INDIANAPOLIS — In mid-January of 2024, the Pacers were good, but they weren’t great.
At the time, Indiana owned the NBA’s No. 1 offense — a hyper-efficient attack driven by the pedal-to-the-medal pace-pushing and all-seeing facilitation of Tyrese Haliburton. But while that attack boasted plenty of five-out, bombs-away panache, it lacked a second high-level shot-creator capable of getting the Pacers a good look when everything else had broken down. Indiana needed that elite offense, too, to make up for a dreadful bottom-five defense — a small, often scrambled unit that routinely struggled to match length, strength and athleticism with top-flight big wings.