Pacers Media Day: Winning? Development? What's the plan?

Pacers sound excited to see how much they have grown and improved compared to last season.

Hope springs eternal and most NBA Media Days and that was the case for the Pacers on Monday as the full team went through all of their annual picture and video duties while taking a break to speak with the media when available.

Rick Carlisle opened up the media sessions, sharing his thoughts and approach on the upcoming season for over 20 minutes. Despite his deadpan delivery, Carlisle seems excited about the group he’s coaching this season and hoping the team can take more big steps in the winning direction.

“We’ve spent two solid years in a true development mode, and we’re going to keep an eye on development, but we’re looking to take competitive steps,” Carlisle said. “It’s going to be hard. This is the NBA. We had a meeting last night with the guys and told them to expect it to be hard and to embrace it being hard.”

‘Competitive steps’ sounds like solid euphemism for wins which seems to be a touchy subject around the Fieldhouse the past couple of years. Later Carlisle mentioned he was reluctant to put a number (wins) on what would constitute success this season, using his team’s effort to outperform expectations last season, as an example that it is hard to know what to expect from all 30 teams around the league.

However…Carlisle certainly indicated he’s expecting the team to win their fair share of games and move past the idea expressed in the past that fans (and media) won’t be able to judge the team on wins and losses.

This was a more positive vibe than GM Chad Buchanan gave off in his media session last week which was mostly overshadowed by responding to reports about Buddy Hield.

“I wouldn’t want to put a win total or an ultimate goal for this season,” Buchanan said. “I think we’re trying to continue to look long term. We want to see growth and progress.”

That sounded a lot more like the expectation management we’ve heard the past couple of seasons and a change from the vibe following last season and after the draft this summer that they wanted to get the young core into the playoffs.

Focusing on the long-term, while not rushing to trade for say Jrue Holiday by using current players and draft picks is certainly prudent. But you have to hope and pray they are taking those calls and trying to make such a move. I would’ve loved to have Holiday added, even if just for this season, but try as I might, couldn’t put together a deal that truly made sense.

Regardless, the Pacers can’t rest on long-term planning much longer. Yes, Tyrese Haliburton has a contract for six more years. But after not finding any big moves to add another star-level player during the offseason, we are essentially down to five years.

Haliburton addressed his primary goal on Monday. Having had individual success, even with the All-Star Game in Indy this year, his only concern is winning.

“I really don’t care (about All-Star game), I just want to win,” Haliburton said. “I’ve done what I need to do individually for myself, now it’s just about winning games and getting into the playoffs. That’s the main goal for me first and foremost and us as a group.”

The hope is Bennedict Mathurin and Jarace Walker, along with Andrew Nembhard and any other young players can make a jump and become that type of player. That the big player trade or signing won’t be necessary if that player can come from within. But there needs to be a big flash this season.

With a deep roster of developing players, the competition is set to be strong for all but Myles Turner and Haliburton. Carlisle emphasized that the competition in camp will settle the rest of the playing rotation. Minutes will be earned, with doing those little things and defense breaking any ties.

It also makes sense that if some players who have been around don’t show strides, then they may be left behind. As Carlisle also mentioned, if some of the young players aren’t quite ready for prime time, they have the G-League in town now as a great development option.

But if the development lags across the board and those wins Haliburton and the rest of team desire so strongly are hard to come by, then Buchanan and Kevin Pritchard will have to consider being active at the trade deadline.

Just like we thought they might be last year or this summer.

Fortunately, the team still has plenty of powder dry to negotiate with when the time is right. But that long-term planning can fizzle in a hurry in the NBA. We’ve seen the story about young starts frustrated by inactivity play out before at the Fieldhouse (spoiler alert: never a happy ending). The front office has to prioritize putting the best team possible around Haliburton every year.

So, to put it in Carlisle’s terms, the Pacers always have to keep an eye on development, but the pressure is on to show those competitive steps this season, as well.

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These were my initial thoughts when leaving the St. Vincent Center today. Stay tuned for to come on what we heard and learned as the Pacers tip off preseason work this week.