Andrew Nembhard

Pacers Notes: Defense, Toppin, McConnell, Workouts

June 1st, 2024 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

Having already taken one big swing this year by trading for Pascal Siakam in January, the Pacers aren’t opposed to having a relatively quiet offseason and running it back with a similar group to the one that made this year’s Eastern Conference finals, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required).

“You always gotta look and see what’s out there on the market,” general manager Chad Buchanan said this week during his end-of-season press conference. “Is there a player or players out there who are available who make sense for your team? You’re also very excited about the young core we have. It’s a balance. It’s going to be a lot of discussion, a lot of debate. Maybe there’s nothing out there that makes sense, and we’re fine with that. We really like this team. If we come back with this same group next year, we still believe there’s a lot of upside with this group.”

Improving the defense will be an offseason priority in Indiana, though it’s possible that could happen without making any outside additions, according to Dopirak, who points to young players like Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, Ben Sheppard, Bennedict Mathurin, and Jarace Walker as guys who are capable of getting better on that end of the court. Buchanan acknowledged that the defense will be a focus for the front office after the team ranked 24th in defensive rating during the regular season.

“As you watch the team that eliminates you, it’s always fresh in your mind what they did to beat you,” Buchanan said. “I think Boston, obviously they have more experience than us, No. 1, but they have a tremendous defensive foundation. When we needed to try to score these last couple of games, it’s been very, very challenging. That’s one thing we take away that’s going to be important for us moving forward if we want to make another step.”

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While Indiana’s spending power will be limited if Siakam signs a maximum-salary contract, the team hopes to continue its relationship with restricted free agent forward Obi Toppin, per Buchanan. “I thought Obi had a tremendous year for us,” the Pacers’ GM said, per Dopirak. “… I thought he really blossomed this year. We envisioned him being a good with a team that played fast; he was exactly that. His three-point shooting really developed and improved as we saw this year. The way we play, you get a lot of open shots. If you can catch and shoot, you’re going to have some success. His defense grew as the season wore on. He seems to be happy here too. Would like to continue the relationship.”
Buchanan also raved about the contributions of backup guard T.J. McConnell, who will be extension-eligible this offseason as he enters a contract year. It sounds as if Indiana will explore an extension for McConnell, as Dopirak relays. “He’s not slowing down. You’re not seeing any sign of an aging player,” Buchanan said. “… His value to us is very, very high, and that has not changed by anything that happened this year and we hope he’s with us for a long time as well.”
In a separate story for The Indianapolis Star, Dopirak observes that the Pacers‘ first pre-draft workout on Friday only consisted of prospects who played college basketball for four or more years and started for at least three seasons. As Dopirak writes, Indiana has three picks in this year’s draft but none higher than No. 36, so the team may be targeting seasoned prospects capable of stepping in and contributing right away, rather than focusing on upside. Dopirak notes that head coach Rick Carlisle frequently said during the season that Sheppard’s four years of college experience made it a smooth transition to the NBA for the No. 26 pick in last year’s draft, since he understood his role without requiring much instruction.
The Pacers’ second pre-draft workout, scheduled for Tuesday, will feature several more experienced college players, including Reece Beekman (Virginia), DJ Horne (NC State), Lance Jones (Purdue), Cam Spencer (UConn), and Harrison Ingram (UNC), tweets Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. Mantas Rubstavicius, who has played professionally in Lithuania and New Zealand since 2018, will fill out the six-man workout group.

International Notes: Fournier, Lithuania, Canada, Nunn, Hayes-Davis

May 28th, 2024 at 2:28pm CST by Luke Adams

With the Pistons considered extremely unlikely to exercise their $19MM team option on Evan Fournier for the 2024/25 season, the French swingman is on track to become a free agent this summer. There has been some speculation that Fournier could return to Europe, where he began his professional career and where he could play a far more significant role than he has the past couple seasons.

It doesn’t sound like that’s Fournier’s Plan A, however. According to Dimitri Kucharczyk of BasketUSA (hat tip to RealGM), while Fournier’s representatives didn’t specifically address rumors linking him to French team ASVEL and Greek club Olympiacos, they indicated that the 31-year-old wants to continue playing in the NBA.

Before being traded to Detroit in February, Fournier had barely seen the court for over a year in New York, having been removed from the team’s rotation during the first half of the 2022/23 season. He saw regular playing time off the bench with the Pistons – 18.7 minutes per night across 29 appearances – but shot just 37.3% from the field and 27.0% from beyond the arc, well below his NBA career averages of 44.1% and 37.4%. That will hurt his stock as he seeks his next contract.

Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:

As Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops details, Lithuania’s preliminary roster for this summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament is headlined by a pair of NBA big men in Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas. However, there are some notable absences too, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com, who points out (via Twitter) that former NBA forward Ignas Brazdeikis and projected NBA lottery pick Matas Buzelis aren’t in the mix this summer.
It has been a good spring for Canadian guards, with Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker among those who won playoff series. The latest gift for the Canadians’ Olympic medal aspirations, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, is guard Andrew Nembhard, who played some of the best basketball of his career to keep the Pacers competitive vs. Boston following Tyrese Haliburton‘s hamstring injury. Nembhard is a near-lock to be on Canada’s Olympic roster this summer, says Grange.
Greek team Panathinaikos won this year’s EuroLeague title, with former NBA guard Kendrick Nunn scoring 21 points in 24 minutes in the championship game. Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops takes a closer look at Nunn’s memorable year and considers whether the guard is more likely to continue on with Panathinaikos or exercise the NBA out in his contract to return stateside.
Former NBA forward Xavier Cooks, who spent the 2023/24 season in Japan after being waived by the Wizards in October, is returning to his home country of Australia, having signed a three-year contract with the Sydney Kings, per a press release.
Could a return to the NBA be in the cards for forward Nigel Hayes-Davis? The former Wisconsin standout, who appeared in nine NBA games back in 2017/18, is rumored to be seeking a return, with the Cavaliers among the teams who may have interest, tweets Soritis Vetakis of LiveSports and SDNA. Hayes-Davis has spent the last two seasons with Fenerbahce in Turkey and earned a spot on the All-EuroLeague First Team this spring.

Pacers Notes: Siakam, Toppin, McConnell, Nembhard, Turner

May 28th, 2024 at 8:15am CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers entered the Eastern Conference finals as massive underdogs, played without their best player (Tyrese Haliburton) for more than half the series, and were ultimately dispatched by the top-seeded Celtics in four games. However, as Jamal Collier of ESPN writes, it feels like a missed opportunity for the team, which had at least a 90% win probability in the fourth quarter of Games 1, 3, and 4, per ESPN Stats & Information.

“It’s still very fresh for all of us,” starting center Myles Turner said following Monday’s Game 4 loss. “Very frustrating to have all these games in your grasp and let it slip through.”

As disheartening as the outcome was, the Pacers recognize they exceeded preseason expectations by making the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and winning two series. Starting guard Andrew Nembhard referred to the postseason experience as “second to none,” while reserve forward Obi Toppin said a “lot of good” came out of the season, adding that “we grew as a whole culture.” Still, there was frustration about not better taking advantage of the opportunity they had this year, since there’s no guarantee that opportunity will arise again.

“I can tell you like, yeah, we’re going to learn from it and it’s going to happen, but it’s not guaranteed,” Pascal Siakam said, per Collier. “I know how hard it is to get to this point. It’s unfortunate. You want to give credit to the other team because they took advantage of every mistake that we made. They did well.

“But for us, it’s been hard, like heartbreaking losses after heartbreaking losses. Yeah, you’re going to be encouraged by it and you hope to put the right amount of work to continue to get better. Because we need to be a lot better if you want to compete with those teams. And understand it doesn’t matter how good we played, we didn’t get it done.”

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An unrestricted free agent this summer, Siakam declined to specifically address his contract situation but spoke glowingly about the half-season he spent in Indiana after being traded from the Raptors to the Pacers in January. “It’s been a blessing,” Siakam said (Twitter video link via Michael Scotto of HoopsHype). “I’m really appreciative of everything. Coming from where I come from, it means a lot. The support that I’ve received here is something I was kind of missing. Having all that and seeing how the city just breathes basketball and how much support they give to the team…it’s incredible. How would you not be a part of that? I’m just really blessed and happy how this has been.”
Re-signing Siakam will be the Pacers’ top priority this summer, as Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link) and Mark Deeks of HoopsHype write in their previews of the club’s offseason, though it seems unlikely to be a drawn-out process, Marks observes. Re-signing Toppin and perhaps extending T.J. McConnell could be more challenging negotiations, Marks notes, and improving the defense will be another major offseason goal.
While the Pacers would certainly have preferred to have a healthy Haliburton available for Games 3 and 4 vs. Boston, the performances Nembhard submitted as the starting point guard were bright spots in the final days of Indiana’s season, writes Kyle Neddenriep of The Indianapolis Star. Nembhard averaged 28.0 points, 9.5 assists, and 5.0 rebounds per game on .564/.538/1.000 shooting in those two tight losses and “defended at a high level,” per head coach Rick Carlisle. “He could be a starter on any team in this league,” McConnell said of Nembhard, who does typically start alongside Haliburton at the two. “He’s proven that night in and night out. What he’s done in the playoffs is truly remarkable, where defenses are game-planning even more for you. He just rose to the challenge every night.” Nembhard will be extension-eligible this offseason but is still under team control on a minimum-salary deal for two more seasons, so there’s no urgency to get a deal done right away.
Making it this deep in the postseason was special for Turner, who said he’s never been beyond the first round of the playoffs in his life, even in high school. As James Boyd of The Athletic details, few NBA players have been with their current teams longer than Turner has been a Pacer, which made this year’s success more rewarding for the veteran center, who has been the subject of trade rumors multiple times over the years and seemed on the verge of being replaced when Indiana signed Deandre Ayton to a maximum-salary offer sheet in 2022. “It’s a rarity that one player is with an organization as long as I’ve been, so I definitely don’t take it for granted. I have a lot of love for the city, and I try to express it as much as I can,” Turner said. “But to be frank, I have dealt with a lot of bullsh–t since I been here. Honestly, just battling sometimes with non-believers, having to deal with all of the trade rumors, having another big man signed right in front of my eyes. … No matter what was thrown in front of me, I’m gonna continue to be the consummate professional and the man that I am. It’s very easy to be like, ‘This happened, so I’m gonna up,’ or, ‘They gave up on me, so I’m gonna give up on them.’ That’s not my M.O.”

Pacers Notes: Game 4, Haliburton, Nembhard, McConnell

May 27th, 2024 at 11:57am CST by Arthur Hill

The Pacers can’t stand the thought of watching another team celebrate an Eastern Conference title on their home court, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. That will add to Indiana’s motivation for Monday’s game against the Celtics in the face of a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 deficit. Players and coaches understand they face long odds to win the series, but they’re focused on taking Game 4 to give themselves a chance.

“The important thing for us is to learn, to be resilient and stay in this fight and find a way to extend the series,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We want to keep playing. We want to get back on that plane and go back to Boston.”

Even though Boston has won the first three games, it hasn’t been a one-sided series so far. Two critical turnovers late in Game 1 cost the Pacers a chance to win the series opener, and they led by eight points with 2:38 remaining in Game 3 before letting it slip away.

“There are a lot of correctable things that we’ve got to get better,” Carlisle said. “There are some mistakes defensively that are fixable and some things offensively that we have to do better. We did a lot of things very very well. We led for a great majority of the game. There certainly are positives. So we always show our guys things that need to be corrected but also always show our guys the things we do well and that we need to continue to do well.”

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Despite a weekend report that Tyrese Haliburton may miss the rest of the series due to an injured left hamstring, no decision has been announced on his status for tonight. Carlisle refused to provide an update on Haliburton when meeting with reporters on Sunday, Dopirak adds, but he said he’s comfortable with T.J. McConnell or Andrew Nembhard running the offense. “(Nembhard’s) played plenty of point guard for us,” Carlisle said. “There have been stretches when Ty’s been unable to play both last year and this year. He has experience there. Guys who put the work in and are prepared tend to have more confidence because they’ve done the work. He’s one of those guys, and our team really as a group, we have really conscientious guys who are great workers who love to compete.”
The Suns inquired about McConnell during the season, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, but the Pacers weren’t – and aren’t – interested in moving their backup point guard. McConnell is a valuable member of Indiana’s bench, and he has one year left on a team-friendly contract that will pay him $9.3MM next season. “He’s one of the heartbeats of that team,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He just makes winning plays. He’s really good at the end of quarters, which is a way that teams can keep momentum, start momentum, chip away at momentum.”
Nembhard sparked the Pacers’ offense with 32 points and nine assists in Game 3, but he committed a costly turnover when Jrue Holiday took the ball from him with just under 10 seconds remaining (video link). Holiday slipped on the play, notes Khari Thompson of The Boston Globe, but he was able to recover in time to poke the ball out of Nembhard’s hands. “I tried to get a shot up and he got in front of me. I lost the ball, slipped, turnover,” Nembhard said.

Pacers Notes: Nembhard, McConnell, Carlisle, Haliburton

May 26th, 2024 at 1:37pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Pacers came just one play short of besting the Celtics in Game 3 of their ongoing Eastern Conference Finals series despite playing without All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton. Second-year guard Andrew Nembhard played a significant role in the team’s competitive showing, writes Kyle Neddenriep of The Indianapolis Star. The Gonzaga alum racked up 32 points and nine assists, against just two turnovers, while he helped try to fill the scoring void created by Haliburton’s absence

“The confidence he plays with is incredible,” backup point guard T.J. McConnell said of Nembhard. “You see him bringing the ball up the floor, he’s getting people involved, he’s shooting it and making it at high level. In the playoffs, in the regular season, he’s coming off the bench, he’s starting at two, he’s starting at one, he’s the backup point guard. As a kid at his age, getting thrown around like that can maybe mess with your mental (side). But he’s answered the bell all year, his whole career.”

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McConnell did what he could to help the Pacers withstand an eventual 18-point Boston rally to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the series on Saturday, according to James Boyd of The Athletic. The Celtics won, 114-111, and are now just one game away from making their second NBA Finals in the last three years. McConnell single-handedly outscored the Celtics’ bench 23-4 himself. Even facing a seemingly insurmountable hole, the former Arizona standout is hoping his club remains dialed in. “Obviously, this one stings, but there’s no guy in this locker room that’s packed it in,” McConnell said. “We’re gonna try to get one here and extend this series and then go back to Boston and try to make things difficult. But there’s no guy in this locker room that’s gonna quit.”
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle spoke post-game about making up for this Game 3 letdown, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “Believe me when I tell you, we are going after them,” Carlisle remarked. “We’re going to be back here [Gainbridge Fieldhouse] Monday night, looking to extend the series, and we’re going to come at them even harder.” Indiana had been up by eight with 2:38 left in regulation, before Boston’s two-way brilliance powered the team to a 13-2 final kick.
Although Nembhard submitted the game of his life in the absence of Haliburton (his 32-point night was a career-best), the Pacers still clearly felt the absence of their best player, notes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Big man Myles Turner and star forward Pascal Siakam, a free agent this summer, contributed what they could, but Siakam conceded post-game that the club was prone to sloppiness in the second half. “We did a good job in the first half, but in the second half, not as much,” Siakam said. “They made runs and we weren’t able to come back and have that same intensity. We had a couple of turnovers, and against a team like that, no team is safe, so we have to play well until the end.” It was reported earlier today that Haliburton’s status for the rest of the series is very much in doubt.

Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Carlisle, Bench, More

May 24th, 2024 at 5:02pm CST by Luke Adams

After Tyrese Haliburton left Game 2 early due to left hamstring soreness on Thursday, the Pacers have listed the star guard as questionable to play in Saturday’s Game 3 (Twitter link). While Haliburton was also said to be dealing with a chest issue in Game 2, the hamstring soreness is his only ailment mentioned on the official injury report.

Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) explores how the Pacers might try to make up for Haliburton’s absence in the event that he’s unable to play in Game 3. As Dopirak notes, the team has solid alternatives at point guard in Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell but might have to dig deeper into its rotation at other positions to cover Haliburton’s minutes. Nembhard and McConnell also wouldn’t be able to replicate the play-making and outside shooting that the All-NBA guard provides.

“He does so many things for our team where everyone just has to move the ball more and get in the paint more,” McConnell said. “The ball movement, like I said, just has to be at another level. He gets 10 assists in his sleep. It’s hard for another person on our team to replicate that. It’s a group effort when he goes down to kinda get people the ball and get moving.”

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Whether or not Haliburton is healthy, the Pacers won’t have any hope of beating pulling off a comeback and beating Boston in the Eastern Conference finals if they play like they did on Thursday, Gregg Doyel writes in a column for The Indianapolis Star (subscription required).
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle raised some eyebrows in Game 2 by leaning on little-used bench players like Doug McDermott, Jarace Walker, Kendall Brown, and Jalen Smith in the fourth quarter while sitting Myles Turner, Aaron Nesmith, and Pascal Siakam for most or all of the final period. Carlisle explained why he went to his bench so early despite facing a deficit that didn’t seem insurmountable. “To look at some guys that I thought needed a look,” Carlisle said, per Dopirak. “McDermott went in there and played well. Isaiah Jackson brought a lot of fight to the game. Jalen Smith hasn’t had much of an opportunity to play in the playoffs, so I wanted to see where he was at. We weren’t giving up, but it was an opportunity to get some energetic fresh guys in there to fight. They did some good things. … The guys who had played to that point, Pascal was very tired. Aaron had four fouls and he was tired. That was it.”
Prior to Game 2, Haliburton told reporters that Indiana has the “best bench in the NBA,” Dopirak writes in another Indy Star story (subscription required). McConnell, Obi Toppin, and Ben Sheppard are the Pacers reserves who have seen the most action this postseason, leading a second unit that ranks No. 1 in the playoffs with 33.4 points per game.
While many NBA fans didn’t assign much meaning to the league’s first in-season tournament earlier this season, making the championship game in that tournament benefited a Pacers team that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2020, says Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “There were some real playoff simulations — our quarterfinal game at home, on a Monday night, against (the Celtics), had the feel of a conference finals-matchup atmosphere,” Carlisle said. “The part about going to Vegas and playing there, that was different, but there was certainly the exposure, the stage, all that. So, all those experiences help a young team.”

Pacers Notes: Surprise Run, Offense, Haliburton, Nembhard, Nesmith, Siakam

May 19th, 2024 at 9:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pacers find themselves in the Cinderella role in these playoffs. After knocking off the Bucks in the first round, they put away the injury-ravaged Knicks in Game 7 on Sunday.

Now, they’ll face the top-seeded Celtics in the conference finals. All this after failing to qualify for the playoffs the previous three seasons and getting knocked out in the opening round in their five previous postseason appearances.

“Well, we’re the uninvited guest,” coach Rick Carlisle said, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “Here we are. When you win a Game 7 in Madison Square Garden, you’ve made history. It’s very, very difficult to do.”

The Pacers shot 67.1% from the field in the 130-109 win, setting an NBA playoff record for highest field goal percentage in a single game. They made 76.3% of their attempts from the floor in the first half. Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 26 points.

“It’s a testament to our coaching staff and our offense,” center Myles Turner said (story via The Indianapolis Star’s Dustin Dopirak). “We have a historic offense obviously, but this guy (Haliburton) got things rolling and everybody just followed suit. To do that on the road when you’re in the Garden in a Game 7 obviously is phenomenal. This is what we’ve been doing all season long and it showed on a big stage.”

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Haliburton scored a combined 28 points in the previous two games and also had a six-point clunker in Game 1. He was efficient in Game 7, shooting 10-for-17 from the field while making six assists. “For me, aggression is not shots, it’s getting two feet in the paint,” Haliburton said. “I know it’s an old school way of thinking, but the more that I can get downhill, it opens things up for everybody else. Guys were making shots early. I just continued to get to the paint off these two guys (Turner’s and Pascal Siakam‘s) ball screens. Get to the rim and kick out to these guys to make plays. For me it’s just feeling out the game, what’s needed in that game. I know today’s Game 7, unload the clip, have no regrets because I would hate to be (expletive) all summer about not shooting the ball today. For me it was just about coming out and playing the right way.”
Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith made major offensive contributions, combining for 39 points. Nembhard shot 8-for-10 from the field and Nesmith made all eight of his shot attempts. “Those guys were great for us,” Siakam said. “They’re a big part of what we do.”
Siakam scored four baskets in the early going against former Raptors teammate OG Anunoby, who was hobbled by a hamstring injury and only lasted five minutes. “I was going to test him,” Siakam said. “I thought he didn’t look healthy out there. … I just wanted to make sure he was OK, but it was a Game 7.”

Pacers Notes: Haliburton, Nembhard, Nesmith

May 11th, 2024 at 11:57am CST by Tristan Tucker

Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered multiple injuries in Indiana’s Game 3 win over the Knicks, but battled through them to finish with 35 points and seven assists. After already dealing with lower back spasms, Haliburton hurt his tailbone and twisted his ankle in the span of a few minutes of game time, Dustin Dopirak of IndyStar writes.

“My just overall body right now,” Haliburton said. “I’m hurtin’. But they got guys hurting too. We gotta understand that everybody’s hurting right now. Thank God we got a day in between. I’m young and I’ll heal up and be ready on Sunday.”

He’ll likely be on the injury report ahead of Sunday’s Game 4, but coach Rick Carlisle said he’s hopeful Haliburton will be available.

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Haliburton has turned up the aggression for the Pacers after taking just six shots in the opening loss of the series, Dopirak writes. In his past two games, Haliburton is averaging 34.5 points and 8.0 assists while taking 22.5 shots – including 13.5 threes – per game. In his first seven playoff contests, Haliburton only averaged 13.0 shots per game, 8.4 of which were from downtown. He averaged 14.6 points and 9.1 assists in those games.
Despite a cold shooting night, Andrew Nembhard came up with one of the biggest plays in franchise history when he launched a three-pointer after a broken play to ultimately give Indiana the victory. Eric Nehm of The Athletic and Dopirak each explore in separate stories how Nembhard’s big shot came to be. “The clock was down, and sometimes, in those situations, it frees you up even more,” Carlisle said of Nembhard’s three-pointer. “And he just laced it.“
Carlisle moved Aaron Nesmith onto the assignment of guarding Jalen Brunson, Kyle Neddenriep of IndyStar observes. “You can’t give New York a recipe of the same thing over and over again,” Carlisle said. “They are going to adjust. Brunson is too great a player. So, the idea was to change the matchup and get a little more size and Aaron did as good a job as you can possibly do. Brunson is so good. He’s the best scorer in the playoffs, I believe.” Nesmith helped hold Brunson to 26 points (down from his average of 35.6 through his first eight playoff games) on 38.5% shooting (down from 45.7%).

Central Notes: Merrill, Craig, LaVine, Nembhard, Pistons

December 22nd, 2023 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

In the midst of his best stretch of the season, Cavaliers wing Sam Merrill woke up on Thursday morning with a sore right wrist after falling on it on Wednesday, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required).

Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to continue playing an increased role for the banged-up Cavs, Merrill attempted to fight through the pain, but was clearly bothered by the injury and didn’t play in the second half of Thursday’s loss to New Orleans, as Fedor details.

“When it rains, it pours,” forward Dean Wade said of Merrill joining an increasingly crowded Cavs injury list. “It sucks, but we’ve still got to go out there and play a game. We’ve got, I don’t know how many healthy bodies we’ve got, but still got to go out there and fight.”

“It was definitely tough for us. He’s been lights out the last two games,” Jarrett Allen added. “He came in and he tried to pull through, tried to rough it out with the hurt hand. Sadly, he couldn’t do it. But it happens. It’s been the cascade of players going down for us, so we just have to keep going.”

With Ty Jerome, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley sidelined due to longer-term injuries, the Cavaliers could theoretically qualify for a hardship exception if a fourth player goes down. But hardship exceptions are only available to teams with full rosters — Cleveland already has an open spot that the team has thus far been unwilling to fill due to luxury tax concerns.

As we await more details on Merrill’s injury, here are more notes from around the Central:

Bulls forward Torrey Craig believes the eight-to-10 week recovery timeline the team provided when announcing his right foot injury is too long, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. Craig said on Thursday that he’s a fast healer and that he intends to beat that timeline, assuming his rehab goes well.
In other Bulls injury news, Zach LaVine is making good progress in his recovery from his own right foot injury and is expected to start cutting next week, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s going to hopefully start to jump shooting, running, increase the speed,” Donovan said of what LaVine’s rehab. “He’s actually running at a pretty good clip straight ahead, and then moving toward next week is when they would probably start some of that running, changing direction, kind of curve running to see how he responds.” As Cowley details, LaVine could be cleared to resume basketball activities and begin practicing again if he responds well next week.
After missing six games due to a bone bruise, Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard returned to action on Friday in Memphis and looked good in his 16 minutes on the court, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.
Something has to change for the 2-26 Pistons, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, who says that “a shakeup needed to happen yesterday” and that everyone – from players to coaches to the front office to ownership – bears blame for this season’s disaster.

Pacers Notes: Johnson, Team Meeting, Haliburton, Nembhard

December 16th, 2023 at 5:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

James Johnson never considered retirement, even as he went through free agency without an offer and started the season without a team, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Johnson’s patience was rewarded on Friday when he signed a one-year deal with the Pacers. Teammates were thrilled to welcome back the 36-year-old forward, who was a valuable contributor for Indiana last season even though he only appeared in 18 games.

“Just the professionalism,” T.J. McConnell said. “You don’t play 15 years in this league without being a great basketball player, but the professionalism you show day in and day out and how you go about things on and off the court is what he brings. He’s big at teaching the young guys. Not many people in this league are as good of people as him and we definitely missed him.”

Coach Rick Carlisle told Dopirak that the Pacers have been considering a move with Johnson for at least two weeks. Carlisle and other team officials traveled to Johnson’s Miami home on December 1 when Indiana was in town for a pair of games.

“He helped us so much last year,” Carlisle said. “This year we started with 15 guys. When Daniel Theis moved on to the Clippers in the buyout situation, it opened up a spot. You see if the need for the spot and if anything else is going to happen. But we talked to him on the Friday between games, had a really good meeting with him and told him it was very much under consideration.”

There’s more on the Pacers:

In a separate story, Dopirak examines why Indiana often comes up short against the league’s worst teams, including Friday’s loss at Washington. There was a team meeting earlier this week about potential trap games, but the Pacers failed to heed the warning as they were badly outplayed by the Wizards, who were on a six-game losing streak coming into Friday. “It’s just the characteristics of a young group,” Tyrese Haliburton said. “Playing to your competition. Every team in the NBA is good, but there’s some games we’re going to look back and say, ‘Damn, we probably should’ve got that one.’ We’ve gotta grow up as a group at some point. It starts with us as players, us as a first group and me as a leader. We’ve just gotta be better.”
Haliburton is listed as questionable for tonight’s game at Minnesota with a left knee bruise he suffered Friday, Dopirak tweets. “I’m fine, I’m just banged up a little bit,” Haliburton said. “There was a little wet spot on the floor. I landed on my hip, that’s fine, but me and Bilal (Coulibaly) went knee to knee, so just a little sore right now.”
Andrew Nembhard feels like he “dodged a bullet” with the right knee bone bruise he suffered in the in-season tournament semifinals, per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (subscriber only). Nembhard is considered week-to-week and he’s thankful that the injury wasn’t worse.

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