somehow fill the massive holes left by those two players.

Most directly, there’s Andrew Nembhard, Mr. Postseason, who will fill Haliburton’s massive role at point guard. Nembhard is a born-and-bred point guard, played it at Gonzaga, but since he’s been paired with Haliburton, he’s been a 2-guard, a secondary ball handler. It won’t be much of a transition for Nembhard, but it will be a change for his teammates, who have to get used to “Drew’s pace,” according for forward Aaron Nesmith. Nobody, not even Nembhard, plays with the pace and has the gravity of Haliburton.

The onus now falls on Nesmith and/or Benn Mathurin to guard the other team’s best backcourt scoring threat, a role Nembhard filled so well in recent seasons. Remember how the Pacers struggled out of the gate last year? Yeah, well, no Nesmith and no Nembhard, the two best on-ball defenders on the team and two glue guys.

But the Pacers can’t expect Nembhard to seize the primary ball handling responsibilities while also covering the other team’s best scorer, especially given the high-energy way the Pacers defend all 94 feet.

Enter Nesmith and/or Mathurin.

“We can’t play the guy (Nembhard) into oblivion,” said Rick Carlisle.

Vegas doesn’t think much of the Pacers’ postseason chances this season -- the over/under for wins total is 38.5 victories -- but this team has a unique style of play, a selfless group and a culture that nearly catapulted them to a championship. Will it be far tougher without Haliburton and Turner? Obviously, it will. But I still see them playing .500 basketball or better and earning a seventh or eight playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“The standard is the standard,” Haliburton said, mimicking Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “We have created a culture here that is special in this league, and it’s something that I really care about. When I got traded here, the only guy that’s still from that group was T.J. (McConnell). There wasn’t much of a culture here. Coach Rick and his staff were helping to build that.

“I think we’ve done a great job; that’s not changing. Just because I’m not playing, we’re still going to play fast, still going to pick up full court, play with infectious joy and energy that we always do. That doesn’t change. The standard is always going to be the standard.”

Said Carlisle: “Yeah, there will be adjustments. Ty is really such an unusually important player for us. On the other hand, our core principles we want to keep the same. Most of it begins with hard play -- fast, hard play. And so we’ll make the adjustments we need to make, but we’ve got to be excited about the opportunity that some guys are going to have in his stead. It’ll be a lot of work, but it’ll be great.”

They are going to surprise people. Again.

But a lot of things have to go right -- besides decent health, of course.

They need Benn Mathurin, who is looking at a possible contract extension, to earn that next payday here in Indianapolis. He’s always been slightly mismatched with this group, more of a soloist than a team player, more of an isolation, hunt-out-the mismatches guy who consistently gets to the basket and draws fouls. It’s all about rapid-fire decision-making, an area where Mathurin has struggled his first few years. He’ll also be asked to do a lot more defensively in an effort to protect Nembhard.

“We just need him to run hard, shoot open shots that are there and make simple reads offensively,” Carlisle said. “Defensively, the challenges might be greater. There’s a very good chance that he’ll be asked to guard the ball in a lot of situations.”

They need the three-headed center monster to work together to offer the Pacers the kind of production they got from Turner. Jay Huff, the newcomer from Memphis, figures to be the most comfortable fit. He’s a stretch 5, like Turner, and a solid shot blocker, like Turner. And there’s Isaiah Jackson, Tony Bradley and James Wiseman, the four of them cobbling together productive minutes every night.

“We have four guys that are very, very good and they all bring something different,” Carlisle said. “A lot of this, we’ve just got to play it out in training camp and preseason games and see what’s what. I don’t have any preconceived notions as to who’s going to start.”

This is also a massive season for third-year forward Jarace Walker. He’s been a 15-minutes-per-game guy, but Walker, and the Pacers, want more from the No. 8 draft selection.

“If there’s one thing as an organization that I’m most proud of is that we have been able over the last two years to not only win and win in the playoffs, but we’ve been able to develop players while doing that,” Carlisle said.

In many ways, the Pacers are in an advantageous position. If they’re as good as we think they will be, they’ll return to the playoffs. If they fall apart without Haliburton and Turner, they might fall to the Lottery, which wouldn’t be the worst thing.

I’m saying they’re going to surprise -- again. I’m saying they find their way to the playoffs. There’s still talent here, still magic. Even without Haliburton and Turner. Never underestimate this group, and never understand the impact of Carlisle and his coaching staff.

As Haliburton rehabs -- he called the last few months “a drag” -- the Pacers will push forward. Do you doubt that they’ll overachieve yet again? I don’t. Not for a minute.