The Indiana Pacers don’t have much mystery at the top of the roster heading into training camp. The real intrigue starts once the starters come off the floor.
That’s where camp can get messy, and that’s where some players could separate themselves fast. With a veteran group built around championship asipriations, Rick Carlisle won’t be in a position to hand out minutes just to see what happens. Every role has to be earned.
One of the clearest fights to watch is at wing, where Isaiah Jackson Walker has the kind of physical profile Indiana needs. The fourth-year forward brings size and a 7-foot-2 wingspan, which gives him a chance to guard multiple spots and work as a bigger wing next to Kelly Oubre Jr. off the bench.
But Walker can’t coast on the tools alone.
If his camp and preseason are uneven, Chuma Sheppard could push right into the conversation. Sheppard doesn’t have Walker’s size or ceiling, but he brings the kind of steady value coaches trust on a team trying to win now.
Carlisle already knows the package: defense, effort, floor spacing, and a player who generally doesn’t overreach. That sort of reliability matters if Walker is giving away possessions or disappearing for long stretches.
Walker should still open camp with the edge. The question is whether he can keep it.
The backup center battle might be even more interesting because the two players bring such different looks. Jay Huff is the presumed favorite to back up Ivica Zubac. At 7-foot-1, he has the size to work around the rim, the touch to stretch out and hit threes, and a growing reputation as a strong shot blocker.
Larry Nance Jr. offers something else entirely.
At 6-foot-6, he’s not built like a traditional center, but that’s exactly why he gives Carlisle another option. Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said on Setting The Pace that Nance wanted to come to Indiana in free agency, and the team believed he was the best backup it could land on a veteran minimum contract.
Nance is also trying to get back on track after a difficult year with Cleveland, and camp will be his first chance to show what he can bring to this group. Huff still looks like the favorite for the more conventional backup five role, but Nance’s mobility and versatility could make him useful in the right matchups. It may end up being less about picking one winner and more about sorting out when each one fits.
And if neither Huff nor Nance grabs the job, Obi Toppin is still in the mix for minutes at center.
Further down the roster, there’s another battle worth watching. Jalen Slawson and Kobe Brown are both in camp on two-way contracts, and both are trying to prove they belong on a standard NBA deal.
For them, the big question is straightforward: who made the biggest jump this summer?
Camp gives Indiana its first real chance to see that growth in a competitive setting. Neither player has to lock down a rotation spot right away, but creating separation could matter. Two-way spots are about development, sure, but they can also be a path to something more.
If Slawson or Brown stands out in camp, keeps that momentum rolling into the season and takes advantage of whatever chances come their way, a standard NBA contract could become a real possibility.
Carlisle’s starting five may be easy to map out. The bench, though, is where things can shift.
Walker has to fend off Sheppard. Huff has to hold off Nance.
Slawson and Brown are trying to make themselves impossible to ignore.
That’s what makes this camp worth watching. For a team with championship expectations, nothing here is truly empty minutes.
In Other News...
Tyrese Haliburton Had A Painful Knicks Confession Pacers Fans Will Feel
Tyrese Haliburtons name still sits at the center of everything the Pacers do, but this week he was talking about a different kind of heartbreak. On the Boardroom Podcast, the Indiana guard opened up about watching the New York Knicks win the NBA championship while he was sidelined by injury, and he didnt try to hide how complicated that moment felt. The reaction came with a mix of anger, happiness and sadness, a reminder that even as the Knicks achievement demanded respect, it also forced him to sit out the playoff run he wanted most.
For Pacers fans, the confession lands with extra weight because the rivalry has been heated enough already, and Haliburtons ties to some Knicks players only add another layer to it. He made clear that friendships can coexist with competition, even when the team on the other side is celebrating the title he was unable to chase. It leaves the same lingering thought that has hung over Indiana since the injury: how different all of this might have felt if Haliburton had been healthy enough to be on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Season May Come Down To One Tyrese Haliburton Question
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But the bigger question remains how much of this group can truly be built around Haliburton as the season unfolds. Indiana already paid a real price to get Zubac, sending a first-round pick to the Clippers after the Pacers landed fifth in the draft lottery, and moves like that only matter if the core takes the next step. For a team sitting in that uncertain stretch of the preseason pecking order, the answer to one Haliburton question may end up shaping everything else. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Have One Depth Concern That Could Decide Their Title Push
The Pacers have spent much of this season looking like a team with real upside, but the conversation around their title push keeps circling back to one uncomfortable roster question: who steps up when the rotation gets stressed? Indianas top eight can carry a lot, yet the margin behind them looks thin, with several players either still unproven or carrying the label of draft disappointments, which makes the bench far less comforting than it might appear on paper.
That matters in the postseason, where injuries and foul trouble tend to expose every weak spot, and where contenders often get saved by a surprise role player who was barely on the radar in January. Indiana has plenty to like at the top, but if the Pacers are going to survive the grind and keep pace with the leagues deepest teams, they may need someone from the back end of the roster to become much more reliable than expected. [Read more 🡒]