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 first third of the interview including 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.
Buchanan also tells a pair of fantastic Bennedict Mathurin stories about him baking and him keeping receipts, talks Pascal Siakam’s upcoming free agency, wanting to keep T.J. McConnell in a Pacers uniform forever, how happy he was for Myles Turner, what they hope to see from Jarace Walker’s development, the rise of Andrew Nembhard and much more. Transcripts of the rest of the interview will be available here focusing on younger players and here more focused on the veterans.
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.
Alex Golden, Setting the Pace co-host: I just want to talk about this run that the Pacers were on. From your perspective, how surprising and how fun was this run to the Eastern Conference Finals? What did you take away from this run?
Chad Buchanan, Indiana Pacers General Manager: I think from the start of this season we knew that this team was going to have great chemistry. There was a really good vibe in the locker room, the guys really liked each other. It was a lot of the same guys from last year with a few new faces so we knew going into this season this group had a chance to have a good togetherness to them, a good unselfish way of playing. Coach Carlisle really maximized offensively how we play. It’s one of the most fun teams to watch on the court and one of the most fun teams to be around off the court. It’s really a rare combination in the NBA to have the chemistry we had on and off the floor so you knew there was a chance that if things fell right that the chemistry would help you get through an 82-game season.
If you play well at the right time of the year, you just never know what could happen. As you guys know we were fighting for our playoff lives all the way to the last 82nd game of the season. We played a lot of important games leading into the end of the season which I think helped prepare us for the intensity and urgency of a playoff series. That’s something that gets overlooked a little bit. Those last 7 or 8 games leading up to the playoffs, we played some good teams and played very well. It really developed us and we didn’t need to flip the switch once the playoffs started because we had already had playoff-like games where we had to win.
The run, winning two series, was more than we expected to be honest. I think going into the season we were hopeful to have a postseason appearance whether that was in the play-in or a playoff series to help this young team get some experience. To do what we did and play like we did in some very tough series against some very good teams was just a bonus. It’s one of those seasons that you just don’t want to end. Sometimes you have an 82-game season and you’re just counting to the end but this year was not that. We were really disappointed with how it ended and wanted to keep going but unfortunately it ended how it did and you got to move on and prepare for the next year.
Mike Facci, Setting the Pace co-host: I don’t think anyone was quite ready for this season to end. One thing that really stood out to me the last time you came on our show was you saying ‘Let’s just get to January and see how things look’ and that’s when you were saying we’ll have a good understanding of this team. Was there a specific moment in this season that you could look back at and say you knew you had something special?
Buchanan: That’s a good question. I think there were moments after the trade for Pascal (Siakam) where he’s finally starting to settle in a little bit. There were some games where he really started to mesh with the way we played. It was a transition for him getting used to the system we play but he had a few great games—it’s hard to pinpoint one specific game–but I felt like there was momentum that gathered as the season progressed. We had some really good wins down the stretch against some really good teams that all added a little more confidence that this group could make some noise in the playoffs. Pascal’s getting more settled and comfortable. Tyrese is starting to look a little healthier. Obviously we were without Bennedict so we were relying on guys like Ben Sheppard to really evolve and he was starting to progress. It was just a culmination of games and progress that our players were making that got you thinking ‘Hey, let’s see what happens here in the postseason.’
We weren’t afraid of any matchup. We had success all season against the top teams. We were very optimistic once we got into the playoffs going into the postseason that we could play with anybody.
Golden: You mentioned Tyrese Haliburton’s health. I know it’s a question mark that a lot of people had about him being healthy after the hamstring injury. He came back a little bit early against Portland, had to sit out a few more weeks, then his minutes restriction, and then didn’t have to miss any time after the All-Star break. From your perspective, how healthy was he during this run? Was he 100%?
Buchanan: I think Tyrese would never use anything as an excuse. He was going to play through anything he could as long as he could hold up. I think he knew in the back of his head that he had to adjust and adapt his style of play because he wasn’t 100% healthy. He was dealing with soreness for really the last half of the season once he returned. He could manage it but he did have to adapt his game. He wasn’t at the rim at much, he was creating in different ways for our team. It was really remarkable that he was able to be the level of player that he was over the last 40 games or so playing at the level of health he was at. He would never admit that he didn’t feel 100% but you could tell. He adjusted the way he played and was still a tremendous player. I think having the off-season to get some rest will really be beneficial for him. By the Olympics he should be feeling 100% ready to go and just carry that momentum into the season for us.
Facci: How tough was that as an organization having to balance Tyrese having to play 65 games in order to qualify for an All-NBA team while also making sure that he’s able to properly recover and avoid setbacks and keep your eyes on the bigger picture?
Buchanan: Tyrese wanted to play every game. Other than the first day after the injury, he had such an internal confidence in himself that he wanted to be out there. Sometimes we as an organization–our medical staff, front office, and coaches–have to be looking out for the long term for him. As much as he wants to be out there, sometimes you have to look at the big picture for things. Now we’re dealing with the 65 games thing as you mentioned and you want him to get there but you also want to be smart about it. He wasn’t worried about 65 games. He wanted to be on the court for his team. There were nights that he wanted to play but it was smarter for us to hold him out.
Fortunately, he made it to the 65-game threshold and he absolutely deserves the contract he earned as a result of it. That’s what we wanted too but we also had to be thinking of the long term. Both for the health of himself now but also moving forward. We didn’t want this to be a lingering long-term issue for him that you’re dealing with into the off-season and then into training camp and a whole season becomes touch and go. To Tyrese’s credit, he didn’t like having to sit out but it was a testament to a guy that just loves being on the court. We had to make the choice for him at times but he understood. He’s a smart guy and understands the long-term ramifications of not putting himself at too much risk.
Golden: Going back to the Boston series, the Pacers got swept four games to none, but could have won game one that last 10 seconds of the game was right there. Unfortunately, things just went the other way. Boston was able to make great plays to win the game. And then games three and games four, they had leads towards the end of the fourth quarter, just couldn’t hold on. What did you learn about your team in that series against Boston?
Buchanan: You’re digging up that. The sting is still kind of fresh. So I was trying to not think about it anymore.
But yeah, that whole series, obviously the end of game one set a tough tone for us moving into the rest of the series because that was right there for the taking. But it also allows you, as you evaluate your team, individual players, the style of play, it gives you some insight into what you need to do to be better in the future. You’re always evaluating your team.
The freshest thing on our mind is what beat us in this series. Boston has a lot of weapons. They got two tremendous two-way guards that really defend. They got size at the wing that can score and create their own shot. They’ve got a great team defense. And so those things are in your mind like, okay, that’s what beat us. How can we improve in those areas, overcome that, in a series like that that we’re facing in the future?
For us, it was a good insight to what our team needs. But more so for our players, I think experiencing that level of defense. When Boston needed to buckle down and get stops against us, it was really hard to get a good shot against those guys. We have obviously a terrific offense, but when they knew they needed to get a stop, it was tough. I think our guys really understand if you want to win deep in the playoffs and be a championship caliber team that you have to be able to get stops when you need the stops. We were able to score pretty much all season until those last couple of minutes, especially game three and game four. I think it was a great eye-opener for our players of the importance of defending in the fourth quarter when the game was really on the line.
Facci: I’ve heard a lot of former players really talk about how you need to be able to get your body accustomed to being able to play late into the playoffs. Now that Indiana has had a taste of that deep postseason run, do you think that’s enough to change that whole mentality and their training going into this off season when you’re not looking to just play basketball until mid-April but mid-June?
For sure, we had a couple of players in their exit meetings mention that very thing. They felt fatigued towards the end of that Boston series. There were moments as the game wore on and Boston really ramped up the intensity defensively and there just wasn’t a lot of gas left in the tank for some of our guys. If you want to win a championship, Boston still has another three weeks left in their season. From the time we finished, it’s a really an eye opener for our guys of, ‘Hey, I need to be strong. I need to be in great shape’—some of it is the way we play. We play so fast that you got to be in great condition. To play fast for 82 games is one thing. We played fast for 100 games. That culmination adds up on the body.
I think some of our guys are going to adjust the way they train this off-season. So some guys need to get more conditioned. Some guys need to get stronger to handle the physicality of a playoff game. Each guy really took something away from that part of us playing an extra 17 games. It adds up on your body. They’re going to use this summer to be prepared next year for hopefully a similar run.
Golden: Now, you said that your goal this season was to make the play-in or the playoffs, but didn’t really have expectations of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. Now that your team has reached the Eastern Conference Finals, obviously, expectations are going to be higher. But how do you balance realizing where you guys got to this season, how far ahead of schedule you might be from where you thought you’d be when going about building this team? Is it time now to continue pushing all the chips in to keep making win-now moves or is it ‘We had a nice run, but we still got to develop what we have and try to build this team for the future?’
Buchanan: Well, when we start training camp next year, it’s a clean slate. It’s a clean slate for some of our young guys to earn minutes in a role. It’s a clean slate for our entire team. There’s going to be expectations and there’s going to be a target on our back a lot of nights next season. This team this year really thrived and breathed on people overlooking them. That was an element that really drove us a lot of nights. We weren’t on national TV very much. People didn’t pick us to win games. They were overlooked. People weren’t talking about our team very much. That really irked our players and motivated them some nights. That’s probably not going to be the case next year, which is good.
Coach Carlisle says expectations to be good are a good thing. We have some young guys where this is going to be new for them. But this was their first taste of playoff success. Now next year, there’s going to be expectations to try to replicate that. And there’s no guarantee you can. There’s plenty of other good teams out there that have young rosters that can make a jump next year as well.
Our job as a front office and the coaching staff is to continue to focus on developing and developing every single player to make a little bit of a jump. Whether it’s Isaiah Jackson getting one more rebound a game or if it’s Aaron Nesmith making one less turnover a game. There’s little incremental small things that you can do individually with your development that adds up big for our team. We don’t want to be looking into next year, saying we want to be in the Eastern Conference Finals. We didn’t go in this year saying we wanted to win a playoff series. Our goal was to get to the postseason. And so that was our mindset every single day.
And next year, if you go into the mindset of, ‘Hey, let’s go get to the Eastern Conference Finals,’ you’re looking way past all the steps that you have to go through to get there. If you jump ahead and look ahead, that’s going to be very dangerous. Our success this year was focusing on every day. Every day, our coaches were pushing our young guys. We were trying to get better as a defensive group. Obviously, adding Pascal added a lot of experience and a veteran voice, which was good for our team, but there’s no guarantee next year that you’ll get back to where you were at. There’s no guarantee that you’re a playoff team. You may have injuries you deal with and you’re in the play-in or you’re in the lottery. In the NBA, there’s so much parity now that there’s nothing guaranteed for our guys.
And one good thing about getting swept, I think that left a bad taste in our players’ mouth. If you take the Celtics to six or seven games, you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. You’re like, ‘Oh, we’re right there.’ And you’re feeling pretty good about yourself going into the off-season. Our guys felt like crap. You get swept, your season ends on your home floor. They’re celebrating the Eastern Conference Championship in your arena. That’s tough. And I think that will stick with our guys and really drive our guys next season.
But for us as a front office, you mentioned we put all of our chips in. There’s a couple of different paths you could take. You can continue to develop this group, which we like that path. Or if there’s the right opportunity out there for the right player, we’re always going to be looking for that. At the end of the day, we feel good about what we have on our roster right now. And it’s going to have to be a really difference-making player to make a move and change up what we got.
Facci: You know, it’s easy to feel good when everything’s going great. But when things aren’t going well, that’s when you really learn a lot about your team. What sort of insight can you share about this Pacers team when they were facing being down two games to nothing against the Knicks, then facing elimination going into game six, and being able to rebound from that and win that series in seven?
Buchanan: The voice of several of our players at the right moment was spot on. After we went down 1-0 in Milwaukee, when we played terrible in game one, Pascal delivered such a good message after the game to our guys. When we went into that series feeling good, Giannis isn’t playing, we beat this team this year, we’d had success, and they come in and punch us in the mouth in game one. I think our guys were kind of like, ‘Oh, crap.’
But Pascal had a great message to the team that night and that continued throughout the playoff series. You lose a game, you feel like the season’s just spiraling down. You win a game, you feel like you’re going to the finals. But our veterans did a good job of staying even keel, not getting too high about a win, not getting too down about a loss. And when he did lose, there was somebody that spoke up almost every game in the locker room. And those veterans, Pascal’s got a ring on his finger. He’s been through series like this and our guys really leaned on him. He could feel them looking for leadership. Some nights it was Ty, some nights it was Myles, TJ McConnell. Obviously, James Johnson is obviously speaking.
You can be in locker rooms, you’ll have a veteran speak up, and you’ll see three guys listening, four guys with their head down thinking about themselves, and five guys rolling their eyes. But this group, when somebody spoke, regardless of who it was, they were eyes locked in and really listening to the message, which just shows the respect they had for each other. It could be anybody speaking up, but I thought in the playoffs, when we had some tough moments, tough losses, there was always a player that delivered a great message post-game in the locker room that really settled everybody and got us refocused. We didn’t have two bad games in a row in the postseason, and I think that was reflective of the leadership we got in that locker room.
Golden: I know you talked about what you saw from the Boston series, but what do you think this team is missing to make them take that next step to being a better playoff team?
Buchanan: I think it’s really centered on the defensive side. I think if we can be a team when we need to, we don’t have to be a top-five defense. That’s probably not in the cards for just how we play and our personnel make up as is. We are an elite offensive team, and if we can get to the point where we can get timely stops and we know we need this matchup tonight or this quarter or this possession, we’ve got to buckle down and really come together and get stops. I think that is the key to our growth next year.
Like I mentioned before, Boston showed us that. When they had to come together and get a stop, they did. They had five guys that were really connected. We’re connected offensively, unbelievably. Getting that same connection defensively takes some time. It takes guys playing together, trusting each other a little bit on the defensive end. Jenny Boucek and Jim Boylen are handling our defense, and we made steps. I know early in the year it was rough, but they made a commitment. If you were to watch our team practice every day, there is a serious focus on that end of the floor. And it just takes time.
It takes an experience like going through the series against Boston and even New York, those guys were physical and tough and you had to defend. You had to be locked in to get stops against those guys. And you’re hopeful that that experience helps elevate us, defensively, next year, and it becomes just as important to our guys as soon as scoring the ball is.
Facci: Switching over to the offensive side of the ball, did you ever imagine that this could be the most prolific offense that the league’s seen in about 40 years? And can this offense improve from what we just saw when it was already the bar set so high?
Buchanan: I never would have projected we’d have one of the all-time best offenses. I knew Tyrese was a terrific lead guard and creative player. And when your best player is a pass-first guy, you have a chance to be a really good offensive team. Did I ever think or did we ever think we were going to be one of the best offenses of all time? No that’s just a credit to our players and to Coach Carlisle and his staff for maximizing that. I mean, you never once had a game where you worried about how we were going to score. It almost felt like whatever lineups you put out there, you had a chance to score or get a good shot. So how do we become even better?
We got to continue to improve as a catch and shoot team because we get a lot of open threes, a lot of catch and shoot opportunities. To get to the point where we have multiple guys shooting 38 to 42% from three, that’s our jump offensively. We had stretches where guys, you know, typical NBA season, you have a month or two or a couple of weeks where you’re shooting great, then you get into a slump. It’s trying to find the consistency for having multiple guys make shots every night because when we shot the three well, we were really difficult to beat. We were great at the rim too. If you have that balance where you got guys catching and shooting at a high clip, that’s how our offense becomes even better.
But a lot of credit to Coach Carlisle, it was a fun team to watch. Sometimes you take it for granted of how easy it was for us to get open shots and open opportunities to score the ball because you watched us every single night. You guys were watching us every night. Sometimes you got to step back and just enjoy how we played, how the ball moved and how we shared the ball and cut and attack the rim. It was a fun, fun team to watch play on the offensive end.
The rest of the interview to come or watch it below.
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