Johnny Furphy might look, on paper, like a standard second-round flier. The kind of player who could be overseas in a few years, or simply out of the league entirely - the sort of name that becomes a trivia answer for especially dedicated Indiana Pacers fans.
But that’s not the only path in front of him.
There’s a real version of this story where Furphy doesn’t disappear. Instead, he climbs into the Pacers’ rotation and becomes the exact kind of bench piece Indiana has been searching for - the final man in the mix, the one who helps everything settle into place. Coming back from an ACL tear, he could suddenly claim the last rotation spot that so many players are chasing.
The appeal is pretty clear: Furphy has the size and athletic tools to fit what Indiana needs on the wing. He can move at a high level without the ball and with it, and if the shot keeps coming along, he starts looking a lot like the three-and-D forward Rick Carlisle can use in all sorts of lineups.
That may sound ambitious for a late-round pick with just 85 career games and 283 points to his Basketball Reference page. For a team with title aspirations, that kind of player usually doesn’t just walk into meaningful minutes.
And yet there’s a path here, because sometimes the opportunity opens up in the middle of a lost season, when players get their chance to prove they belong. Furphy was beginning to do that before the knee injury interrupted him.
The cleanest way to see his value is through Pascal Siakam.
Furphy gives Indiana something it needs badly in minutes with Siakam. Obi Toppin has often handled the backup power forward role, but his fit next to Siakam in small-ball lineups is not nearly as clean. Furphy gives the Pacers the opposite type of answer.
He has the size to help around the rim, enough rebounding to keep Indiana from getting swallowed up inside, and the kind of instincts to poke at loose balls and turn them into transition chances. That matters for a team that wants to run.
It also matters because it helps preserve Siakam in the minutes when Indiana goes small. Siakam is going to be near 40 minutes a night, and most of those minutes will come alongside star center Ivica Zubac.
So the real question becomes what Indiana wants in the stretches when Siakam and Zubac are both off the floor. Does it lean on center Jay Huff, which keeps things basically as they are? Or does it take the different route and let Furphy open the door to a Siakam-at-center look that has already been excellent?
Good teams don’t force bad minutes just to satisfy a roster chart. Huff isn’t bad, but plugging him in simply because the rotation says so would be the wrong move.
Sometimes the smarter play is choosing the off-speed pitch instead of another fastball. Indiana will have plenty of time with a traditional five. The minutes without Zubac are where the Pacers can try something more interesting.
And at the center of all of it is Siakam, whose versatility has helped shape the identity Indiana has built since bringing him in from the Toronto Raptors. Giving Furphy a real shot would not only be a chance to uncover a player people keep overlooking. It might end up making the whole thing work even better.
In Other News...
Pacers Could Be Tempted By A Former First Round Wing Gamble
AJ Johnsons path through the NBA has already become a case study in how quickly a young player can get shuffled when teams are chasing immediate help. Drafted by the Bucks and then sent to Washington, he flashed enough promise with the Wizards to keep intrigue alive, but he eventually slipped out of the rotation and kept moving, landing with Dallas, Memphis and New Orleans in rapid succession.
For the Pacers, that kind of talent-for-price profile can be hard to ignore, especially if they are looking for a low-cost swing on the wing. Johnson still has the kind of long-term upside that made him a first-round gamble in the first place, but any Indiana pursuit would come with the same central question that has followed him from stop to stop: can a team finally give him a consistent role long enough to unlock it? [Read more 🡒]
Kawhi Leonard Keeps Reshaping The Pacers In A Way Fans Missed
The Pacers connection to Kawhi Leonard goes back to draft night in 2011, when Indiana selected him and then moved his rights before he ever suited up for the franchise. It was a footnote at the time, one of those draft-day decisions that can seem minor in the moment and only gain texture years later when the leagues trade web starts to unravel.
Leonards exit from Toronto in 2019 and the ripple effects tied to the Clippers eventually helped shape the kind of roster Indiana could build, too. Through a series of moves that played out long after that draft-night deal, the Pacers ended up with Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac in the mix, pieces that now matter to the look and feel of their starting frontcourt even if the original Kawhi connection has stayed mostly in the background. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Face A Veteran Leadership Debate At The Worst Time
The Pacers went into the offseason looking for steadiness as much as talent, and Larry Nance Jr. fit that idea on paper. Indiana valued his veteran presence even though his on-court role has been limited, a sign the front office was trying to add some ballast to a roster that has had to absorb injuries and turnover. In that sense, the move made sense as part of a bigger effort to keep the group grounded.
Still, the conversation around leadership in Indiana has not gone away, especially with James Johnson still unsigned. Johnson was a former Pacers voice the room clearly understood, and the contrast has sharpened the debate over whether the team prioritized the right kind of veteran presence at the right time. With so much already changing around the roster, the Pacers are left sorting out not just who can play, but who can help hold everything together. [Read more 🡒]