Pacers training camp day eight notebook: Injuries, Haliburton, and more
The Pacers have nearly reached the regular season.
INDIANAPOLIS – Four of the five Indiana Pacers centers stood together on the far end of the St Vincent Center as media members were let into practice on Thursday afternoon.
Larry Nance was smiling. Jay Huff was laughing. Two players on Exhibit 10 deals, Rienk Mast and Keba Keita, lingered nearby and prepared to get shots up. Elsewhere, Ivica Zubac was back of house.
That center group is growing close. At media day, Nance went out of his way to praise Huff when discussing the Pacers center room. At a later practice, Huff recalled a question he was asked days earlier about Zubac and regretted not bringing up Nance during his response.
The kudos are being passed back and forth. So far in the preseason, Nance has gotten the backup minutes more often than Huff – sometimes, Obi Toppin has filled the role. It's a fluid situation, and one that head coach Rick Carlisle touched on Thursday after his team finished practicing.
"I've talked to Larry and Jay about that [situation], and they need to approach it as a team. Their job is to hold the fort," he said.
Carlisle has, on numerous occasions, mentioned that both players have played at the power forward spot before. Huff did so sparingly for the Pacers last year while Nance, thanks to his size, has some reps next to centers during his career. While that won't be their primary role with the Pacers, it's an alignment the team can turn to if they are shorthanded. Nance played next to Mast in the Pacers recent outing in Oklahoma City.
Zubac, of course, will be the starter. He was terrific against the Thunder and has already improved at some of the areas he needs to ahead of the season – most obviously with his passing. Behind him, the Pacers are still figuring out where those minutes will go. When the team has been playing a normal rotation, so far the backup center minutes have either gone to Toppin (against Minnesota) or Nance (against Atlanta and Oklahoma City).
There is still one preseason game left, and that could be a chance for Huff to get some run with the second unit. Who else could play in that game? That, and other notes, were revealed after the Pacers practiced on Thursday.
Tony East
Injury updates
Jarace Walker, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, and Andrew Nembhard did not play in Oklahoma City. Not a surprise for McConnell, who hasn't played at all in the preseason. But there's almost no time for him to get up to speed with less than a week until the regular season begins. "Working on it. We hope so," Carlisle said when asked if McConnell would be ready for opening night. The veteran guard went down with an injury in the second quarter of the Pacers first preseason game in 2025. This year, he hasn't logged a single minute.
The other three players were more surprising absences, though Nesmith did not appear to be moving well in the final minutes he spent on the court in Pacers-Hawks over the weekend. On his final possession that night, he was perfectly still in the corner and slightly hunched over as action unfolded at the top of the key.
Nesmith confirmed on Thursday that his hamstring was bothering him. "Feeling ok. Pretty good," he said when asked how he's feeling. He won't play against Milwaukee on Friday.
Carlisle said that Nesmith, Nembhard, and Walker were able to practice some on Thursday. Walker was getting up threes after the eighth day of camp – he was moving well. Nembhard was in a room just off of the courts.
The Pacers close the preseason on Friday, then kick off their 2026-27 campaign next Wednesday in New Orleans.
Tyrese Haliburton returns to Oklahoma City
Haliburton went off for 24 points on Tuesday night in the Paycom Center, the site of his 2025 achilles tear. He battled through emotions and put together a terrific outing – Carlisle said the star guard was undaunted.
Those emotions faded quickly. Haliburton said once he started playing, he moved on. His goal was to make sure the arena didn't have a mental hold on him in any way.
The original plan was that Haliburton wouldn't play in OKC. But once it was determined he would miss last Saturday's game against the Hawks due to an ankle injury, Haliburton met with the coaching staff to change the plans. He needs the reps. Carlisle is sensitive to his player's feelings, but in this instance both he and Haliburton thought it made sense to play on Tuesday.
"After not playing in game two (of the preseason), I decided that I'd probably need some more game reps, so probably be better for me to play," Haliburton said. "I thought I would feel something a little different or feel this type of way going in there, but I didn't really think about it once I got in and started playing basketball."
He got a ton of texts after his dazzling performance and can now move past the hurdle that was his return to Oklahoma City. The Pacers only regular season trip there comes on February 5 of 2027.
Haliburton did take a moment to soak in the scene. "A little bit, I guess. When I got there, I had to sage the gym a little bit. Once I did that, I felt better," he said with a smile. Now, it's back to basketball.
Aaron Nesmith talks starters
Most Pacers players have stated their excitement to be competitive again this year. Few make you feel that excitement quite like Nesmith in these preseason games.
He's taking charges and flying around the court, almost like a playoff game. Standing in and taking those hits has been an intentional choice for Nesmith, who doesn't want his team to lose their grit coming into the season. They're rebuilding a foundation one little play at a time.
"It's just making a read," he said of the charges he has taken. A few of them have been high-speed collisions.
His spirit is often infectious, most memorably (for me, at least) when Haliburton said that Nesmith is "willing to die for this," after a chasedown block against the Bucks during their first-round series in 2025. That wasn't that long ago – just 18 months. But it has felt longer, and Nesmith is eager to rack up wins again.
"I think it means a lot to all of us to be able to play that brand of basketball again and play meaningful basketball," he said. "[It's] just kind of given us a good sense of excitement for the rest of the year."
While much of that rejuvenation comes from the team playing well, Nesmith is also energized by the Pacers new starting five. He and others are learning, and loving, to play with Zubac.
"It's been a lot of fun. It's been fun just getting back in the groove of playing with that unit out there, finding our spots together," he said. "Just utilizing Zu in the paint, it's been fun."
There's simultaneously less space with Zubac being a non-shooter and more space thanks to his elite screening ability. It has been, and will be, an adjustment for everyone. But they're all willing to make it in the name of competing once again.
Thank you for reading. Just a few more training camp practices, plus one more preseason game, until the real thing. Sign up for more stories on the Pacers and Fever.
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