On a summer episode of Caitlyn Cooper’s podcast, Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said:
“We play a lot of guys. This is a way for us to engage a lot of guys, try to keep our minutes reasonable, and try to get into the legs of the opponent. It’s no secret that’s a big part of the approach. It’s difficult. This is a hardstyle to play, but it’s a beautiful style to play.
Those are the words from the head coach of a Finals team that made it all the way to Game 7 and possibly, prophesized what is to come with the new CBA and how teams adjust to it. After the Celtics front office gutted the team’s established (albeit top-heavy) talent pool in favor of a youth movement, Joe Mazzulla is now tasked with revamping Boston. He might want to heed Carlisle’s words.
The Pacers went ten-deep in their rotation and more importantly, they played a frenetic and unpredictable brand of basketball. They had their core offensive principles, but for the most part, they embraced Tyrese Haliburton’s freestyling attitude and integrated it from top to bottom. Sure, they certainly had their more established players. Pascal Siakam has been a 20-plus point scorer in this league for the bulk of his career. Before leaving for Milwaukee, Myles Turner was consistently one of the NBA’s best defensive centers and a legitimate threat from behind the arc.
But what made the Pacers unique was their free-flowing system that could accommodate any player and utilize enough of them to weather an 82-game regular season plus the long march of the playoffs. “The NBA game has become a play hard league. It’s not just being top-heavy having stars. Roster construction is changing,” Carlisle continued. “Now, it’s become more important to have good players rather than two or three great players that get all the touches.”
The Pacers don’t beat the Bucks, Cavaliers, and Knicks without guys like Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, and Ben Shepard. Those players may be household names now because of their Finals exposure, but before this summer, many of them were just names on the back of their jerseys.
Fast forward three months and that’s the puzzle that Mazzulla will have to figure out with this roster. Even with championship veterans like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, and Payton Pritchard in the fold, that leaves six slots open in the rotation for next season, but maybe more importantly, for longer term opportunities when Jayson Tatum returns and Boston is presumably back in contention again.
There are questions up and down the roster. Can Brown slot in at power forward with Tatum out? Who starts at point guard: Pritchard or newcomer but established scorer Anfernee Simons? After having a center room stocked with Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, and Luke Kornet, how will Boston fill what was once their strongest position? However, what might be the most significant development at the Auerbach Center over the next few weeks will be Mazzulla’s adherence to what was a winning formula over the last three years — three-point shooting and switchability on defense — balanced with the realization that he just doesn’t have the talent to do it that way now.
The Celtics ranked 24th in total passing last season; the Pacers, on the other hand, were second in ball movement. For what it’s worth, they were nearly equal in potential assists (48.3 to 48.6 respectively), but without the star power of Boston’s previous starting lineup, Mazzulla might have to lean into Indiana’s frenetic playing style to maximize the current roster.
It’s not as if the team doesn’t have playmakers. It was a huge area of improvement for Brown last season and White and Pritchard are above average creators off the dribble. However, for the Celtics to win games, the biggest development will have to come in secondary ball handlers like Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez being able to attack close outs and Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Neemias Queta, and Luke Garza to slash and cut to put further pressure on the rim. It won’t be the surgical approach of killer whales now. Think more controlled chaos of feeding piranha.
With the Jays able to attack bigger and slower frontcourts and Porzingis being the ultimate pick-and-roll partner, the Celtics could hunt mismatches without much ball movement. Again, that can’t be their MO in 2025-2026. If Summer League is any indication, they’ll rely on their youth to generate turnovers and get out in transition. They were 7th in Vegas in steals (10.6 per game) and scored nearly 24 points a night off turnovers to a 4-1 record.
What they might lack in measurable talent, they make up for in, well, opportunities to prove themselves. That may not exactly seem like a tangible strength. Everybody tries hard. This is the NBA after all. But more than half the roster is on an expiring contract or have another year or team option for next season. That dangled carrot could reveal a player or two or three that could contribute to a ten-man championship rotation.
A welcomed addition to a player’s skillset would be nice — Hauser doing more off the dribble, Queta consistently defending the pick-and-roll, or Walsh adding the 3 to his D just to name a few. Short of that though, what might guarantee a player’s future with the franchise might be some Tommy Award-winning hustle or a nose for just making the right play at the right time.
Mazzulla has built his basketball philosophies on winning the margins and making the math work in his favor. Those margins just won’t exist beyond the arc anymore. They’ll be in the trenches, on the ground floor of rebuilding this contender.
