How the In-Season Tournament will test the Pacers

And why the NBA's new competition should serve as a measuring stick for Indiana's defense

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

The 2023-24 NBA season will be the first with an In-Season tournament. Where some people view this development as a meaningless gimmick, others see an opportunity for extra marquee match-ups while potentially giving young teams a chance to have a bigger stage and play games under greater pressure. Either way, regardless of your opinion or mine, it doesn't really matter for the point of this article. What does matter is that it's happening, and it's happening throughout the month of November, with the Pacers competing in a group, including the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and Cleveland Cavaliers, which projects to provide an early gauge of where, and if, the Pacers have adapted on defense.

For example, consider the game on Friday, November 13 against the Cavaliers. Six months ago, long before the Pacers pivoted to development mode, Tyrese Haliburton was defending Isaac Okoro at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Actually, strike that. Haliburton wasn't so much "defending" Isaac Okoro, as he was alternately either helping from Isaac Okoro or being put into action with Isaac Okoro as the screener. In the end, the Pacers got more than they bargained for. When Haliburton tagged the roll-man on the weak-side, Okoro knocked down a shot in the corner.

Meanwhile, that was a moment of deja vu, because he had already canned a three from that same spot a few minutes earlier, once again punishing the help only with a different helper.

Look closely at what led to that particular breakdown, though. When Darius Garland hunts Haliburton in the pick-and-roll, notice how the Pacers practically drop into a quasi-zone, with Nembhard walling up at the nail independent from where Okoro relocates. Functioning like a 911 call, that's what the Pacers would do last season whenever Haliburton was targeted in space. From there, Nembhard puts a cork on the ball, but the negotiation between Haliburton and Hield as to which of them is going to jump out from Jarrett Allen to contest ultimately gives Okoro enough time to tee up his shot. On the night, Okoro scored 20 points, marking a season-high, while also shooting 3-of-4 from deep.

And, here's the thing: In aggressively addressing the obvious during free agency, the Cavs made the move to replace Okoro, as a sticky defender who rarely gets guarded like a shooter, with Max Strus, who runs hot-and-cold but requires less time and space to let the ball fly. It's one thing to lose track of (or ignore) Okoro. It's quite another when the player is manipulating a tag, as Strus does here, cutting along the baseline to the strong-side corner so as to remove the low-man from being in position to bump the screener.

Remember, Okoro made the three from a standstill when Haliburton tagged Evan Mobley from the weak-side. Strus, by comparison, sprinted along the baseline and turned on a single dribble in the corner to shoot in the opposite direction from where he came. Granted, he isn't going to make all of those, but the fact that he has that type of body control and is a smart relocator, means that the way in which Haliburton and Hield got their signals crossed on that exit screen from Jarrett Allen could be even more punitive than it already was with Okoro. Plus, think about the match-ups. For his part, Haliburton has put together some impressive stands with his angles and denial defense at the World Cup. This is encouraging, as far as perhaps not requiring quite as much insulation, but it's also exhausting -- especially when he possesses the ball 36.9 percent of the time for the Pacers while serving as the engine of a fast-paced offense.

Plus, he's still had some trouble running into contact at the point of attack. As such, it seems probable that he will still be assigned to defend off-ball, where hopefully some of the physicality that he's shown with Team USA on box-outs and against mismatches can carryover into next season. As it pertains to the Cavs, though, he would most likely be responsible for chasing Strus, which (again) is quite different than being willing to live with whatever the defense gets from Okoro. Of course, the flip side of this is that Okoro won't be in the starting lineup to defend Haliburton, but that's a topic for another day. The other match-ups are where things get … let's say … interesting. Assuming that Bruce Brown isn't going to be paid $22.5 million to come off the bench next season, he'll be available to take up the challenge against Donovan Mitchell, who dropped 40 on the Pacers in April, even when Nembhard was charged with bothering him, but that leaves Bennedict Mathurin as Darius Garland's primary defender.

At Summer League, the word "veer" could oftentimes be heard echoing from the sidelines anytime the ball-handler would break the free throw line after dribbling off the screen. After attempting to chase over, that was the cue for the on-ball defender to late-switch, veering into the legs of the screener as the screener's defender stays with the ball. If that had been the coverage on the aforementioned possession when the tag was required against Mobley, then when Okoro morphs into being Strus, Haliburton would have more leeway to stay home.

Of course, that's another area where Mathurin will need to show improvement. During Summer League, although the trigger for when to veer was more cut and dried than being responsible for reacting to the call from the big, he was often late (no pun intended) with the late switch. On this possession, the ball breaks the free throw line twice, and even though Jim Boylen can be heard shouting for him to "veer," he doesn't run the seam either time, which eventually results in an open wrap-around pass to the screener.

In that way, what happens with the defense next season, particularly as it pertains to Mathurin, will be a noteworthy comparison to when Nembhard and Nesmith were both starting (assuming that neither does when the season starts). On the one hand, the Pacers oftentimes gave up too much size, which forced them to go to more extreme tactics (be it doubling the post, showing a heavy presence at the nail, or assigning Myles Turner to low usage wings in order to keep him low around the basket); however, on the other hand, they had two perimeter defenders in the starting lineup who they could at least reasonably count on to be in the right spot at the right time. To be fair, Nesmith struggled to finish possessions without fouling, as he led the team in shooting fouls per 100 possessions among wings, but he offered flexibility that will now be shouldered more exclusively by Brown at the start of games while asking more of Mathurin -- especially against teams like Cleveland and, perhaps also, Philadelphia and Detroit.

The Sixers are murkier. Will James Harden still be playing for the Sixers, will he not be playing for the Sixers? Who knows, right? As for the Pistons, Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey only played seven together against the Pacers last season, but they project to present a similar dilemma to that of the Cavs. After all, if Haliburton is defending Bojan Bogdanovic away from the ball, and Brown is matched up with Cunningham to account for the Oklahoma State's products big-bodied craft, then that means Mathurin is going to have to stay vigilant of Ivey's ability to unlock his speed on the weak-side. To his credit, Mathurin managed to stay in front a time or two in the penultimate game of the season when Ivey attacked going away from the screen. The bigger issue, as it often is, was the lack of impact he had on passes to the roll-man after switching.

Admittedly, the Pistons will also have to defend the Pacers, and Jalen Duren very notably was biting on pump fakes from Jalen Smith in an earlier game (yeah, that was a thing!), so Detroit will definitely need to demonstrate proof of concept with him as the young, still-developing back-stop to their overall squishiness, but again, that's a topic for another day.

Returning though to the match-up against Cleveland, think back to who Buddy Hield was generally guarding. When everyone was available, it wasn't Garland or Mitchell. No, rather, in order to keep him away from those match-ups while also shielding Haliburton from the action, Hield was buddied up (hehehe) with Jarrett Allen. On the season, Hield defended forwards and centers nearly 50 percent of the time. That wasn't because he's a position-less defender, it was because the Pacers had pivoted to playing smaller lineups and wanted to switch on ball-screens while maintaining the presence of Turner's passive size around the basket. (Also, Hield has to be assigned to somebody!). That's why, with Nembhard defending Garland and Nesmith checking Mitchell, Buddy pre-switches on the screen approach from Mobley, with Turner then taking up space next to Allen.

Of course, Mitchell ends up zig-zagging to the rim between everyone involved anyway, but that brings to question how that possession might change with Obi Toppin or Jarace Walker starting at the four-spot. With the Knicks, per Second Spectrum, Toppin only switched on 18.2 percent of picks when he was defending the screener. By comparison, Nesmith switched on 72.9 percent, and Smith, with specific reference to when the screener was a forward, switched on 35.1 percent. Based on that information, it seems likely that he will be doing a lot more switching with the Pacers than what was the case during his tenure in New York. If so, as was laid out in the profile on him following the trade, there are times where he can hang using his length and then leak-out on the contest for an easy score, but there are also some clunky possessions against stars, where he gets stood up and ends up doing an impression of Hield's containment.

That said, if Toppin is standing in for Hield in that possession against Mitchell, the Pacers would also have the option to defend the pick-and-roll with Turner in drop, rather than pre-switching on the approach. In that event, Toppin (or Walker) would stick with Allen and operate more so as a weak-side rim protector. Judging by some of the words that were thrown around at Summer League, like "chase through the screen," "square," and "veer," it seems as though they might be preparing to go back to basics on that end of the floor, with the on-ball defender chasing over and funneling the action to Turner, at least on screens that directly involve him. Another reason why that seems plausible is because when Walker, who has deft hands and impeccable off-ball instincts, was defending at the five late against Oklahoma City in Las Vegas, the Pacers had trouble containing both sides of the pick-and-roll when he was switching out, be it shot-creation on the perimeter or quick slips to the rim from Holmgren. In that regard, although he looks capable of switching against twos, threes, and fours, there might be reason to consider playing him as the low-man with Turner in drop, rather than trying what they were attempting to do with Hield and (more typically) Nesmith cross-matching onto fives and switching out to the ball.

Then again, that's where the game against Atlanta might provide some insight. In certain cases, the Pacers weren't just assigning their bigs to low usage wings in order to compensate for their lack of size with a weak-side roamer; they were also doing so to take away the lob. That's why, after struggling with his positioning while attempting to backpedal in drop coverage, Isaiah Jackson got shifted onto Dejounte Murray following halftime.

As can be seen from the before-and-after effect of Murray stepping out to can that three, though, the results of swapping match-ups were mixed. Jackson has a tendency to stand up off-ball, losing his man for screens and movement. On the season, the Pacers allowed 119.4 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor at solo five. Even in a game when he had seven blocks, most of which came by way of rotating to the rim, it was clear he still has a ways to go on that end of the floor without much clarity as to how he will get there, unless the Pacers lean into his ground coverage and ability to slide his feet with another big on the floor. Still, with the Hawks less likely to play out of the screen-and-roll against the cross-matches, there were some gems that were unearthed. Just look at Nembhard putting the clamps on Trae Young in isolation with the threat of a weak-hand contest. Andrew Gemhard, amirite?

In that way, even if the projected starters can't quite patch the potential holes in some of these match-ups to start games, the Pacers have more reliable reinforcements they can mix-and-match with than what was the case last season. Joel Embiid remains an unsolved mystery. The Pacers sent double (and sometimes triple) teams against him in late-March, and he moved the ball wherever they weren't, posting up at the nail in position to see from where the help was coming. When they tried zone, he did more of the same. In the second half, they tried single coverage, and he closed the quarter with 31 points, scoring 16 in the frame. Eventually, they resorted to fronting the post with Aaron Nesmith, who fought like mad but ultimately held up about as well as a bug against a wiper on the windshield. Maybe, they can try (gulp) Jarace Walker in that role? Or, maybe, the real challenge, similar to defending the back-courts of Detroit and Cleveland, will come down to not also allowing Tyrese Maxey to punch gaps and pull-up with space, scoring 31 points in 35 minutes.

For that reason, while the styles and strengths of every team in Group A may not be the same, the opening game against the Cavs will hold multitudes, speaking to what shape the defense will take with players of different shapes and sizes potentially taking on different and larger roles in games that come early on the calendar and maybe, just maybe, be of greater magnitude.

As such, even if the In-Season tournament proves to be gimmicky, the specific match-ups, as they pertain to the Pacers, will likely still carry plenty of meaning.