Whether the Indiana Pacers want to admit it or not, they are tanking.
This season isn’t about wins and losses, it’s about hitting the reset button. It’s about figuring out who fits, what works and how to bounce back from a season full of injuries and setbacks. Tanking gets a bad rap, but at its core, it’s just a strategy: lose now to give yourself a better shot at competing for a championship later.
But before we talk about what comes next, it’s important to understand how we got here.
On June 22, last year, the Indiana Pacers were one game away from an NBA title. Now, less than a year later, they have one of the worst records in the league and look likely to receive a top four draft pick. How did the Pacers get here, and is their collapse a failure or deliberate tank?
To understand what happened, you must relive Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where everything changed.
The most heartbreaking part wasn’t losing the game — it was losing the heart and soul of the franchise. All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton came out on fire. He started the game 3 for 4 from 3-point range, scoring nine points in seven minutes with no sign of slowing down.
With five minutes left in the first quarter, Haliburton slipped and started banging his hand onto the court. He didn’t return to the game, and the injury was later revealed to be a torn achilles tendon.
This is where the downfall began, but not where it ended. Losing Haliburton was a devastating blow that ended the team’s championship run, yet there was still reason to believe. With Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard, fans had a sliver of hope the Pacers still had enough talent to push for a playoff spot this year.
From the onset of this season, it’s felt cursed. The Pacers had numerous key injuries that extinguished the possibility of an appearance in the playoffs.
The losses kept piling up. Lineups changed almost every night, sometimes including multiple players called up from the Noblesville Boom. Any sense of rhythm from last year vanished. What had once been a team built on pace, chemistry and smart decision-making turned into a squad searching for answers it was never going to find this season.
And that is where the conversation shifts.
This is no longer just about what went wrong. It is about what the Pacers are doing now and what they’ll choose to do next.
And whether you agree with it or not, the tank appears to be in full force with Indiana Pacers — and this might be the perfect year to do it. Other teams like the Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets and the Sacramento Kings are locked into a tanking war with the Pacers.
The top of this draft is loaded with potential franchise changers. There are at least three or four players who could alter the trajectory of a team overnight. Right now, the Pacers have a 14% chance for the first pick, 13.4% chance for the second and a 12.7% chance at the third.
Any one of Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer, paired alongside a returning Haliburton and Siakam, could bring the Pacers right back into NBA championship consideration.
But there’s no guarantee that a draft pick will pan out the way everyone expects. And even though fans will expect Haliburton to return to his normal self, recovery from a torn Achilles is never simple. How he looks on the court, how quickly he regains his rhythm and how the team adapts around him will define next season and beyond.
That is why patience matters for both the team and the fans. The Pacers made the right choice by using this year to focus on developing their young players, like Nembhard and Jarace Walker, while preparing for the draft. Building a foundation for future success was more important than chasing a playoff spot in a year when they had no real shot.
Trust that the front office that brought them to Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals knows what it is doing. Trust that the role players from last year are learning, improving and could become key pieces of this team for years to come. Trust that sometimes losing now is the only way to give the Pacers a real chance to win later.
The fan reaction has been surprisingly understanding of the team’s position. When the Pacers do win, the response on social media is often confusion instead of joy.
The tank may feel frustrating, especially after how close we were last year. But it is the reset this team needs. If the Pacers get it right, the low points of this year could be the initial steps toward the Pacers first NBA Championship.
Jack Davis (he/him) is a junior majoring in media with a sports concentration and pursuing a minor in folklore and ethnomusicology and a certificate in journalism.
