Debrief: Pascal Siakam won't cope with losing. The Pacers can't next year either.
Siakam was the only consistent force for the 2025-26 Pacers.
INDIANAPOLIS – What is left to say about Pascal Siakam?
Truly, as someone putting words on a page about Pascal Siakam I am asking, what is left to say? He leads with his play, he wins with his play, and he unites his teammates – both behind the scenes and in basketball by hosting them for an offseason minicamp every year.
He's spent two full seasons with the Pacers. One ended in the NBA Finals. The other, more recent, one finished with 19 wins. They were dramatically different campaigns in just about every way.
Tony East
One similarity: Siakam. He was an All-Star in both seasons. All of his per-minute numbers, with the exception of scoring and turnovers, were remarkably similar between the two seasons. Obviously, he had a bigger role that required more shooting (thus, more points) and more defensive attention (thus, more turnovers) this past year. "It's been tough. I'm sure probably a little bit more than I've seen before," Siakam said during the season when discussing the number of the double teams he was facing. "It's just constant. I have to continue to figure out ways to attack it."
But his overall level of play remained consistent even as he crossed 32-years old. That alone is huge for the Pacers. That his sustained level is so high is also important. This ink has been spilled a million times. Pascal Siakam is a top-25 player and can do a good amount of everything. He's been the perfect addition since the Pacers traded for him in 2024.
Yet his striking trait this season wasn't his play. The whole world knows how good he is. Rather, it was his professionalism and expectations for himself even when the team just could not win.
Those results had little to do with Siakam himself. With Siakam on the court, the Pacers net rating was similar to that of the 31-win Chicago Bulls or 32-win Milwaukee Bucks. That's not meant as some excellent measure, but more to show that the Pacers were close to the mediocre team some expected without Tyrese Haliburton so long as Siakam was on the court.
When Siakam wasn't playing? The Pacers net rating was -10.57. That, like their overall record, is near "worst in the league" stuff. Every analytics person cautions against comparing lineup data to team data, and I'm not trying to compare the Siakam or Siakam-less versions of the Pacers to real teams. Rather, these are meant as measures to show how wide the gap was between the Pacers with and without their 2025-26 star.
It wasn't Siakam's fault that the Pacers won 19 games. But he, very notably, acted like it was. Every loss he felt emotionally on some level. He would take the stand postgame and let out his frustrations.
"Naturally, I've always been a part of winning. So it's hard when you're losing," Siakam said... one month into the season. "I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be better."
Some teams phone it in once they are eliminated. Losing squads tend to relax. Siakam would not let the Pacers do either in the slightest. In Siakam's final seven games of the season, which spanned late March to early April, he averaged 24 points, six rebounds, and three assists per game.
The Pacers went 3-4. They were already eliminated and were close to securing top-four lottery odds. And there was Siakam, humiliating the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic as they hunted for play-in positioning. The Magic nearly made the second round but couldn't beat Siakam's late-season Pacers.
There is no better representation for Siakam's season than that. He would never let himself, or the team, quit pushing. He never once settled for the "things will be better next season" or "gap year" ideas. His words matched his actions.
In the end, it was the worst season Siakam had been a part of. It was just the second time one of his teams (the 2020-21 Toronto Raptors went 27-45) failed to play a game beyond the regular season. But he didn't act like the Pacers were bad. He led like they were good, and he spoke as if he wanted to turn things around even when that was impossible.
"It was tough. Just tough mentally going through everything, just knowing that wasn't the goal," Siakam said at his exit interview. "It was a hard time trying to get through it, finding positive things, continuing to improve, trying to find ways to win games. It was just pretty bad. It sucked."
Then, the kicker. I followed up and asked if he learned how to cope with that level of losing. Mental growth, after all, could have been one of his positives from the season.
He did grow mentally. Just not in the way my question insinuated that he might have. "I don't want to learn, I don't want to cope with it. That's not in my plans, figuring out what to do when I lose," Siakam said. "I don't want this to happen again. I don't think about coping."
That is what Siakam's fourth All-Star season was truly about. He will not accept losing. He will not allow himself to, even when dealt an awful hand. If he isn't improving or making himself a more consistent player, then he failed that day, that week, that season.
And he won't let his teammates slip. There's a reason he's been a part of every Pacers playoff series victory since 2014. He's a talented basketball player, mostly, but he's also a talented leader who provides emotional guidance. His messaging this year about not accepting failure will make him, and the Pacers, better off next season when Haliburton returns with high expectations.
Thank you for reading. This is the end of the "Debrief" series, which I delayed to overlap with a more interesting time for fans. You can read all of them in the Pacers tab of Circle City Spin. To have all stories, including Fever coverage, from this website sent directly to you, sign up below.
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