The 2023–24 Indiana Pacers regular season is now officially finished, and the postseason is quickly approaching. The Pacers concluded their season with a commanding victory over the Atlanta Hawks, 83 games and 172 days after their season-opening victory over Washington. The Pacers’ victory guaranteed them the sixth seed in the East, and they will play the Milwaukee Bucks in their first postseason matchup in four years in just two days.
Many things can be said about how well the Pacers fared in comparison to preseason expectations now that the regular season is officially over. At first, most experts projected Indiana to either miss the playoffs entirely or make a surprise run via the Play-In Tournament. Vegas and betters put Indiana at about 39 wins. Regardless your perspective, the Pacers regular season is a resounding success, and all members of the club should be pleased with their performance.
But some players stood out more than others, and as the playoffs approach, it’s a good idea to evaluate the Pacers’ whole regular season and assess how each player and coach Rick Carlisle performed. These players will be evaluated based on preseason expectations, how those expectations were met, their position on the team, and the implications of their present play for both their own and the club’s future.
Only active Pacers will be assessed, naturally, and they have to have played a substantial amount of minutes this year (at least 10 each game). That means we have 13 players and 1 coach to evaluate, plus the entire season and one more thing we’ll find out later.
Let’s go right to the grades without further ado!
Haliburton Tyrese
Statistics: 69 Games, 32 MPG, 20.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 10.9 APG (record for franchise), 1.2 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 2.3 TOV, 1.1 FPG 47.7/36.4/85.5 Splits on 60.5% TS
2022–2023 Statistics: 49/40/87.1 split on 62.4% TS, 56 Games, 33.6 MPG, 20.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 10.4 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 2.5 TOV, 1.2 FPG
Tyrese Haliburton performed admirably in the first 56 games of the season, and I gave him a clean A+ in my midseason grades. Having made his first All-Star team and led Indiana to postseason contention before injuries kept him and the team out of contention, Haliburton built on his incredible 2022–2023 season. It was evident that Haliburton wasn’t happy with the way the season ended, and he returned in October determined to disprove everyone.
And he did just that throughout the first part of the season. The pre-All-Star run of Tyrese Haliburton, who led Indiana to a 31-25 record at the half after taking the NBA by storm and refining every aspect of his game, is the stuff of legends. Through this run, Haliburton cemented himself and the Pacers as a squad that is unquestionably on the rise and prepared to contend for a championship in the coming years in the eyes of both casual fans and media pundits.
They demonstrated this spirit of competition in the In-Season Tournament, where Haliburton shocked the basketball world with back-to-back wins over the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks that featured memorable moments. After defeating Milwaukee twice in retaliation at the start of the new year, it appeared that nothing could stop Haliburton.
Sadly, Haliburton suffered a catastrophic hamstring injury against the Boston Celtics prior to the All-Star break. The injury kept him out of the game for several games and had an impact on his performance for the remainder of the season. According to Haliburton in an interview, what was first believed to be a post-injury slowdown that would pass after some rest turned into a nightmare as he went into the deepest slump of his life.
Haliburton’s averages fell precipitously over the course of the 17 games played between February 8 and March 18. During this stretch, he scored just 15.6 points per game (41% from the field and 26% from deep) and actively eliminated Indiana from the game with his dreadful shooting, particularly from long.
Even though he continued to dish out assists and add value with his playmaking, he was essentially a negative player on the court the most of the time, and TJ McConnell was outperforming him at this time. Even though Indiana bounced back from his slump, going 9-8 behind players like McConnell and Pascal Siakam (who we will talk about soon), Haliburton’s lack of consistency was still affecting the team and appeared to be a worry heading into the postseason.
Fortunately, Haliburton’s season did not stop with this slump; in the final eight games of the campaign, he rebounded well, scoring 19.1 points per game on 48% from the field and 36% from deep to give Indiana the much-needed boost they needed to qualify for the postseason. Nevertheless, Haliburton’s grade will reflect the fact that his second half of the season was noticeably weaker than his first.
But it’s vital to recognize how good Haliburton was for the Pacers when he was playing at his best, which was frequently. When Tyrese Haliburton was playing at his best, he was being discussed seriously as the greatest point guard in the East. Although those discussions have cooled down, he appears to have found his stride again and is healthy enough for the postseason.
He still had one of the best individual seasons in franchise history in spite of the injury. After four years of mediocrity, Haliburton broke the team record for single-season assists and sent them back to the postseason. I hope the hamstring holds up well for the postseason.
Final Grade: A- (one of the best seasons in club history, but greatly handicapped by injuries)
