Indiana Pacers General Manager Chad Buchanan sat down with Setting the Pace for an hour-long conversation earlier this week covering a plethora of topics. 

The Pacers GM openly discussed many topics. Below is a transcript of the final part of their discussion with Buchanan answering questions about the journey of Myles Turner, Pascal Siakam’s upcoming free agency, trying to keep T.J. McConnell in Indiana for the rest of his career, Tyrese Haliburton in the Olympics, and more.

The first-third of interview covering the Pacers playoff run and how that will affect future plans, Tyrese Haliburton’s health over the last half of the season, rising expectations, how different voices in the locker room helped the team after bad playoff games, the pain of getting swept by Celtics, and how the team can take the next step on both ends of the floor can be read here or watched below. 

The second third of the interview including stories of Bennedict Mathurin’s baking prowess, Ben Sheppard’s development, what they hope to see from Jarace Walker in the future, the rise of Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith’s development, and the season and future for Obi Toppin can be read here.

You can watch the interview in its entirety ok YouTube below or listen to the Setting the Pace podcast from any of your preferred providers.

Facci: Myles Turner and the Pacers, they’ve been through it all since 2015. He’s re-signed a few times, finally was able to break through and have that playoff success. Got out of the first round for the first time, never under the conference finals. It’s got to be awesome for Turner to stick this out and be able to then reap those rewards. What have you enjoyed about Turner the last two years, being that lone starting center?

Buchanan: It’s like you kind of let a dog who’s in a cage, you let him out, let him run a little bit, let him kind of breathe a little bit and show what he can do. You know, playing with Domas (Sabonis), they tried to make it work, and obviously it wasn’t ideal as you watched more and more of it. Once Domas was gone, it was Myles’ spot, and you add Tyrese. There were a lot of good things coming together for him, and he had always been a guy who’s a team first guy who wants the team to do well, he wants to play the right way, very coachable, became more and more professional with taking care of his body and becoming a vocal leader. So you saw growth from him in so many different areas.

I think the arrival of Tyrese really sprouted and allowed Myles to blossom and I think Myles would tell you the same thing. The game is easy when you play with Tyrese and especially when you can shoot. If you’re screening for Tyrese and you can shoot, you’re going to get a lot of open shots, and I think Myles understands that. Those two have developed a real chemistry, and as a five man who can spread the floor and shoot with the way we play with Pascal, TJ, and Bennedict when he’s out there, they’re attacking the rim. It just gives a lot of space to a lot of our other guys, and to see him have success this year after what he’s been through, and as loyal as he’s been to the Pacers and the organization when he really didn’t have to be and to see him get rewarded was really great to see. I know it meant a lot to him, because he’s wanted this for a long, long time, and to see it happen for him was really rewarding.

Golden: I have a couple of things I want to kind of get you to talk about here with Myles. Number one, his contract situation. He’s going into this offseason with one more year left on his deal, but I know that with the renegotiation contract you guys signed last season, I don’t think you can actually offer him an extension next season. So just elaborate a little bit more on that so fans can maybe understand how that all works with that contract stuff.

Then, number two, we saw teams, especially with Siakam, now on the roster, putting their fives on Pascal at times, or maybe even putting their five on Nesmith at times, trying to neutralize Tyrese and Myles being so effective in the pick and pop. What does Myles need to do to get better and take advantage of those mismatches when teams try to use that to stop Indiana’s offense?

Well, with this contract, to be extension eligible, there has to be a certain amount of length of your previous contract. His last extension was a two-year deal that we extended him at, so he’s not eligible to be extended right now. He will be a free agent next summer, and obviously he’s been a big part of what we did this year.

On the court, when you mentioned, you know, Pascal being defended by some fives, I think Myles became a little more confident in the post this year. You could feel he recognizes that obviously when they put a smaller guy on him, he wants to go into the post. In the past, that wasn’t always the case, but he wants to get in there, and he’s got obviously a size advantage in all those matchups, and getting himself to slow down a little bit was something I think he really tried to work on this year. Just catch the ball, keep it high, just turn and face and just shoot over a guy. And I think that’s a part of his game that he wants to continue to evolve and improve on, because he recognizes that too. He sees that there’s so many times these teams are switching and he’s got a wing or ‘I’ve got Derrick White guarding me’ or ‘I’ve got Josh Hart guarding me,’ whatever it might be, ‘I want to punish that. I want to punish that matchup.’

Our guards do a good job of trying to feed them in those moments when they can. That’s just part of his improvement as a player and to learn to slow down a little bit in those situations. Just let your advantage just happen. Don’t try to force it and rush it in the post. And when he doesn’t rush things in the post, good things happen.

And he’s added a little bit of element to his game where if he’s got space, he can put on the floor a little bit and finish against guys. And I think that’s something he’s always spends the off season working on, at least adding one part to his game or trying to add a little bit to his game. I think you’ll see that this year. The post game will be a big part of that.

Golden: Pascal Siakam, we talked about it on the last podcast interview we did with you around the All-Star break, how this was kind of like your free agency move earlier in February. Knowing that that’s kind of how things are going to be going moving forward with the new CBA and salary cap and all that. We know the Pacers goal is to bring him back. I know you can’t talk about contract stuff but what kind of impact did Pascal Siakam have on this team? And now that he’s potentially coming back, what could that mean to have him on the roster for a full off-season heading into next year?

His impact this year was felt immediately from the sense of a guy who’s had a lot of success in his career, who comes into our locker room with instant credibility, and like I told you before, our guys, when anybody talks in our locker room, the eyes are locked in on them. Now you have a guy coming in where there’s instant respect because of what he’s accomplished and the type of player he is on the floor. So you felt his impact right away from a leadership standpoint.

We were hopeful that the fit was going to be strong because he’s at a position where we’ve kind of been trying to upgrade and improve over the last few years. And his ability to do a lot of different things is the type of player that Rick likes: the guy that can take a defensive rebound and go with it, can post up, can face up at the elbows or the mid-range and create a basket for you. He’s an underrated passer. And he’s just a very difficult cover for defenses.

We thought if we’re at the kind of point in our season where we’re in this play-in, playoff range, like, does he get us over the hump and to be in as a playoff team? We were hopeful and we thought this is the guy that can help us establish us as a legit playoff team this year. He did exactly that.

You knew there was going to be games and moments in the playoffs where his experience was going to be needed. And you saw it. There were certain moments where we just had to give him the ball and let him go get a bucket. And he did that. And like I said before, his influence in the locker room was very strong. He had a good voice with the guys. Moving forward, if he’s with us, hopefully he is, that full training camp, full off-season with our guys and a full season only acclimates him and gets him more and more comfortable with our group. And I think he’s got some very, very good years ahead of him. People talk about his age, but I think his best years are still ahead of him.

🚨 new shirts 🚨

$16

store: https://t.co/ZDC8vlmrIn pic.twitter.com/uEmqXZElLW

— iPacers.com (@iPacersblog) April 11, 2024

Facci: Tyrese Haliburton in his first playoffs had a lot of the highs and lows. What did it say about Tyrese in games that he was really under the microscope for maybe not shooting the ball enough or not being as aggressive as he should have been and then being able to come through in the clutch with the game winner against the Bucks or a 26-point performance in game seven to close out the Knicks? What was his mindset like when things weren’t going right compared to being able to make those necessary changes?

Buchanan: I got to give him credit. There were the games where maybe he didn’t play as well or people felt like he wasn’t as aggressive. The next game, he was a different player. He never let one bad game bleed into the next. And I think that is a sign of a guy who wants to be good, a guy who understands how he can get better from game to game, how he can learn from game to game. And I think he was very steady. You never saw the disappointment from him. When he played great, you never saw him get too high about things.

He was embracing the playoff experience which was something he wanted so bad. Once he got there, he was taking it all in and trying to learn as much as he could. Because this is something he wants us to be in every year for him. He knew the first year, there were going to be some challenges. He was going to take some hits. There were going to be some tough moments and he wanted that. He wanted to test himself to see, ‘Okay, it’s not going good right now. I didn’t play great tonight. The team didn’t play well. Everybody’s crushing me. This is what I wanted.’

Sure enough, the next game, he bounced back. And I think that’s part of his learning development. People have to understand he’s a young player who’s just finished his rookie scale deal. He’s still learning to get his and his best years are ahead of him. He’s nowhere near the prime of his career. This last month or so was what he’s been craving. He’s wanted this since we made the trade for him and now he got to taste it. I think you’ll see a guy come back next year with a lot of good things he’s taken away from this run.

Golden: He’s going to be with Team USA. We talked about that earlier on the podcast. But curious, what are you hoping that he takes away from that experience with Team USA this year compared to who he was with last year in Team USA?

You see so many players come back from a USA basketball experience and have outstanding years. I mean, Anthony Edwards, Paolo Banchero, Tyrese, you can go back to previous years where players do the same thing. I think you saw that this year with those guys.

I think one thing he’ll be able to take away from this experience is that some different guys in the locker room that he can learn from. He can pick the brains of guys that are champions, future Hall of Famers of how they train, how do they eat, what are their sleeping patterns, how do they work out pregame. Those are the types of little things that may seem like not a big deal to the average fan or player, but Tyrese is so serious about being good, he’s not going to let those opportunities go by without trying to learn from each guy. You’re hopeful that he learns a little bit of something from each player.

Maybe he learns something from Steph and maybe learns something else from Anthony Edwards. He learns something else from whoever else it might be. And he just takes away a little bit from everybody to help him. And that’s a golden opportunity that I guarantee you he’s not going to let go by.

Facci: I feel like it would be a crime not to bring this guy up on this episode with the season he had. That’s TJ McConnell. I think everybody could remember going into this year, the other quote, teary-eyed Rick Carlisle having to tell McConnell he might not be in the rotation for the most part, but that didn’t last long. It really only lasted about a game or two. But McConnell put together an incredible season and carried that into the playoffs. Can you talk to us about the impact that McConnell has on and off the court, especially the stuff that’s never going to show up in a box score?

Buchanan: I think I mentioned this in the post-season press conference, and we said it to TJ in his exit meeting. It would be lovely if he would have kept a journal from day one this season until the end. That would have been some great reading to go from being out of the rotation and maybe not being able to play to having somebody compare him to Michael Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s quite the run of a year for him. When he wasn’t playing at the beginning of the year, he was the first guy up on the bench supporting his teammates, never pouted, never sulked, never let his situation dictate his mood around the guys.

You know he’s disappointed. He’s one of the most competitive guys in the NBA, and he wanted to be playing, but he also understood if I let my disappointment show it impacts this team and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt this team. He’s so self-aware of that, and he’s such a smart guy that he handled that brilliantly. I don’t know how you could have handled it better.

And then obviously opportunity comes, and he’s ready, he takes advantage of it, and you can’t take him out the floor a lot of nights. The impact of his personality, guys see him on the floor. He’s very engaging with everybody, from his teammates, his coaches, his opponents, the opponents’ coaches, fans, referees. That’s just the nature of who he is, but he’s a guy that just brings, like, a good energy to everybody he’s around. And our staff love him to death. The front office, ownership, fans, everybody. How can you not love what he’s about?

On the court to see him have success at the highest level in the playoffs was one of the coolest things, because he’s paid his dues, obviously. He’s been overlooked his entire life and to have success at that level and to have people recognizing his play and what he’s about. We’ve watched it for the last four or five years here. Now the world really got to see it, and it was great to see him get the recognition because he’s a big part of what we do and who we are.

give the people what they want

front & back point gods shirt

link: https://t.co/E3HsXjm5uS https://t.co/1Nbm06gXEb pic.twitter.com/Q47UNfzbGa

— iPacers.com (@iPacersblog) April 12, 2024

Golden: Every time I would talk to a Pacers fan, they would always come up to me and be like, ‘Man, TJ McConnell.’ That was the first person they’d mention almost every time. It’s really cool to see him kind of have that success. I think you said on JMV that you want to have McConnell with the Pacers for life if possible. So just the longevity of TJ McConnell, what is that goal and what is that contract potential? I don’t know if you can give me the numbers, but what kind of contract can you guys actually give him for an extension and how important is it to have him on the roster?

Buchanan: Sure. Yeah, he’s eligible for an extension. He’s a guy that as you look at his age, his contribution, where his career is going, his production level is going, you don’t see a real drop-off from him yet. He’s been such a huge fiber of who we are; it would be hard to imagine your team without him. Now, this business has no guarantees. You can’t guarantee that he’s going to be here for the rest of his career, but you just know who he is and what he’s about.

You’d hate to lose him. I know he’s happy here, he enjoys Indiana, he’s valued here. Moving him forward there’s no guarantees with anything, obviously, but he is a guy that I can guarantee you we really value and love having on our team, and we would look a lot different moving forward if he wasn’t with us.

Facci: My next question is a little bit random, I guess. No one is asking you to pick your favorite kid or anything of that sort, but is there one player on this roster, whether it was through the draft or trade or free agency that you could say in your gut like, you had to have them, and you’re really happy with their development, is there a player that you could share?

Buchanan: Gosh, yes, that’s a tough one, because you’re happy for all of them when they succeed.

Golden: No cop-out answer, you got to pick one now. Don’t talk around it, we want the truth.

Well seeing Myles go through everything he’s gone through with us and to have the season we had, it’s rewarding for all of us because he’s been loyal to us for a long time. There were times where he maybe didn’t have to be, but he was, and to see a guy get the fruits of that and be rewarded for that was really cool. But gosh, I mean, I could make a case for every single one of them.

I know my seven-year-old son would tell you, it’s Obi, because Obi’s daughter and him, like my son, is gaga over his little daughter. So that would be, you know, you could ask everybody in my family, they watch every game, it’s probably a different answer for them too. But I just like seeing good guys get rewarded. We have a good group of guys that got rewarded this year at a really high level, and that’s a tough one to answer. If I had to pick somebody, I guess it’d be Myles, because he’s been here the longest and has been through a lot with us.

Golden: I love that clip that your social media team got for the Game 7 victory in Madison Square Garden, where you and the front office were out there, congratulating everybody, and Kevin Prichard, he was just on another level. He was so excited, but I’ll never forget when Myles and him embraced, and Myles said, ‘Thank you for believing in me.’ What was that moment like in that Game 7 victory in that locker room?

It was as complete exhilaration as you can imagine. I mean, to go in there, the pressure of your season being on the line, to do it on the road against a team that you’ve just been in a fight with for two weeks, and to come out and play your best game in the biggest moment of your season on the biggest stage of your season was so rewarding. So every guy, every celebration with each player was different, and every celebration with the staff member was different because they’ve all had different experiences with how long they’ve been here, what their role is, or things like that.

That locker room was the highlight of my 20 years in the NBA that night. That locker room after the game was just something I’ll never, ever forget. I’m seeing the players respond to Myles when he came to the locker room, and how happy everybody was for each other. Nobody was celebrating them individually. They were celebrating each other, and coaches included, staff included. It was just one of those, like, really together moments where you felt like we all did it.

Facci: I’m going to put you on the spot again. Which player do you think took the biggest step this year, in your opinion?

Buchanan: Hmm. Biggest step this year, you probably have to be Andrew (Nembhard) with where he finished the season. I know he didn’t have big games all season long, but I think you feel like the momentum going into this off-season and into the next season that this is a guy who’s ready to really, really take a big step. Not that he didn’t already, but I feel like he made significant growth, especially at the end of the season. And he’s another guy who’s going into an Olympic experience this summer with Team Canada that will benefit him as well.

We had so many guys, you know, take good steps forward this year. Our coaches have done such a good job at developing our young players and embracing that challenge of a young guy who’s got tools to work with that you want to develop and fit into our system. But if I had to pick just one guy, it would probably be Drew.

Golden: I know we’re wrapping up and it’s been a little over an hour here. So thank you for your time. The salary cap situation. I think people are very confused on what a cap hold is and how that works. So some people think that the Pacers have cap space this off-season when they really don’t. So could you kind of explain just very quickly in GM speak here what your cap space actually looks like compared to what people might think it looks like based on a quick Google search?

Buchanan: Yeah, well, right now with cap holds, if you want to retain the rights to sign one of your players, you have to extend a qualifying offer, which is a hold on your books that takes away what seems like what would be cap room. You know, we’re not going to be a team—unless we do significant moves—in a position to have cap room this summer. But we do have the flexibility to sign and retain some players without going into the luxury tax depending on what some of those players cost to retain.

So unlike the last few years where we’ve been well under the cap and had room to go spend in the summertime above a mid-level type offer. Barring some drastic changes to our roster and our books, we will not have that this summer. But that’s okay because we have the ability to retain a lot of our guys and the ability to bring this team back for the most part. And we like that. We like that option.

There’s limitations in the CBA moving forward for other teams that don’t apply to us necessarily. We’ve always been very conscious of our books and trying to build this team smartly, what leaves us the ability to add players and not be in a position where we have to get rid of players because we’ve made a poor decision financially with where we put our team with our books. We feel good about things moving forward with our young group and our ability to hopefully keep a couple of our guys and continue to try to build this team piece by piece.

We don’t want to—I think everybody’s like, ‘Hey, you’re in the Eastern Conference Finals. Let’s go for it. Let’s go all in right now.’ Maybe that opportunity is out there but we’re also—These teams that make steps to get to a championship level team, it doesn’t happen instantaneously. And you got to be smart with each individual move you make. And it may not happen all at once. It may take a year or two, a good move each year that adds up to putting yourself in a position to win a championship, because that’s what we all want.

🚨new shirts 🚨

there’s been something about game threes in this playoff run. will we get a third classic?

store: https://t.co/WwaESX0Hjc pic.twitter.com/rCbtEsreFb

— iPacers.com (@iPacersblog) May 24, 2024

Golden: Absolutely. It’s definitely what everybody wants. Just to kind of close things out here, is there any message you’d like to give to the fan base here? The team went 6-2 in the playoffs when they were playing at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, had a chance really to go 8-0, maybe. So, just kind of curious if you wanted to maybe give a little shout out here to the fans.

It’d be hard pressed to find a louder or more intense environment of our playoff games that experienced this year. Maybe Game 7, Madison Square Garden. Our fans were so, so good this year. And every night out, they sensed when our team really needed them, and they responded. Our players recognized that. I can’t tell you how many times in the locker room postgame that our players would be talking about it, how great of a crowd that was.

They feel a responsibility to play well and to play hard for our fans because they’re sacrificing money, time, energy, and travel to come support us. And they understand that. We have a really, really bright group of guys that understand something like that. And for our fans to stick with us, it’s been a tough couple of years, for us to get to where we’re at. There’s no guarantee that next year’s going to be the same. We hope it is. We hope it’s even better.

But we hope they continue to stand by us like they have. And I think our players would echo that, that they don’t take that for granted when they run out there on the floor. In the playoffs, they see all those gold shirts. We played in Boston, game one, and they put a black t-shirt on every seat in TD Garden. There was probably less than 500 fans put it on. And you go to a Pacer game, and that’s 99.5% of them put the shirt on, and that’s just their passion for our team. I think we have the best fans of the NBA, and I think everybody in our organization would second that as well.

Golden: Chad, it’s been a blast. We want to thank you very much for coming on our show. It’s not something we take lightly. Thank you very much for, you know, spending the time going through everything. We can’t wait for this off-season to see what this team does next.

Buchanan: Me too. Thanks for having me again, guys.

Watch the full interview here or listen anywhere you normally find podcasts.