Pacers at the 2026 Trade Deadline: Managing the cap, finding a center, and Mathurin's contract year
With the season derailed by injuries, Indiana’s focus has shifted to cap management, a long-term answer at center, and deciding on Bennedict Mathurin's future.
The outlook for the Pacers’ immediate future changed on June 22 when All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles. That’s a tough injury with a grueling recovery … that takes time.
The Pacers pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to the last game possible of the NBA Finals: Game 7. Which meant their season concluded two months later than half the league. And it was in that one moment, with Haliburton repeatedly hitting the hardwood in frustration at Paycom Center, where things changed that season — and directly impacted the next.
Nobody could have imagined the depth of injuries this team then faced for the first two months of the season. Such as rookie guard Kam Jones, who’s just 23 years old and hadn’t experienced a major injury, being sidelined even before training camp with a back injury that would keep him out for an extended time.
Ankle sprains, hamstring strains, shoulder issues, great big toe injuries, stress fractures, groin soreness — nearly every type of setback cycled through the roster.
You name it, and a Pacers player had it.
Which led to about two dozen transactions — frequent 10-day contracts, multiple players signed to rest-of-season deals, and two-way players badly needed, etc.
I’ve experienced a lot since covering the Pacers on a daily basis since 2012, but injuries to this level was entirely new. And hopefully, never again.
Still, you have to give a group time to figure it out. Just as they did last season in early December. However this time, there would be no finding their way out of this rut. From Dec. 12 to Jan. 6, they lost 13 consecutive games — the most in franchise history. Head coach Rick Carlisle sat on 999 wins for far too long.
By that point, they were 6-31 and the season was very clearly not going to be a repeat of last season’s special turnaround that later became memorable for the Pacers’ magical run to the distance Game 7 of the finals.
Everything the Pacers do over the next six months is about 1) the salary cap and setting themselves up for future success, 2) combined with making another run next year. It’s unfinished business.
It’s trade deadline week in the NBA, now 24 hours away from the 3 p.m. ET deadline on Feb. 5 when executives have to put their pencils down and wait until the offseason to make substantial upgrades.
