Pacers notebook: The first Pacers transactional rumor of the season, plus health updates and Boom games

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers are back stateside after a trip to Mexico City that felt both fulfilling and disappointing.

It was fulfilling in that there was quite a bit of team bonding – players spent time together exploring the city and checking out the views of Mexico's capital city. Many tacos were consumed.

"Steak tacos," forward Aaron Nesmith specified to reporters in Mexico before the team battled the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Kelly Oubre shared his thoughts about the city that same day, saying that he liked the culture, colors, and architecture.

The trip was also rewarding in that multiple players from returned from injury for the Pacers: Oubre came back after a two-game absence while T.J. McConnell made his season debut. More to come on that.

"We are here to put on a show for the Mexican fans and all the people that support us. And I think they deserve a great showing," Oubre told gathered media. "So hopefully we can give that to them tomorrow."

It's the second international trip in three seasons for the Pacers, who battled Victor Wmbanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Paris during the 2024-25 campaign. This time, they were facing a different international center with MVP aspirations in Nikola Jokic.

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The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

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And that's where this trip had disappointing elements for the Pacers. They lost again, already their seventh defeat this season. Even with all of their rotation (sans Tyrese Haliburton, of course) available, the Pacers' scoring attack was weak in the first half. They started 5/23 from deep and never recovered after falling behind by 27 points in the second quarter.

Multiple players were on a minutes restrcition. A two-way contract guard started in Braden Smith. It's not just Haliburton's absence leading to trouble for the Pacers. But they should be playing better than they are recently and need to put together a 48-minute game.

"I thought our force and energy was way better in the second half," star forward Siakam said after the loss. "And that's the way we've got to start the game."

After tonight's game in Dallas, the Pacers will travel to Indianapolis for a two-game homestand. They will only leave the Eastern Time Zone once until the NBA Cup break: Saturday, November 28... in Chicago, the closest team to Indy.

With the Pacers getting helthier, they need to start winning with that travel edge. And they're much healthier already. More from Pacers land.

T.J. McConnell is back

McConnell, as noted above, made his season debut on Saturday in Mexico City. I jokingly wondered if he was the only player to make their season debut in Meixco... only for Nuggets forward Spencer Jones to do so on the same day. History all around.

The veteran point guard was limited to just nine minutes of action as he returns from a hamstring injury suffered very early in training camp. As I noted here, the conservative approach made the most sense for McConnell.

Carlisle shared postgame that McConnell should be able to increase his minutes going forward (all credit to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star).

"They're two monumental pieces to this team," Oubre said of McConnell and Haliburton missing time this season.

Quenton Jackson has played well in McConnell's absence and deserves minutes going forward. The loser of playing time, as the Pacers get healthier, will likely be Smith – the Pacers G League affiliate team, the Noblesville Boom, play their home opener on Tuesday night. More to come on them, but the original plan for Smith was a heavy dose of G League action.

The NBA's first in-season trade with a Pacers tie in

Nique Clifford was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, marking the first trade during the 2026-27 regular season. And there's a Pacers link here.

According to Jake Fischer and Marc Stein in The Stein Line, the Pacers had interest in Clifford before OKC finished the trade. "The Pacers, Nuggets and Lakers, sources say, were among the teams that registered trade interest in the 24-year-old, but Oklahoma City had multiple advantages when it came to getting a deal done," the report reads.

I have less and less interest in doing any aggregating these days, so apologies for just quoting someone else's work. Read it here. To opine, for a moment:
-Nique Clifford is, at worst, a competent reserve and his contract is cheap for (possibly) three more years. That's the right kind of target for the Pacers in their salary cap reality;
-The Thunder pulled off this deal using a trade exception and not sending back any players to the Kings. That would not have been possible for the Pacers given their proximity to the first apron;
-The Kings are close to the luxury tax, so taking back no salary gives them important flexibility. They need to add a ball handler after Ben Simmons tore his achilles.

So while the Pacers could have "beaten" the Thunder's offer in terms of raw assets (Sacramento received two future second-round picks), the Pacers would have been forced to include matching salary in the trade to make it happen. Johnny Furphy, Larry Nance, Jackson, Jay Huff, and Ben Sheppard could each have gone to the Kings in exchange for Clifford and kept them under the tax, but Sacramento's interest in any of those players in unknown. Now, the beam team is able to sign whatever free agent they want.

The Pacers interest here is worth noting. But they shouldn't have been willing to go far above the Thunder's price just because they would have needed to include a contract, and thus more picks.

Boom set roster, play two games

After training camp, the Nobelsville Boom waived Michael Folarin, Yacine Toumi, Conor Enright, and Austin Benigni to finalize their roster for the Tournament portion of their season. The Boom roster right now:

Jalen Warley
M.J. Iraldi
Braden Smith
Wade Taylor IV
Cameron Hildreth
Keion Brooks
RJ Felton
Keba Keita
Jalen Slawson
Maleeck Harden-Hayes
Kobe Brown
Kowacie Reeves
Rienk Mast

You'll recognize Warley, Iraldi, Smith, Hildreth, Brooks, Keita, Slawson, Brown, Reeves, and Mast from recent Pacers things (summer league, training camp, literal NBA games, etc.). The word out of Boom camp was that Reeves was a strong performer.

He was the team's leading scorer in their season opener, though they were crushed by the Windy City Bulls. In the Boom's second game, they were much more competitive against Windy City but still lost – Hildreth and Taylor IV were excellent.

The Boom are 0-2 and their home opener is on Tuesday.

Thank you for reading. For some other notes on Sheppard, the Pacers open roster spot, and more, go here. And sign up for more from Circle City Spin.