Quenton Jackson has done enough this season to make the Pacers think twice before handing TJ McConnell his old job back.
That’s the real issue as McConnell nears a return from the hamstring injury that has kept him out all year and Tyrese Haliburton also moves closer to coming back. Jackson’s opportunity has been built on necessity, first filling in for McConnell and then helping cover for the injuries that hit Indiana’s point guard group. But the idea that his role should shrink back into something small and familiar would be a mistake.
Jackson has turned a gap-year opportunity into something much bigger. While plenty of attention in the offseason went to whether Ben Sheppard or Jarace Walker could become the surprise answer for this roster, Jackson was the one who emerged as the revelation. Now the Pacers have a real decision on their hands, and it shouldn’t be driven by McConnell’s status or reputation.
What Jackson has brought has gone well beyond spot duty. He has been Indiana’s best perimeter defender, even as Andrew Nembhard has taken on more on-ball responsibility and Aaron Nesmith works back from his hamstring strain.
He’s also given the Pacers a lift off the bench, pushing his scoring into double figures. On top of that, the 25-year-old Texas A&M product has taken on more playmaking as the team keeps trying to patch together a full rotation.
That matters because Jackson hasn’t just survived the added workload - he’s thrived with it. There’s a hunger that comes with climbing from a G League contract, and the Pacers are seeing it in real time. Jalen Slawson has made a similar push, though with less success, and both players have helped keep Indiana afloat.
McConnell deserves a role. That part isn’t in question.
But Jackson does too, and only one of them is positioned to matter in the team’s future. The best-case scenario is that they can share the floor and coexist.
If not, the Pacers can’t afford to favor McConnell simply because of his history with the franchise. Jackson has earned more than that.
In Other News...
Tyrese Haliburtons Latest Injury Absence Leaves Pacers Waiting Again
Tyrese Haliburton is staying in Indianapolis for treatment of a left hamstring strain and will not travel with the Pacers to Mexico City, another reminder of how carefully Indiana has had to manage its point guard early in the season. Rick Carlisle said Haliburton is going through treatment that includes time in a hyperbaric chamber, and the coach added that the star guard is in good spirits as the team hopes to get him back soon.
For a Pacers group trying to keep its rhythm while juggling injuries, Haliburtons absence changes everything from pace to late-game organization. Indiana has had to keep moving without him while also monitoring the rest of the roster, and the latest update only adds to the sense that the team is still waiting for its full identity to come together. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Just Weighed In On A Growing NBA Expansion Debate
The NBAs expansion conversation keeps getting louder, and Rick Carlisle added a little more fuel to it this week. The Pacers coach said a team in Mexico City is certainly possible as the league continues sorting through where and when it might grow next, with commissioner Adam Silver saying expansion is still a few seasons away and that Las Vegas and Seattle remain the most active candidates.
Mexico City is hardly a blind spot for the league, either. The NBA has already staged games at Arena CDMX, where the G Leagues Mexico City Capitanes play, and the idea of a full-time franchise there has long carried real traction around the league. Carlisles comments fit into a broader debate that now includes player reaction as well, even if the final shape of expansion is still very much up in the air. [Read more 🡒]
Rick Carlisle Sees Something Bigger In This Pacers Showcase
Rick Carlisle has been around long enough to see the league change in just about every way, and now the Pacers coach is adding another milestone to a rsum that already puts him in rare company. In his 25th season as an NBA head coach, Carlisle recently reached 1,000 career wins, becoming just the 11th coach in league history to do it, a reminder of how much basketball he has seen while moving from one organization to the next.
Now comes a different kind of stage for Indiana, which is set to play its first game in Mexico against the Denver Nuggets. Carlisle has been reflective about the path that brought him here, praising the organizations and players he has worked with along the way, but he also sounds energized by what this Pacers group is building. For a team still shaping its identity, an international showcase offers more than a novelty trip. It is another chance to see how far that identity can travel. [Read more 🡒]