When the Pacers were trying to finish off the Thunder in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals without Tyrese Haliburton, the ending was brutal enough. What’s happening now could make the road back even rougher.
Indiana has already handled the parts it could control. Haliburton is expected to be healthy when the 2026-27 season opens, the roster around him has been strengthened, and the Pacers even added center Ivica Zubac, a move they believe helps everything come together. But the rest of the league hasn’t exactly cooperated.
The latest hit comes from Toronto, where Kawhi Leonard is creeping closer to a return to the Eastern Conference. ESPN reported that the NBA found no concrete evidence of salary cap circumvention involving Leonard and the Clippers, which pushes him closer to a trade that would send him back to the Raptors for the first time since he delivered Canada’s only title in 2019.
If that deal is completed without major punishment for L.A., Toronto instantly becomes a much harder problem for everybody in the East - and especially for Indiana. Leonard’s presence would give the Raptors a different level of force, and that’s before you even get to what he brings from a scouting standpoint. He helped shape Pascal Siakam’s rise in Toronto and Zubac’s development in Los Angeles, so he knows the strengths and weak spots of players who now matter to the Pacers’ plans.
The Pacers are already dealing with a tougher conference landscape than the one they navigated on their way to the Finals. Giannis Antetokounmpo is gone from the division, but he’s now teamed with Bam Adebayo and Erik Spoelstra in South Florida.
LeBron James is back in the East, Jaylen Brown has been dealt by the Celtics, and that has created another threat for Indiana to worry about in Philadelphia. New York remains the team everyone has to chase, with all of its starters back.
Cleveland will be hungrier. Detroit is coming off a surprise 60-win season.
Add in the Heat, Hawks, Magic and improved Wizards, and the margin for error gets thin fast.
Indiana’s path already took serious damage from lottery luck, which kept the Pacers from landing a top-four pick. That missed chance is something they’ll keep feeling every time they run into Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson.
The bigger issue now is that the East keeps stacking up talent. LeBron, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Desmond Bane, Andrew Wiggins, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Norman Powell are all in the conference less than 14 months after that Game 7 loss in Oklahoma City. Leonard could soon be part of that group too.
At 35, Leonard is still producing at a high level. He played 65 games in 2025-26, his second time in three seasons clearing the 75 percent mark for regular-season appearances, and he averaged a career-best 27.9 points for the Clippers while playing just under 32 minutes a night. That would be a clear upgrade over Brandon Ingram, who made his second All-Star team with Toronto but averaged 21.5 points and then faded badly in the playoffs, finishing the Raptors’ first-round loss to Cleveland with 12 points per game and shooting below 33 percent from the field.
The proposed deal would send Leonard to Toronto for Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, one pick swap and two second-rounders.
If Leonard is healthy and playing at his usual level, the Pacers’ route back to the Finals just got a lot more difficult.
In Other News...
Raptors Get An Early Finals Measuring Stick Against West Powerhouses
A four-game run early in the 2026-27 schedule will give the Raptors a useful look at where they stand against some of the Wests best. Denver, Houston, Oklahoma City and San Antonio all bring different problems, from Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in Denver to Kevin Durant in Houston, and Toronto will get a chance to see how its roster handles star power, size and pace in quick succession.
Oklahoma City and San Antonio add another layer to that test, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren fronting a Thunder group that can stretch a defense in multiple ways. For Toronto, the value goes beyond the results in those individual games, because this stretch offers a rare early chance to gauge how the Raptors might stack up in the kind of matchups that decide a Finals series. [Read more 🡒]
Raptors Could Have A Poeltl Escape Route If Minnesota Slips
Jakob Poeltls contract continues to loom over Torontos long-term planning, and the front office has every reason to keep an eye on the center market as the roster evolves. One speculative path floated for later down the road would come through Minnesota, where a veteran big with a very different salary structure could give the Raptors a cleaner way to reshape the middle of the roster if the right opportunity ever opens up.
The appeal is obvious on the basketball side. A proven defensive anchor would give Toronto a dependable interior presence and help stabilize a group that has been searching for clarity around the center spot. The problem is getting from idea to reality, because any serious conversation would hinge on Minnesotas future performance and a trade package that would likely force Toronto to part with one of its better young guards or wings, making this less a plan than a contingency worth monitoring. [Read more 🡒]
Collin Murray-Boyles Could Be Torontos Next Breakout Piece
Collin Murray-Boyles quietly gave the Raptors something to build on in his first season, putting together a productive rookie year that suggested he could become more than just another rotation piece. The early returns were encouraging enough that his name has started to come up as one of the more interesting internal options for Toronto, especially because his value seems tied not just to scoring, but to the way he can affect possessions on the defensive end.
A bigger role could be coming in his second season, and the timing makes it even more intriguing as Toronto weighs what its roster might look like if Kawhi Leonard joins the mix. Murray-Boyles is expected to be a meaningful bench piece, with a path to starting depending on team health, and that kind of flexibility can matter over the course of a long season. For a Raptors team looking for development to line up with contention, he already looks like one of the more useful pieces to watch closely. [Read more 🡒]