Pacers offseason notebook: Upcoming minicamp, health updates, a new player to watch, and Zubac plays again

INDIANAPOLIS – Hello, once again, from Victory Field. For a website dedicated to pro basketball coverage in Indiana, this one sure spends a lot of time at the ballpark thanks to the Pacers/Colts charity softball game and Lexie Hull's celebratory evening.

Friday, it was Braden Smith's turn to take the mound as it was Purdue Night. Smith officially signed his two-way contract late in August, finishing off the Pacers back-end roster moves. Yet on this slightly cloudy evening with a perfect temperature, he was a Boilermaker again – though he rocked a Pacers hat for most of the proceedings.

His softball skills last month were forgettable. Smith's first pitch Friday night was more noteworthy. With the crowd watching, he stepped into an accurate strike with strong delivery, barely missing the strike zone high. It was a much better pitch than the one Tyrese Haliburton threw when the Cubs hosted the Brewers earlier this month.

"I played in the backyard with my buddies growing up, so I've always had that, just being able to play," Smith said of baseball. He wasn't nervous for his first pitch and even got in some practice reps at the Pacers practice facility earlier in the day. "Threw a strike, I think." (It was just a bit high for that)

Smith signed autographs for 40 minutes before his first pitch. His scheduled time to do so was 5:30 to 6:10, but the rookie guard was early and spent a few moments chatting with an older fan while he waited for others to be let in the arena. Not long after 5:30, Purdue players Luke Ertel and Jack Benter joined Smith in signing autographs.

It was a somewhat fitting occasion for Smith to be included in Purdue Night proceedings with those two – Ertel is an incoming freshman who won Indiana Mr. Basketball in 2026 while Benter was the runner up to Flory Bidunga in 2024. Smith, of course, claimed that honor in 2022 and just finished up a four-year career at Purdue before being the 38th overall pick in the most recent NBA Draft.

So the past and present of the Boilermakers sat together at Victory Field. Smith's present and future is with the Pacers, but things still don't feel that way for the 23-year old. Going straight from high school to college to the NBA while living in one state, Smith said the NBA reality still hasn't really set in for him yet.

"Honestly, no. I just feel like it's on to the next thing and we're back to work," Smith said. He went to watch a Purdue practice last week and admitted it felt weird to observe but not participate. "It's crazy not being there... But obviously you've got to move on and on to better things."

Right now, those better things are happening with a new franchise. Smith has been in the gym with his Pacers teammates often this summer and is learning every day. Without school being a part of his life any more, basketball is the job. Currently, that means getting up to speed on the Pacers defensive scheme.

He feels as if the culture at Purdue and with the Pacers is similar – down-to-earth guys that are fun to play with. Soon, Smith shared, the Pacers will embark on a play-led minicamp down in Nashville, Tennessee. There, they will get even more court time as a group before the season officially begins. "That'll be fun," Smith said. "And obviously in two weeks, here it comes. We're on to the season."

Smith's appearance Friday night is just the latest event going on in Pacer land. There are several health, signing, transactional, international, and NBA penalty related notes for the blue and gold from the last few weeks to get to.

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The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

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The latest on the health status of Tyrese Haliburton and Johnny Furphy

Tyrese Haliburton is ready for the start of the season. He had a long recovery after tearing his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, then coming down with the shingles earlier this year.

He is now fully cleared. "I will be ready for the season. If the season was today, I’d be ready. So [it] can't come fast enough," he said last month.

Haliburton's athleticism, at least in the videos he has posted, seems to be at a good level. His teammates left positive reviews about his play during a few scrimmages in Los Angeles earlier in the summer, and Haliburton is eager for the season to begin.

"Chomping at the bit. I can't wait," Haliburton said of the upcoming season. "Everybody always feels the summer is really long. Like, 'Wow, I can't wait to get back'. Well, I've had that for double, triple the amount of time as everybody else. So I can't wait to get back on the floor."

I wrote more about Haliburton's recovery and outlook here. As for Johnny Furphy and his rehab from a torn ACL suffered in February, things are trending well but he doesn't have a set timetable right now. He was non-committal about training camp when I asked him last month.

"I'm in a good place," Furphy told me. "I'm right where I need to be. As good as it can be."

He's back on the court already but hadn't reached five-on-five play yet as of late last month. General manager Chad Buchanan said that Furphy's recovery is going exceptionally well.

But putting any firm date on Furphy's return isn't possible yet. "It's hard to say right now," he said. More on his health can be found here.

Catching up with Aaron Nesmith

My chat with Aaron Nesmith at the Pacers charity softball game last month was brief, and nothing we caught up on was worthy of its own story. But Nesmith shared his excitement level for the coming season as expectations return for the Pacers.

"Ready to play. Ready to win. Ready to get back to the playoffs," Nesmith said. "Doing what we're supposed to do."

The long offseason helped Nesmith get his body right. He worked on putting the ball on the floor and making better reads, a near-constant focus for him after becoming an elite shooter. He is likely the most excited Pacer to return to Nashville given his ties to the area after playing collegiately at Vanderbilt – though Belmont product Ben Sheppard may have a case.

Bennedict Mathurin has a new team

Bennedict Mathurin, who the Pacers traded to LA in February, has a new team. But it's not the Clippers, who acquired Mathurin in the Ivica Zubac trade about seven months ago.

Instead, it's the New Orleans Pelicans. The reported agreement is a two-year, $16 million pact with a player option on the second season. Mathurin was originally a restricted free agent after getting a qualifying offer from the Clippers, but they rescinded that offer after filling their roster with several other players throughout the summer.

I talked about Mathurin's contractual future here after checking with many around the league before the trade deadline. While there wasn't much agreement on what his next contract should be at the time, everyone predicted a value higher than $8 million annually. Restricted free agency can be tough, and Mathurin ended up signing a contract very close to that of Kelly Oubre's – though it does have a possible out after just one year, something Oubre's does not.

Financial notes concerning the Pacers

With the first apron hard cap in mind, the Pacers offseason seems effectively done minus a few Exhibit 10 deals. Their financial picture entering training camp is much different than any previous year that I have covered.

There are two reasons for that. One is that they are rubbing right up against a hard cap, making any meaningful transactions impossible until a few weeks into the season. More on that can be found here.

Also, your eyes don't deceive you – the Pacers current level of spending, should it hold for the entire campaign, would make them a taxpaying team. That's new, though it could change if there are trades in the future. I explained what that could mean for their season here.

Ivica Zubac suits up for Croatia, again

I covered several Pacers players who made their mark in the July portion of FIBA Men's World Cup qualifiers here. In the more recent portion of the qualifiers, which took place in late August, Ivica Zubac was the only Pacer to play.

Croatia took on Latvia on August 27, then battled Rienk Mast and Netherlands on August 30. Croatia won both games, crushing Latvia before squeaking by the Dutch with a two-point win. And Zubac, like he did earlier in the summer, played well in both games.

Latvia certainly made him work hard for any production. Between some paint-deterring zone defenses and very physical low post play, Zubac was less involved on offense. The box score says he never even shot the ball, going 0/0 from the field.

That's because he got fouled... a lot. He was 6/10 from the stripe, nearly attempting as many foul shots as the entire Latvia team (14). Zubac finished with six points and eight rebounds – he played less than half of the game due to the blowout and physical nature of the action.

While there are natural conversations to be had about Zubac's speed and how he will fit in the Pacers up-tempo system with principled transition play, it's easy to see sequences like this and understand how it could work.

In the second game, Zubac and Croatia took on Pacers summer league standout Rienk Mast and the Netherlands. Mast finished with seven points and five rebounds while dealing with foul trouble. Zubac, meanwhile, was far more productive.

The Pacers big man imposed his will on the first possession of the game, grabbing a loose ball between three Dutch defenders before scoring the game's opening points with a layup. Three minutes later, he did this:

In both games, Zubac sagged off of his matchups and sat lower in the paint defensively. That naturally leads to blocks but may not be a transferrable strategy for NBA action.

What will be transferrable: Post footwork, hard screens, and controlled finishing around the basket. Zubac mixed in powerful dunks with touch, and just the mere threat of Zubac in the post gave Croatia many two-on-one chances. His forceful play opened up the court.

Zubac finished with a team-high 24 points and added 11 rebounds. He's still going to have to learn his new Pacers teammates, but he looks to have slimmed down and had a strong summer showing off his best skills.

Did Pascal Siakam reveal a free agent coming to the Pacers?

I'll forgive you for not combing through clips and pictures that Pascal Siakam posted from a minicamp earlier this offseason. It featured young Pacers forwards, plus a few members of the Pacers training staff. Siakam, of course, was an attendee.

Along with him were some Pacers forwards that you would expect in Jalen Slawson, Kobe Brown, and Jarace Walker. The fourth attendee, however, was a player many wouldn't recognize: forward Jalen Warley, a 6-7 rookie who spent the 2025-26 college season at Gonzaga and played with the Pacers in summer league.

Warley averaged 7.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game as a fourth-year NCAA player. Before Gonzaga, he spent three years at Florida State. He played in three games for the summer Pacers, averaging 2.0 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

That he was invited to this minicamp that featured Pacers staffers is telling. Especially after his summer league stint, it seems as if Warley is in the Pacers orbit. Given his status as an undrafted rookie, an Exhibit 10 deal for Warley in which he spends one training camp day on the Pacers roster would be enough for the Noblesville Boom to inherit his G League rights. Keep an eye on this.

Say goodbye to the Pacers 2029 first-round draft pick

Mentally, you probably already said goodbye to the Pacers unprotected 2029 first-round draft pick when they traded it to the Clippers for Zubac. But now, you can really forget about it.

An NBA spokesperson confirmed to me that one of the Clippers five picks stripped as a part of their penalties for violating the salary cap circumvention rules is that 2029 first rounder that they acquired from the Pacers. It is gone forever, flung into a void along with four other Clippers' first-round picks.

The Pacers can never trade for it back, which is a very small issue but of less concern now since tanking is less fruitful for at least the next three drafts. The pick does not return to the Pacers, so the trade price for Zubac remains the same – though the optics have certainly changed on the deal with that pick evaporating and Mathurin already heading elsewhere.

Thank you for reading. There was a lot to get to, a sign that the Pacers season is almost here. In about two weeks, things will pick up. Sign up for Circle City Spin to get these stories and more sent straight to your email inbox.