The Indiana Pacers are off to a second consecutive Eastern Conference Final after disposing of the 64-18 Cleveland Cavaliers in five games.
The Pacers are on the brink of making the NBA Finals, and given Indiana’s roster construction, they are worth analyzing as a potential team-building model for the rebuilding Washington Wizards.
Typical rebuilds focus extensively on losing games to get as many top draft picks as possible — not a bad strategy. But sometimes it doesn’t work out, as seen earlier this week when the Wizards (who were tied for the best odds in the draft lottery) fell all the way to pick no. 6.
The Pacers were built without any high draft picks. The highest-drafted player on the roster is Bennedict Mathurin, who was the no. 6 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Lots of key contributors like Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembard were second-round picks (or even went undrafted, as was the case with TJ McConnell).
The Pacers used the 2022 trade deadline to sell high on Domantas Sabonis, a great but not transcendent player who gave Indiana a high floor but low ceiling. In return they received second-year point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who has morphed so seamlessly into being Indiana’s franchise player that the fact he ever played for the Sacramento Kings will be a mere bar trivia question in the future.
One additional note on the Sabonis transaction: when looking to rebuild, always look to do business with the Sacramento Kings. It is simply smart to make deals with teams like the Kings, the Chicago Bulls, and the Phoenix Suns, who all seem to be consistently on the losing ends of major transactions.
The rest of the roster was built by hitting doubles in the draft and making smart trades. Andrew Nembhard, Benedict Mathurin, and Ben Sheppard are all really solid role players capable of both hitting open shots and defending well. Nembhard in particular has quietly emerged as one of the best defenders in the NBA and is shooting 50% from deep and averaging 14.6 points per game in the playoffs so far.
The Pascal Siakam trade from last season has gone swimmingly for Indiana as well. Siakam is one of the steadiest and most consistent offensive players in the NBA and is good for 20 points every single night. Obi Toppin and Aaron Nesmith, acquired from the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, respectively, have also been critical role players for this Pacers squad.
The Pacers lack a true top-top-top level NBA player like a Jokic or a Giannis. But the way they’ve constructed their roster — nine deep with guys who can give you 30 minutes a game who play hard, defend, and knock down open shots — provides an alternative model for team building in this modern era of parity in the NBA.
The whole operation is led by Haliburton, who is somewhere around the 12th best player in the NBA. AJ Johnson is certainly no Tyrese Haliburton, but the Wizards getting their hands on promising young players as other teams make panic trades indicates they are serious about long-term team building.
The way I see it, the Wizards are trending toward a Pacers-esque rebuild. They have a number of fun young players, but they all project as elite role players in the NBA. I love Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr, but what are their ceilings at the NBA level? It may be Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner, respectively — not bad players by any stretch of the imagination.
Washington is still waiting on its franchise player. Of course, had the lottery shaken out differently, that franchise player could have been Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper, but we now know the basketball gods are a cruel, cynical bunch.
Perhaps there’s a franchise player out there waiting for a real opportunity. It would be foolish to sit and wait for a Tyrese Haliburton to materialize out of thin air, so the Wizards front office better continue to be proactive.