Basketball, She Wrote

Indiana Pacers 2025-26 Lookahead (Patreon)

Published:

2025-09-24 15:58:57

Imported:

2026-06

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Content

A very delicate balancing act

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

With training camp right around the corner, I have once again taken part in one of my favorite pre-preseason traditions: Talking into a microphone with the always-thorough and endlessly-inquisitive Dan Favale at Bleacher Report for his annual lookahead series via his podcast Hardwood Knocks. Since we covered so much ground about the upcoming season for the Pacers, with Dan posing a full rundown of questions from his unique, outside perspective, I decided to post that conversation here for all of you to (hopefully!) enjoy. (As a quick note, this was recorded prior to the news of the addition of Monte Morris.)

Here are the relevant timestamps, as provided by Hardwood Knocks:

0:00 - INTRO

1:22 - The transformation of the Pacers

10:05 - Covering the NBA Finals

12:46 - The Tyrese Halliburton recovery

16:31 - The loss of Myles Turner

20:33 - Playing five-out vs four-out

23:21 - Isaiah Jackson’s return

25:13 - Jay Huff’s fit

28:33 - Will James Wiseman have a role?

30:35 - Pascal Siakam-Obi Toppin minutes

34:12 - Continued development of Bennedict Mathurin

42:28 - Andrew Nembhard as the lead guard

46:28 - What makes the Pacers defense special?

48:01 - The Andrew Nembhard-Pascal Siakam dynamic

50:40 - Can Aaron Nesmith get even better?

55:54 - Future of Jarace Walker

59:35 -Pascal Siakam falling down/transition defense

1:01:34 - Ben Sheppard

1:04:20 - Johnny Furphy, Taelon Peter, Kam Jones, RayJ Dennis

1:10:24 - Biggest needs

1:13:07 - Under the radar storyline

1:15:26 - Top-10 rotation

1:16:59 - Go-to closing lineup

1:18:13 - Weirdo lineups we want to see

1:19:45 - PREDICTIONS

Also, if you want more pre-preseason content from: Here is a link to a preview that I recorded with The Athletic NBA Daily earlier this month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8OvehFMga8&t=847s

Files

Previews only

Can The Pacers Survive Without Tyrese Haliburton?

Dan is joined by Caitlin Cooper (@CaitlinCooperBSW) from 'Basketball, She Wrote" for a deep dive into the 2025-26 Indiana Pacers. SUBSCRIBE TO 'BASKETBALL, SHE WROTE; ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/cw/basketballshewrote. CHAPTERS BELOW. GET ALL OF OUR 2025-26 NBA SEASON LOOKAHEAD EPISODES HERE⤵️ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsDA9BkMoPHScfLqtAMaAK8qPPxCn0Bj6&si=iHngp3viA_UBX18r SUPPORT THE SHOW BY PURCHASING HARDWOOD KNOCKS MERCH⤵️ https://hardwood-knocks-shop.fourthwall.com/? JOIN THE HARDWOOD KNOCKS DISCORD⤵️ https://discord.com/invite/vFF4kKPMdb 🍎LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS⤵️ http://apple.co/2iIw0IJ ✳️LISTEN ON SPOTIFY⤵️ https://spoti.fi/4bZV9XJ BUSINESS INQUIRIES⤵️ HardwoodKnocks@gmail.com FOLLOW HARDWOOD KNOCKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA⤵️ Dan's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/danfavale.bsky.social Grant's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/granthughes.bsky.social Dan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/danfavale Grant's Twitter: https://twitter.com/gt_hughes Dan's IG: https://www.instagram.com/danfavale Twitter: https://twitter.com/HardwoodKnocks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hardwood_knocks/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardwoodknocks CHAPTERS⤵️ 0:00 - INTRO 1:22 - The transformation of the Pacers 10:05 - Covering the NBA Finals 12:46 - The Tyrese Halliburton recovery 16:31 - The loss of Myles Turner 20:33 - Playing five-out vs four-out 23:21 - Isaiah Jackson’s return 25:13 - Jay Huff’s fit 28:33 - Will James Wiseman have a role? 30:35 - Pascal Siakam-Obi Toppin minutes 34:12 - Continued development of Bennedict Mathurin 42:28 - Andrew Nembhard as the lead guard 46:28 - What makes the Pacers defense special? 48:01 - The Andrew Nembhard-Pascal Siakam dynamic 50:40 - Can Aaron Nesmith get even better? 55:54 - Future of Jarace Walker 59:35 -Pascal Siakam falling down/transition defense 1:01:34 - Ben Sheppard 1:04:20 - Johnny Furphy, Taelon Peter, Kam Jones, RayJ Dennis 1:10:44 - Biggest needs 1:13:07 - Under the radar storyline 1:15:26 - Top-10 rotation 1:16:59 - Go-to closing lineup 1:18:13 - Weirdo lineups we want to see 1:19:45 - PREDICTIONS #nba #pacers #indianapacers #tyresehaliburton #pascalsiakam