Basketball, She Wrote
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Indiana Pacers 2025-26 Lookahead
🕑 Added 2025-09-24 15:58:57 +0000 UTCA 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
Comments
Caitlin Cooper
Both Hardwood Knocks and the Athletic Daily are available on podcast feeds. As for mine with Samson, most likely not since we are generally breaking down film.
Ross Blauvelt
I am extremely oldschool - any chance these YouTube podcasts will get released as audio podcasts? Just so much easier for me to listen while driving.
Norma
Great podcast
