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Pacers Mailbag: New Players, New Trends, New Team, New Season, etc.
🕑 Added 2025-09-26 12:00:16 +0000 UTCOn the newness of Jay Huff, Delon Wright, and everything that might have to change in a season without Tyrese Haliburton
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
The NBA's offseason is about to become the NBA's on-season. That means, with training camp about to start but before any preseason games have been played, this month's mailbag largely offers a mix of questions about what hasn't been seen yet for the Pacers, ranging from new players (such as Jay Huff and Delon Wright) to new trends (with regard to random defense), and everything else that might be new in a season without Tyrese Haliburton.
Additionally, there's also some fun remnants of offseason, in the form of inquiries about books, learning the game, and what, if anything, has changed for me post-Finals.
Without further ado, let's mailbag.
KF: Since all we've seen or heard from Jay Huff so far this summer is from Pascal Siakam's pre-preseason clips, I'm wondering if there are any micro-skills you've noticed about him that could help us get to know him better?
My article following the trade for Jay Huff wasn't so much about Jay Huff as the broader implications for the team, so this is a fair question. Turns out, neither he nor I have said much about him (haha). Part of the reason for that, as was implied in the article, is because the Grizzlies played so much differently from the Pacers, and really, the rest of the league last season. They didn't run much pick-and-roll, especially at the beginning of the year, as they preferred to orchestrate their offense based on the direction of the ball. And they would oftentimes drop their bigs into a one-man zone against non-shooting threats, effectively asking them to play centerfield while asking the absolute most as far as effort and intensity from the other four players on the floor to prevent ball-handlers from constantly playing in rhythm downhill.
The obvious answer here is his affinity for reverse lob dunks. Seriously, just like Tyrese Haliburton has never (ahem) seen a no-look pass he doesn't like, Huff rarely turns his back on turning his back to the rim. Still, the lean here is to go with another, perhaps more nuanced way he (and really the Grizzlies as a whole) get up: tagging up.
Coincidentally, I wrote about this concept in my mailbag almost a year ago, after the Sixers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds against the Pacers, despite playing a lot of minutes with Guershon Yabusele at the five. Generally speaking, offensive rebounding and transition defense are often thought to be at odds with each other. As in, teams can either be good at one or the other, but not both. After all, crashing comes with the risk of leak-outs, right? Well, that's where "tagging up" comes into play.
Just look at this possession from the Grizzlies. When the shot goes up from Zac Edey at the top of the key, the other players for Memphis flood middle, running to the high-side of their defenders with the possibility of creating a 50/50 opportunity.
In that way, even if they don't come up with the offensive rebound, their in position to play 5-on-5 in transition while also dissuading any potential passes ahead with length and pressure on the ball. When Jay Huff was in the game, he demonstrated a lot of physicality, but also the necessary amount of self-restraint. For example, when he's the shooter, it's imperative that he stays with the player who closes out to him. Otherwise, the Grizzlies could pay a fast-price.
He also resisted the urge to slip underneath the box-out from the corner, even when the player boxing out was T.J. McConnell. As tempting as it might've been to rush around the underside of the 6-foot-1 guard in pursuit of an offensive rebound, Huff stayed on the high-side and scrummed-in, preventing his team from giving up an odd-man advantage.
Plus, if the ricochet had bounced toward McConnell, he still might've manufactured a 50/50 opportunity. If not, he also would've been right there to smother any advance passes from McConnell with his length. Here, he even tagged up from the weak-side slot, flooding middle with enough, let's say, subtle physicality that Obi Toppin mishandled the rebound, resulting in a foul from Andrew Nembhard when Jake Laravia scooped up the loose ball.
The Pacers didn't tag up last season, so none of this is directly applicable, but all of those tiny details still say a lot about his discipline and overall scheme adherence, at least until I have more to say about him once his game starts doing the talking for the talk we haven't heard.
Dwain Kitchel: What will you be watching for this season to see if the Pacers can make it work?
Tyrese Haliburton is the immaculate exception when it comes to keeping the ball safe without playing it safe as a playmaker. Last season, his on/off swing with regard to turnover rate ranked in the 97th percentile. If the Pacers turn the ball over more frequently next season in his absence and without the ability to play as many minutes with two point guards at once, they're going to have to find another means by which to make up the difference in possessions. As the saying goes, "the basketball is the most important part of basketball."
During the Finals, with OKC forcing the Pacers into a higher turnover rate (18.4 percent) than the prior three rounds (12.7 percent), the team that grabbed more offensive rebounds went 6-1. That makes me wonder if, to make up for everything they're losing without Haliburton (from ball security and advanced playmaking to his shooting gravity), they might consider crashing the offensive glass more heavily.
Last season, Indiana ranked 26th in possessions per game with at least three offensive players crashing (4.95). By comparison, and in reference to the prior question, Memphis led the league with 17.92 possessions per game. Cleveland ranked second, at 14.59 per game. The league as a whole, meanwhile, averaged 18.19 such possessions per game during the playoffs, which marked the highest postseason average in 12 years. As such, in contrast to how the Pacers were trend-setters with ball pressure defense the last two seasons, it seems possible now that they may need to bridge some of their talent gap with physicality, following the crowd by sending a crowd to the glass.
Justin Know: I get into a lot of conversations with more casual players, who may often box score watch more than anything. I have a difficult time explaining to those what makes Haliburton so special. In your eyes what has made Haliburton so special and any ways to explain that for the box-score watchers?
Ok, Justin. Here's what you have to do. Send them the linked piece in the prior response about how he's a "1-of-1" playmaker in terms of ball security. Then, if they need more evidence, send them my deep dive on his jump passing from his first season with the Pacers to explain how he bucks the conventional norms of basketball, leaping to force defenders to commit to him rather than committing himself to a pass. I've said it many times, but he's like the concept of negative space in art. Sometimes, he does a lot by doing nothing because everything he does, from his shooting to his willingness to advance the ball, results in him being shadowed at the logo -- or, even at times in the corner, when he has his hands on his knees as the universal sign of decoy.
It's remarkable that the Pacers are able to pack that many actions into a possession without involving their star guard (i.e. Obi Toppin let the ball fly with nine seconds still remaining on the shot-clock!), and it's also remarkable that their star guard is willing to go an entire possession without touching the ball, knowing that the fingerprints of his presence will still quietly be all over why that amount of spacing to play four-on-four was even possible.
If none of that works and they prefer stats, tell them that the Pacers ranked 29th in the percentage of their touches in which they were doubled last season; and yet, they also ranked 30th in the percentage of their threes that were heavily contested. Following my podcast with Rick, Todd Whitehead made a data visualization graphic calculating "hold times," which showed the average time that elapsed before each Pacer decided to dribble, pass, or shoot. Unsurprisingly, Haliburton topped the list for the Pacers, at just 0.72 seconds, and also was an extreme outlier league-wide. Put simply, the wheels in his head turn so fast that the ball oftentimes flies ahead of the defense, rather than waiting for the defense to flock to him.
All of which is to say that, regardless of where anyone lands on the endless and overly simplified "Is (insert player) a superstar?" debates, there's no denying how he brings out the star in others -- which arguably matters quite a bit in this era of parity, as the league continues to trend toward which team has the fewest weak links as opposed to the strongest link.
Oh, and for the highlight watchers, he also did the whole thing where he put together an entire career worth of clutch highlights in a single postseason.
Hope this helps!
Ryan: As an avid NBA and Pacers fan, you have raised my basketball knowledge immensely, thank you. Who wins the last roster spot? Quenton Jackson, Tony Bradley, Monte Morris, other?
If Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman are both fully healthy and ready to play at the start of the season, my lean would've been Monte Morris. As a quick refresher, this is what I wrote about the need for a veteran point guard in the July mailbag, following the conclusion of Summer League:
As I laid out in my Summer League and offseason recap video podcast with Samson, I don't exactly have a favorite among RayJ Dennis, Quenton Jackson, and Kam Jones for third-string point guard as of now.
Jackson started eight games last season, but he is ideally a dynamic slasher rather than a lead initiator, which is why RayJ's presence made everything a bit more fluid than what was the case at Summer League a year ago, when the primary ball-handling responsibilities were divvied up between Jackson, Jarace Walker, and Tristen Newton, who is no longer on the team. That said, while RayJ certainly deserves credit for steering the ship at Summer League while attacking a variety of pick-and-roll coverages and making plays for play finishers, he is a smaller guard who is very floater dependent, which projects to limit how much the defense has to move at the NBA level.
Meanwhile, as I wrote in my post about how Kam Jones is capable of running point up to a point, if the offense doesn't develop in a way that's specifically tailored to his specifications, he still generally tries to strong arm his way, with his dominant left hand, to getting his way. There's things to like about his footwork and touch, but his path to upward mobility is going to be confined if he has to confine himself to one side of the floor, especially if his pull-up shot remains erratic when he already has to compensate for his lack of burst with craft.
Before also adding:
Last season, the Pacers played 1964 minutes with two of Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, and T.J. McConnell on the floor, outscoring opponents by 5.49 points per 100 possessions, compared to just 590 minutes with Haliburton on the floor without either of Nembhard or McConnell, in which they were outscored by 5.46 points per 100 possessions. Haliburton obviously won't be available next season, but the point remains that the Pacers were generally better with more than one point guard on the floor, which is to say nothing of what needs there might be if either Nembhard or McConnell misses time due to injury, let alone the realities of how much is going to be asked of Andrew Nembhard without his own version of Andrew Nembhard to lessen his load.
In short, the answer to this question is likely yes, but the Pacers may not have a means for providing said answer in the short-term. For now, unless a low-cost trade materializes (a la Jay Huff) or someone on another roster gets waived, they might just need to rely on playing Jackson as an extra body, who has shown he can be the extra (although, sometimes too extra) version of himself in NBA minutes, while potentially tilting more of the initiation to the wings and especially Pascal Siakam.
Turns out, with only a handful of days remaining until the start of training camp, a low-cost, veteran option seemed as though it had materialized in the form of Monte Morris, who despite shooting a career-worst 36 percent from three while dealing with a back injury and only having a limited role for the Suns when healthy, offers a potentially steady hand at the controls. Of course, steady can also occasionally translate to passing the ball to the open spot on the floor rather than opening a spot on the floor for the pass. Coming to a team that ranked fourth last season in kick-out passes per 100 possessions, Morris didn't rack up near as many kick-outs per 36 minutes (11.0) as McConnell (30.3) or Nemhbard (18.4), but he also didn't average as much touch time, at just 1.9 minutes per game, as either guard for Indiana, who both topped three minutes. With more of the ball, it's possible he would've adapted to the flow of penetration reaction. Either way, he hasn't posted a double-digit turnover rate since his rookie season. If nothing else, he at least would've checked the whole aforementioned "the basketball is the most important part of basketball" box.
For that reason, although Morris has only made 30.1 percent of his threes after taking two or more dribbles on just 206 career-attempts, it would've seemed safe to round out the roster with extra ball-handling and spot-up shooting, even if his playmaking had proved to be a bit too safe. Unfortunately, Chad Buchanan and Ted Wu told reporters on Thursday that the team ultimately didn't complete the signing with Morris because the training staff determined that a calf strain he recently suffered would keep him out most of training camp.
In turn, the team is now reportedly turning to Delon Wright, who has more size for position defensively than Morris, but averaged even fewer kick-outs per 36 minutes (6.3) than Morris (11.0), while also only attempting a total of 12 threes after taking two or more dribbles for the season and shooting just 8-of-27 on catch-and-shoot threes with the Knicks.
That could be, uh, quite the (under)taking, given that defenders are already likely to go under against McConnell and also possibly Nembhard, depending upon how his pull-up shooting shakes out.
The Pacers know better than me whether they need to retain Tony Bradley at the center spot with Jackson and Wiseman returning from injury; however, if absolutely necessary, they can always bridge some of that gap by playing Obi Toppin extended minutes at the five, as they did last season. As a result, without having seen any preseason games, let alone training camp, the best answer might be that there currently isn't an answer. Other than, for the purpose of still looking for a veteran, third-string point guard, just leaving that spot open.
IndyJ: Looking ahead at the season schedule is there a particular stretch or match up you are looking forward to or especially interested in and why? I am excited for the Bucks, Pistons, and Knicks match ups for the rivalries. Interested in the Raptors match up for potential Caitlin/Samson collaborations. What are you looking forward to this year?
Probably the same one as everyone else, but maybe not for the same reasons as everyone else. Regardless of the "rivalry" of it all, the quickest and easiest scouting report on a player can oftentimes be to watch them play against their former team. When the Pacers played Sacramento for the first time after Tyrese Haliburton got traded, Davion Mitchell was extremely demonstrative forcing Haliburton toward the left sideline, away from his pet play "77," as the Kings repeatedly defended him with weak-to-switch coverage.
To regain access to the screens, the Pacers eventually flipped the action to the other side of the floor, requiring him to push the ball downhill with his weak-hand.
Or, they changed the angle of the screen on the left side of the floor, enabling him to snake back to his right, while still illuminating his early preference for attacking perimeter mismatches versus bigs via the pass rather than the dribble.
Nowadays, the Pacers give him a helping hand in getting back to his dominant hand out of "77" by skipping the ball to the second screener for him to "get" it right back with his right.
Myles Turner spent the first 10 years of his career playing for the Indiana Pacers. When the Pacers play the Bucks at home for the first time on November 3, most of the conversation will likely center around what type of reception he receives from the fans upon his homecoming, but arguably the more interesting dynamic will be how he's guarded by his former teammates. Will the Pacers look to accentuate his weaknesses, like the Kings did all of those season ago? Will they switch 4-5 pick-and-rolls between him and Giannis Antetokounmpo, as was the case during the playoffs, which could potentially result in him being guarded by smaller defenders in Pascal Siakam or Aaron Nesmith? When he's off the ball, how much respect will they pay to him as a shooter, especially spotting up around Antetokounmpo? Intrigue!
Otherwise, the answer to this question is always Opening Night. Hope springs eternal and whatever comes from preseason, with regard to the rotation and any scheme changes, will fully come to light under the bright lights of a national-TV game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let's just, uh, hope there aren't too many replays of Haliburton's injury (please!).
As for Samson and I, the plan is for him to stick around again this season, so we'll likely still be collaborating regardless of whether the Raptors are involved. That said, for everyone who looks forward to our Pacers/Raptors cross-over episodes, we actually traded roles recently. Rather than him coming over here to chat with me about the Pacers, I joined him for an Outside-Looking In episode at Raptors Republic to talk about the Raptors. Enjoy, but don't get too used to that flip-flopped arrangement. Just because it might be a gap year for the Pacers doesn't mean that Basketball, She Wrote plans on taking a gap year in homecourt advantage for our collaborations.
Dan Burton: How has your professional life changed since the (now famous) interview with Carlisle? Is there a question you wish you had asked him?
Well, I'm still not the most famous Caitlin or CC associated with Indiana, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon, which is more than fine by me. Overall, my professional life hasn't changed much. I made some reference to this on social media, but one of my family members had to undergo an emergency heart procedure this summer and there's been some other life stuff that has taken precedence. So, I've mainly just been focused on being there for my family and myself while still trying to produce the best quality work for all of you who support me here in making this job possible.
As for the second question, I really wanted to ask a follow-up question when he said that "defense is evolving and changing all the time, even more than offense," but my focus for the episode was random offense. I didn't want to get too far side-tracked, but I'm always intrigued by the metamorphosis of defense -- especially in and of itself, rather than in response to whatever is trending offensively. Also, is there a way to randomize defense?
Speaking of which...
Joseph Burns: I loved your characterization of random offense. Do you see an analog on the defensive side as even possible as a team? What team innovations do you see emerging on the defensive side besides a platform of extreme on-ball fouling (raising the bar for actual called fouls) embodied by e.g. OKC and to a lesser extent the Pacers in crunch-time?
My friends Evin Gualberto and Bowser2Bowser actually talked about this on their "Ready to Diagram" podcast about a year ago, in which they asserted that the problem for defense in the modern era isn't that the status quo is wrong; it's that the status quo is too predictable. "Good" defense is oftentimes thought of as being "reliable" and "dependable," but when it's "reliable" and "dependable," it's also "reliable" and "dependable" for the offense. That's why this type of rotation, when the Celtics inverted the traditional crack-back rotation in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals, can have an impact like holding the Mavericks scoreless on lobs after they had attempted a league-high 4.3 per 100 possessions in the prior rounds of the playoffs.
Normally, in that situation, Jaylen Brown as the low-man would be responsible for rotating to the ball, with Derrick White helping the helper by sinking to the dunker spot. To take away the passing window for the lob, the Celtics rotated the help the helper defender to the rim with Brown staying attached to the dunker spot. Likewise, in the 2025 NBA Finals, the Pacers also raged against the norms of "predictable" defense by having Tyrese Haliburton rotate up to the pop as the low-man anytime one of OKC's stars was one pass away.
In both cases, it appears as though the defense is exposing a very obvious passing outlet. The skip pass to the weak-side corner is there for Luka Doncic, and Lu Dort is wide open as a cutter under the basket, but those rotations are so contrary to what the offense has come to "dependably" and "reliably" expect that neither team took advantage of the openings. Of course, it also helps that Derrick White can protect the rim as a guard, and that Tyrese Haliburton, while not necessarily viewed as a stout defender overall, can be very effective at playing aerial ace as a free safety. Those rotations may not be effective over a larger sample size, but the commitment to breaking from the scheme without compromising the scheme threw off the rhythm of what the offense was trying to accomplish.
As was mentioned in last month's mailbag, there's also been a move toward more hybrid coverages with man being triggered out of zone or zone being triggered out of a man mid-possession based on the location of the ball, number of passes, type of action, etc. as teams try to defend space more so than players while concealing defense with defense.
Those are all examples of how specific aspects of defense can be random to the offense, or at least less predictable. As far as actually randomizing defense as a whole, this possession from Rick's last season in Dallas has lived in my head rent free for years. For whatever reason, I happened to watch this Lakers-Mavericks game and noticed that the Lakers were tagging the roller with the low man on the side of the floor where the wing was filled, even if that was the strong side.
Marc Gasol is in no man's land, not really applying pressure on the ball, and Talen Horton Tucker is way too late rotating to the rim, but the fact that Frank Vogel's team was actively trying to eliminate single-side tags, (when only one defender is available to be in two places at once, tagging the roller and staying home on the shooter who will oftentimes shake up from the corner to create a longer closeout), made me wonder if there might be a means to do that without giving up a potentially shorter pass to the strong-side corner. As in, maybe the future of defense will be choosing from a menu of coverages based on the direction of the ball with the low man calling out coverage? For example, if the ball is moving toward the strong-side, as is the case in that clip with Doncic, maybe the defense would jump-switch onto the ball from the next nearest gap to prevent the need for the tag altogether.
Conversely, if the ball is moving toward the single-side, then the defense could play more traditionally with the big in drop or blitz, knowing they can be more aggressive with a numbers advantage on the weak-side. It would require constant communication from the low-man, especially if the offense started cutting from one corner to the other to confuse the coverages, but much like how Rick described random offense: the defense could potentially look different on every possession.
Rex Harris: Do you think that Mathurin will stay at a two-guard position? I look at him as a forward, hopefully he can be more consistent with his three-point shot this season!
Some of this is semantics. A lot of what the Pacers do from a schematic standpoint is position-less, so his role within the offense doesn't change that much regardless of whether he's playing the two or three. If anything, the "bigger" difference, similar to Nesmith, comes with who's guarding him and who he's guarding.
When he was starting alongside Haliburton, Nembhard, Siakam, and Turner in place of Nesmith last season, he was oftentimes guarded by the other team's weakest link (i.e. James Harden, Austin Reaves, etc.). For the most part, Nembhard runs enough pick-and-roll as a secondary ball-handler while also playing a very physical brand of basketball with his bionic shoulder that those types of assignments typically get shifted to the fifth starter so as to shield them from guarding at the point of attack. Now that Nembhard is the starting point guard, and if Mathurin takes on more of a scoring load, it seems likely that Nesmith will more so be the player checked by the "worst" defender, as was the case during the playoffs (when he shot 44 percent on guarded threes while being defended more by smaller guards than what was the case a year ago). For the season, Mathurin shot 35 percent from three in 49 games as a starter, compared to 31 percent in his 23 games off the bench, with an identical swing when Haliburton was on the court with him (35 percent) as opposed to off (31 percent).
Unsurprisingly, based on my prior response to Justin, the same also applied to the team at-large, as the Pacers took more threes, made a higher percentage of threes, and were less heavily contested from deep with Haliburton than without Haliburton.
with Haliburton: 30.9 3PA per 100 possessions, 34.1 3P%, 44.5% heavily contested
without Haliburton: 38.7 3PA per 100 possessions, 38.2 3P%, 38.6% heavily contested
So, in that regard, the question about Mathurin's consistency from three might be just as applicable for most of the roster.
Carson Burton: Hello, hello! General basketball question for you, do you have any recommendations for books to read or things to watch to learn more about the X's and O's of basketball? Your Patreon is the most valuable asset I've encountered so far, but I was curious how you learned all your stuff outside of sheer experience. Thank you for your time, I love your work!
The two friends I mentioned in my prior response are tremendous resources. Evin coaches for one of the most prestigious high schools in the country and has over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, where he cuts together granular aspects of player skills with a unique brand of specificity and accompanying description that isn't typically found elsewhere. He also joined Samson and I for a preview pod of the Cavs-Pacers series during the playoffs.
Bowser, meanwhile, authored the Basketball Action Dictionary, which provides both visual and written examples of everything from pick-and-roll coverages and off-ball screening actions to cuts, hand-offs, etc. If you are looking to build your understanding of terminology and recognition of tactical strategies, there's no better read - in my opinion.
As for me, I've talked about this a lot in profiles on me and on various podcasts, but I grew up as a coach's kid, so that's where most of my background in basketball comes from. Altogether, whenever I want a second opinion on the game or an idea I have, these are the people who I rely on most, along with Samson -- at least when he can stomach reading basketball content.
Kyle Taylor: Caitlin's offseason recap/year in review: (1) Best books you read this summer, (2) Unofficial/Official Popsicle of Summer 2025, (3) Did you watch any more of the movies Samson requested and/or did he read any of the books you requested? Assuming the answer to the latter is still no, why has he not done so? (4) Piece your proudest of from the Pacers 2024-25 season (5) With more time and distance from the end of last season, what have you noticed sticking with you more? And what has stuck with you less?
1) So, fun story. When the season ended, my 10-year-old nephew mentioned that he wanted to go to the bookstore with me and buy a book. I was very curious to find out what book he wanted. When we got there, he said perhaps the greatest sentence of all time to me as we were walking in from the parking lot: "CC, did you understand that I would be buying you the book for Aunt's Day?" Best. Day. Ever.
He bought me The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, and I also picked up Chain-Gang All-Stars for myself by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. The latter is brutal subject matter, providing a haunting reflection of the prison system and how we view freedom, but also beautifully crafted. I'm going to be thinking about this sentence for a long time: "They were all humans, and yet they had completely different ideas about what humanity meant."
2) The Unofficial/Official Popsicle of every summer is Nicey Treat's passionfruit, orange, guava. That is my favorite popsicle I've ever had anywhere, which means a lot because, well, as everyone here knows, I've had a lot of popsicles. It might be a little extra special this summer, though. As some of you might remember, I ate one of them in Indy while we were recording our recap pod of Game 3 at the NBA Finals.
3) Just The Princess Bride. But please let the record show that I went so far as to concoct a movie-themed popsicle in honor of his recommendation, whereas he (to my knowledge) has yet to read a page of my book or play a minute of Grim Fandango. For someone who doesn't enjoy partaking in his own genre, however, he did go out of his way to listen to my entire podcast with Rick Carlisle. So, I think we can probably look past the other transgressions, if you can even call them that (hahah). In all seriousness, we've both had a lot of life stuff to deal with this summer, despite not having a whole lot of summer. I can't blame him if my silly books and games weren't at the top of his very busy to-do list, especially when he does stuff like agreeing to record an entire podcast with me about why Pascal Siakam falls down so much. As we can all probably agree, that's real friendship!
4) Definitely the piece about moving on from Game 7, without letting go of Game 7. It was cathartic and resonated with a lot of you, as well as my family, which meant a lot. I'm also not often thought of as a writer. I'm more often viewed as a hyper-specific and incisive analyst. With that piece, I got to show I can do both, while also reconnecting with a part of myself as a fan that had been dormant for a long time. Just like that playoff run, it's always going to be special to me.
5) Strangely enough, I'm always going to remember where I was and who I was with when Haliburton made a clutch-shot in every round of the playoffs, but I often find myself thinking about the character of that team more often through the lens of when he was doing a lot by doing nothing, standing at the logo, along with Pascal Siakam, during overtime of Game 1 against the New York Knicks, so as to create maximum room for Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin, and Aaron Nesmith to play three-on-three, resulting in a dunk. They were a team, in every sense of the word. Relatedly, I don't find myself thinking that much about the 10-15 start to the season, except for the fact that, while there certainly were other contributing factors, that's what record they mustered with a limited version of Tyrese Haliburton, bringing to question what record they'll have in a season without any version of Tyrese Haliburton.
Meredith Lee: What are your favorite basketball books?
I love basketball, and I love books, but I'm similar to Samson in that, when I have spare time to read, I don't often find myself reading books about basketball. At some point, I have to turn that part of my brain off, and as a writer, I really do find a lot of value in reading books from other genres. That said, my favorite basketball book, which I very much enjoyed reading, is definitely Mike Prada's Spaced Out: How the NBA's Three-Point Revolution Changed Everything you Thought You Knew About Basketball.
Full-disclosure: Mike mentions my article about defensive perception that I wrote for FiveThirtyEight in his chapter on "faking it by taking it (a lot)," and he was my very first editor when I started writing freelance about the NBA at SB Nation's flagship. Even without those connections, however, Mike is one of the most perceptive basketball writers in media, and he's masterful at explaining complex topics in a way that's digestible for both hardcore fans as well as those just getting into the game. His chapter on dribbling as footwork, focusing on Iverson, Ginobili, Antetokounmpo, and Harden and how they all know that when the dribble ends is when the move is just beginning helps you understand the journey of the league and the downstream effect of the three-point revolution via the unique way in which each of them journeys across and downstream from the three-point line.
Shamdelic: What are three books that you'd recommend? Doesn't need to be basketball-related
Somehow, in this mailbag about basketball, I have already recommended three books, including a book about basketball. To add a few more, my sister gave me Special Topics in Calamity Physics for my birthday. It reads like if a mystery novel was written by the witty, snappy banter of Gilmore Girls, which long-time subscribers of Basketball, She Wrote may remember is close to my heart. As a warning, if you're someone who needs closure, that book might not be for you. I also read The Candy House this year. It's literarily similar to Ulysses in that each chapter is written in a different style. In the growing age of Artificial Intelligence, it's a triumph for human connection. Lastly, I'll just let everyone know that Les Miserables is my favorite book of all time. Certain portions border on being overly self-indulgent at times, but Victor Hugo is a poet, and it really is the perfect novel about the redemption of man.
Andy Hunsucker: I think I'm just ready for the season to start and see what happens, so a non-basketball question: You got a ton of press and visibility this past season with the Pacers going to the Finals. How are you (and Samson) dealing with the new level of awareness that you've reached? Have you started buying more exotic popsicles?
As mentioned in my prior responses to Dan and Kyle, most of my life this summer has just been focused on dealing with life, so I haven't really had time to notice if I'm suddenly being noticed more -- although I would greatly doubt if that was the case. I did, however, make a joke that I planned on telling future generations that Nike's pop-up event in downtown Indy for Caitlin's new signature line was actually for me. I know Samson got recognized when he went to a climbing gym while he was here in Indy, and he's also been recognized at his climbing gym in Toronto, so maybe he's going to be too famous to climb soon.
Who can say, really?
In all seriousness, I'm always looking to buy exotic popsicles, but a lot would have to change for anything to change for me or for me to change. From past experience, I know how fragile jobs are in media and basketball. Even if Basketball, She Wrote was mainstream, I would probably always be hesitant to trust any level of supposed prestige.
That said, in what will double as my patron-only popsicle content for this month (yes, I know there have already probably been way too many popsicle mentions in this mailbag, but please bear with me), my sister who wishes to remain anonymous recently made a watercolor painting of my two favorite things in the world, which she turned into a shirt design.
I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to add that extremely niche, yet obviously prestigious, look to the official offerings at Basketball, She Wrote's Teepublic shop, or just order it for me to wear as a special surprise on video podcasts, but I'm guessing I would probably get recognized even more than I did at the Finals (it was great meeting those of you who said hi, by the way) if I was wearing a shirt that recognizable.
Anyway, the Finals are over and the new season is very nearly upon us. Basketball, She Wrote may not be in the same line of vision for the league at-large, but I'm certainly grateful to all of you, who enjoy reading about the basketball played by the Indiana Pacers, for continuing to put your eyes on my work. It is much appreciated, especially during a summer with several high highs and also a few low lows. Here's to looking ahead.
Comments
Caitlin Cooper
It's still in pre-production testing :)
Matthew James
Is the popsicle basketball tee-shirt available to purchase?
Dwain Kitchel
not acceptable perhaps :) but i am going to recommend a book to u. it's a book about learning to understand poetry....but it is far more than that. it's stupid expensive so look around for pdfs or check out yer local library. "Sound and Sense"; to be a wordsmith it is wise to add to your arsenal to gain any advantage in expressing your craft and this one does it. thx for all u do and i hope all is well with your family!
