Pacers wing Aaron Nesmith could be a decisive X-factor in Indiana’s second straight Eastern Conference Finals berth this season, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic.
Nesmith has thrived as a 3-and-D role player across his past two seasons in Indiana. This past regular season, the 25-year-old’s shooting got so good he qualified for the league’s “50-40-90” club. The Vanderbilt alum converted 50.7% of his field goal takes 41.3% of his triple tries, and 91.7% of his charity stripe attempts.
Across his first 10 playoff contests this spring, Nesmith has logged a 67.2% true shooting percentage and a 17.3 PER. What makes his offense all the more exciting is that he’s also bringing it on the other end of the hardwood, often defending the opposition’s best player. During Indiana’s five-game second round series victory over Cleveland, he often covered six-time All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. Hollinger expects Nesmith to defend All-Stars Jalen Brunson, a guard, or Karl-Anthony Towns, a center.
“It really was just finding my role here,” Nesmith said. “Energy, effort, defense, making open shots, that’s what we needed from me in order to win games. Every year, I’ve just gotten a little better at the little things.”
Hollinger believes Nesmith is in line for a massive new contract when his current deal expires in 2027. At present, the 6’5″ pro is making $11MM annually.
There’s more out of Indiana:
Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton is embracing his role as a foil for New York in the team’s impending Conference Finals series, a rematch of last year’s second round clash, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Indiana won that series in seven games, as the Knicks racked up injuries to critical rotation players. “For sure, it’s a lot of fun, man,” Haliburton said. “I think last year the series was a lot of fun, back and forth, it felt like nobody could win two in a row until we were able to do it [in Games 6 and 7].” In last year’s series, the 2024 All-NBA honoree notched averages 21.3 PPG and 7.0 APG.
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle has quietly made the club one of the league’s top offenses across the past two seasons. In a new piece, Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link) unpacks how Carlisle went about defining Indiana’s unique offensive identity. Although Carlisle does have a playbook with set plays, the team generally leans on a somewhat improvisational flow, predicated on a motion system. Indiana’s 123.3 points per game was the sixth-best scoring rate in NBA history, while their 117.4 points per game this year was a bit more pedestrian — ranking seventh in the league this season. “He trusts the offense and us,” Aaron Nesmith said of Carlisle’ approach. “We have such great offensive players on our team I think we just are able to read the game. We’re pretty friendly off the court and it translates on the court as well.”
The Pacers are hardly satisfied with their second straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance in as many seasons, writes Dopirak in another piece. “It feels good but I think we’re greedy at the end of the day,” forward Pascal Siakam said. “We feel like we’ve been here before. Last year, we could’ve been like, ‘Man, this is the first time in a while.’ (Now) We’ve just been here last year. For us, that focus has to shift. We have to be wanting more.”