PascalSiakam

Preseason question: Did Siakam find a silver lining in the Pacers’ lost season? Indiana would like to soon forget the entirety of the 2025-26 season, including but not limited to the extensive injury report, the parade of futile efforts, and the squandering of a lottery pick that could have changed the trajectory of the franchise. But that’s not to say that Siakam—who put up the highest-scoring total of his career—came away from the experience with nothing to show for it. Siakam’s versatility makes him a source for endless tinkering. Whenever the offense stalls, Rick Carlisle can move his do-it-all forward to the post or the elbow or the top of the floor and reroute actions in service of the fact that one of Indy’s best players can function from anywhere. That served Siakam well as part of the MASH unit Pacers, especially when he stepped in to moonlight as a small-ball center. Indiana thrived with Siakam’s mobility at center, to such a degree that it would be shocking if Carlisle didn’t lean on it again this season. With that comes hope for more kernels of progress, in some way that Siakam learns to read or attack the game from a slightly different vantage point. Giving him any more tools to work with could open up all sorts of new inroads for the Pacers.