Rick Carlisle doesn’t want Indiana Pacers to get intoxicated with success ahead of key 2024-25 season

The Indiana Pacers made the Eastern Conference Finals last season, but from the top of the organization downward, they’ve made it clear that it won’t be easy for the franchise to get back to that stage.

Star forward Pascal Siakam told his teammates during the team’s players-only minicamp that they need to work three times as hard if they want to have similar success to the prior season. All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton told his team that everyone would doubt them. Veteran center Myles Turner stressed accountability and health to his fellow Pacers.

Head coach Rick Carlisle has joined that chorus. The sideline leader for the Pacers joined 107.5 The Fan‘s Wake Up Call program and fielded multiple questions about the coming season.

Carlisle said that his personal transition from one season to the next happens fairly quickly, and he’s looking forward to the upcoming campaign.

“It’s important that we don’t get intoxicated with a little bit of success last year,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got to see it for what it is.”

The head coach explained that the ultimate goal was not reached by the Pacers. They want to be a championship team. They were not satisfied by simply making the playoffs last season, and they hope for more than a conference finals run.

For Carlisle, getting to the ultimate goal is about habits — and that is something he has stressed since getting hired by the organization. He believes that in order to reach the top, day-to-day improvement and focus is required.

That message he sharesd got through to his team last season. And the Pacers are bringing back largely the same roster this season. 13 of their 16 players on standard contracts were on the squad last year as well — that group knows what it takes to win.

“Yeah,” Carlisle said when asked if the offseason went how he expected it to. “Just because you had success last year and have your guys back, it doesn’t guarantee anything,” he continued. “A lot of guys got new contracts. We’ve got to make sure that everybody has still got the same edge and the same hunger,” he added, noting that the NBA is hard and the Pacers need to embrace that challenge.

The head coach also shared some thoughts on Jarace Walker as well as Bennedict Mathurin before talking about star guard Tyrese Haliburton’s experience with the Olympics. The entire conversation from September 17 can be found here.