Indiana
The growing backlash to Indiana’s baby box empire
Indiana senators debate bill to ban abortion pills in the state
Indiana Senate advances bill allowing citizens to sue over abortion inducing drugs in a major shift for anti abortion efforts.
This article was originally published by Mirror Indy and is republished through our partnership with Free Press Indiana.
Monica Kelsey brought a baby box to the Indiana Statehouse.
Last fall, she joined lawmakers celebrating the 25th anniversary of the state’s Safe Haven Law, which allows parents to legally surrender their newborns to hospitals, police and firefighters.
Kelsey, a former paramedic, created the boxes, purported to give a desperate mother more anonymity: She can place her baby inside and walk away forever.
When the door opens, alarms trigger first responders, who collect the baby. Kelsey got the idea while promoting abstinence on a 2013 trip to South Africa. The work is personal: Kelsey said her mother was raped as a teenager and left her at an Ohio hospital after giving birth.
“I was one of those kids,” Kelsey, 52, said. “The unwanted kid everybody talks about.”
Now, a facility in her hometown of Woodburn in northeast Indiana produces almost all of the nation’s baby boxes. Her nonprofit, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, is a growing empire with 1.2 million followers on TikTok, a merch line and more than $4.4 million in revenue reported in 2024.
“These boxes are more than plastic and technology,” Kelsey told the crowd gathered Nov. 18 at the Indiana Statehouse. “They are mercy made tangible.”
Republican Gov. Mike Braun and other top state leaders listened from the front row. Before the event began, they bowed their heads as a preacher spoke: “We pray that every voice that would rise up against life in this state would be brought low.”
After Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban in 2022, Republican lawmakers have championed baby boxes as a solution for crisis pregnancies and infant abandonment. Churches, anti-abortion groups and $1 million allocated by the Indiana legislature have covered the costs to install some of the state’s boxes in the walls of fire departments and hospitals — even as officials at the Indiana Department of Health raised safety concerns.
After a baby is surrendered in the boxes, first responders complete a medical evaluation. Then, the infant goes into the custody of the Department of Child Services or a licensed child-placing agency.
Safe Haven Laws are stricter than regular adoptions: Birth parents have about 15 days to petition a court to get their child back — otherwise, their legal rights are terminated. Most of the babies placed in boxes grow up without knowing who surrendered them — or why.
Indiana now has about 150 baby boxes — more than a fourth of the boxes installed across the country. Nine are in Indianapolis. They’re expensive, but rarely used.
The price for one box is roughly $22,000 in installation costs, maintenance and annual fees. In the last decade, Kelsey’s nonprofit said at least 30 babies have been surrendered in Indiana via the boxes. That amounts to about three cases a year.
“When this baby is born, they’re going to go in a dumpster or one of our boxes,” Kelsey told Mirror Indy. “I think we can all agree a baby does not deserve to be in a dumpster.”
Critics ask for FDA approval
Messages like this have proven successful for Kelsey’s nonprofit.
Tax records show how donations powered her spending in 2024: $116,000 on travel, including trips for box blessing ceremonies across the country; more than $200,000 to cover her and her husband’s salaries; and a $382,000 advertising budget. (In an email, Kelsey said her salary is on-par with other nonprofit CEOs and the marketing is “life-saving awareness.”)
But she’s also increasingly playing defense. As the money flows in, backlash is growing.
It crystallized in 2024, when nearly 100 academics, child welfare advocates and legislators sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They asked the agency to regulate baby boxes.
The Food and Drug Administration does not consider the boxes to be medical devices — a label that regulates everything from electronic toothbrushes to bandages.
That’s concerning to Lori Bruce, a bioethicist from Yale University who signed the letter. The boxes, she said, have heating and cooling elements and alarms that could fail.
“It is unsettling that the federal government declined to regulate devices that have so many implications for the safety and wellbeing of infants,” Bruce said. “A bassinet is a medical device. A baby box is a bassinet with alarms, electricity and HVAC.”
In an email, Kelsey said her product has internal safety protocols, testing requirements and mandatory daily checks from first responders. “They are not medical devices,” she wrote. “They are safety devices designed to facilitate legal custody transfer.”
Still, the controversy continues, with more than 400 boxes installed across the country.
In Maryland, medical groups pushed back on legislation approving the boxes, citing safety concerns. In Nebraska, a lawmaker successfully opposed baby boxes, which were ultimately written out of legislation. The devices, Sen. Carol Blood said, could “unknowingly provide concealment for crimes such as rape, incest or human trafficking.”
She also pointed out financial gain for nonprofits such as Kelsey’s: “We’re opening the doors for these grifters to come to Nebraska.”
And in Indiana, the fight over boxes was just as contentious a decade ago. But ultimately, state health officials lost.
Kelsey’s attorney at the time was James Bopp Jr., a prominent conservative lawyer who has led efforts to restrict abortion.
“Freedom is the norm, not government regulation,” Bopp Jr. said in 2016. “We do not think there is any state or federal law that regulates baby boxes, so there are no federal bureaucrats to deal with.”
‘No endorsement’ from Indiana Department of Health
In 2015, legislators asked a commission of state leaders to develop recommendations for safety protocols and standards for baby boxes.
Dr. Jerome Adams, a member and the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Health at the time, didn’t approve of the boxes. Neither did the commission’s Task Force on Infant Mortality and Child Health, a group made up of doctors and child welfare officials.
“There is simply no evidence to suggest the use of a baby box is a safe and prudent way to surrender a child,” Adams said in a joint 2016 statement with the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Instead, both agencies encouraged parents to surrender babies in-person. That’s a stance echoed by traditional Safe Haven groups, who say direct handoffs help mothers get immediate medical care and mental health support.
Emails obtained by Mirror Indy show Kelsey fighting back.
The state health department’s “accusations and mischaracterizations” about the safety of baby boxes, Kelsey wrote in a June 2016 email to agency leadership, are “unwarranted, ignorant (in the purest meaning of the word) and just plain wrong.”
Another section, directed at Adams: “YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN COMING TOGETHER AND WORKING WITH SAFE HAVEN BABY BOXES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THIS STATE.”
Ultimately, Kelsey installed the boxes — without the support of the Indiana Department of Health and Department of Child Services. And in 2017, legislators supported her mission by expanding the state’s Safe Haven Law to include baby boxes.
When Adams opposed the devices in 2016, Kelsey said, baby boxes were still new: “That does not mean they were inherently unsafe. Since then Indiana law has changed and boxes have operated without injury or death.”
Adams, reached by Mirror Indy via email, said he still has safety concerns all these years later. Those include possible delays in medical care for the surrendered baby and no “standardized oversight” of the boxes.
“As for why Indiana now has so many baby boxes, that didn’t then and doesn’t now reflect a state health department endorsement,” said Adams, who later became the U.S. Surgeon General under President Trump in 2017. “Laws changed and local entities were allowed to install them. The health department didn’t have the authority to stop that, even if not leading or recommending it as an evidence-based approach.”
See Dr. Jerome Adams’ full 2026 statement to Mirror Indy
The Indiana Department of Health, which has new leadership under Dr. Lindsay Weaver, did not answer questions about previous safety concerns. “We can’t speculate about past conversations regarding safe haven boxes,” a spokesperson wrote in a December 2025 email.
Adams, for his part, championed solutions outside of the boxes: improving awareness of the Safe Haven Law, expanding health care access and support for moms in crisis.
“Those approaches are backed by data,” he wrote, and “address why people feel like they have no options in the first place.”
‘Just an escape hatch’
In Indianapolis, one hospital has a baby box.
Franciscan Health installed the device in 2024. Melanie Boosey, the hospital’s manager of labor and delivery, started raising donations in the wake of Indiana’s near-total abortion ban. Even if the box isn’t used often, she said, it’s there as a last resort.
“I know the argument that it shouldn’t be a policy to just build baby boxes everywhere,” Boosey said. “But when working within the construct of my state law and a Catholic institution, I felt like this was something we could do.”
Other doctors said the boxes distract from the very issues that create crisis pregnancies: poverty, child care access and limited prenatal care.
“Putting an infant in a box and pretending it’s a win is a bit problematic,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ferries-Rowe, an OB-GYN at Eskenazi Health. “It’s just an escape hatch from the problems the state created.”
Alternate programs exist in Indianapolis. The BIRTH Fund gives up to $20K to pregnant women living in the city’s worst zip codes for infant mortality — no strings attached. Research shows financial pressure is a key reason people give up their children.
“We’re working toward long-term solutions that would make a baby box obsolete,” said Benjamin Tapper, the city’s chief diversity and equity officer who helped set up the fund in Indianapolis.
In an email, Kelsey said she supports policies that help with economic stability, housing and health care access — and that her nonprofit’s hotline connects parents to these resources.
“However, these programs do not address acute crisis moments, which are the circumstances in which unsafe abandonment occurs,” she wrote. “A baby box is not a substitute for economic policy — it is an emergency intervention.”
That sentiment rings true for the Barkman family, who adopted a baby in 2020 after he was placed in the box at Decatur Township Fire Station 74. The northside couple, who struggled with infertility, had long prayed for a child.
“Surrendering your child is one of the most selfless acts and biggest showing of love,” Kimberly Barkman told Mirror Indy. “We’re so grateful to Samuel’s mom for doing that.”
Sometimes, the little boy visits fire stations with his parents. “I was in there?” his mom remembers him asking once, pointing at the box.
In the moment, she nodded. Barkman knows she’ll be fielding questions for years to come. But she’s glad he’s alive and asking.
“We don’t want infants abandoned,” Barkman said. “We don’t want Brookside Park to happen again.”
Babyland
On Sept. 1, 2025, remains were found in the Indianapolis eastside park. Some Safe Haven advocates claimed it was the state’s first fatal infant abandonment in more than a decade.
Kelsey talked about the mother on TikTok. “If she would have just utilized the Safe Haven law, none of this would be happening,” Kelsey said. “A perfectly healthy little girl, just discarded like trash.”
Mirror Indy asked the Marion County Coroner if the death occurred in-utero or after birth, but did not receive an answer. The coroner’s office said the cause and manner of death are undetermined.
When Safe Haven fails, someone else enters the fold: Linda Znachko, the founder of He Knows Your Name, a local ministry honoring the lives of abandoned and unclaimed babies.
She was by Kelsey’s side at the Indiana Statehouse for the November Safe Haven anniversary event. The two met in 2015 at a funeral for an abandoned baby. “That’s a problem,” Kelsey had said, pointing at the little casket going into the ground. “I have the solution.”
A decade later, Znachko is still pleading for parents to use the boxes.
“Baby Haven was found 15 minutes away from two baby boxes,” she told the crowd, repeating the name she gave the remains found at Brookside Park. “Let this be the day Indiana says no more.”
Half a month later, Znachko’s Mercedes-Benz weaved through Washington Park East Cemetery, stopping at a section still covered in snow. A blue sign read, “Babyland.”
Here, the debates over politics and policies go silent.
Znachko got out of her car and placed flowers on more than 50 graves. A small number were for infants abandoned in public throughout the years; others were left unclaimed at funeral homes or hospitals.
She personally buried many of them and often chooses their names in death. Most come from the Bible.
“These moms are tragically desperate, gripped by fear and unfortunately alone,” Znachko said. A woman with family and support, she continued, would not abandon a child: “That is not the heart of a mother.”
Sometimes, she tires of the questions and narratives about these tragedies.
“It’s really important to shift our focus from the homeless mom story or the addicted mom story or the dumpster story,” Znachko said. “These babies are laid to rest, and I believe they’re hanging out in heaven together.”
The newest plaque said “Baby Haven.” Roses from the October funeral were brown and dying. But one carnation, red against the snow, was still fresh.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
The six towns below all sit within a two-hour drive of downtown Indianapolis, close enough for a quick trip into the city, far enough that housing money goes considerably further. Each one brings something specific to the trade. Frankfort pairs lower-than-state-median home values with a small-town pace and an 18-hole course right next to its top assisted-living campus. Connersville has a working heritage railroad running through downtown and a population where nearly one in five residents is already over 65. Greenville, just over the Ohio line, splits the difference between Indianapolis and Dayton and still keeps a Main Street that earns the name.
Frankfort, IN
About 40 minutes from Indianapolis, Frankfort is one of the best blends of senior resources and affordability around the capital. Rent comes in well below the average inside Indianapolis city limits per Zillow, and home values sit below the state median. Combined with healthcare at IU Health Frankfort Hospital and senior living communities like Wesley Manor, independence in retirement is realistic here.
Things happen at a slower pace, which might be just the speed a senior is looking for in a new community. The historic downtown holds shops and eateries like the locally loved Downtown Diner. For golf, Frankfort Commons Golf Course is a well-maintained 18-hole course right next to the Wesley Manor campus.
Crawfordsville, IN
Crawfordsville sits roughly 55 minutes from downtown Indianapolis and offers an affordable alternative for retirees who want some distance from the city. The proximity keeps seniors connected to a wealth of resources when they’re not using in-town options like emergency and specialty care at Franciscan Health Crawfordsville or social programming at the Crawfordsville Community Center. The cost of living here runs 10% below the national average per the Economic Research Institute, with rent and home values below the state median.
Cultural life is a big draw, much of it tied to Wabash College’s programming. The town was also the home of Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben-Hur, and residents can dig into that history at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum. Outdoor options include Turkey Run State Park’s views and trails or Sugar Creek Nature Park’s nearly 64 acres for birdwatching.
Shelbyville, IN
Shelbyville sits about 35 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. Its centuries-old architecture is a draw, and its commitment to senior living is solid. Ashford Place Health Campus is a top-tier assisted living facility with a life enrichment team on site. Healthcare is conveniently placed via the Indianapolis proximity, with smaller clinics in town for specialty and short-term care. Home values run below the state median per Zillow.
To see the ‘Streets of Old Shelby,’ visit the Grover Center Museum and Historical Society. The free attraction has storefronts from the early 1900s, including a bank, post office, and saloon. The Historic Strand Theatre opened in 1916 and still plays films, hosts concerts, and works as a community gathering spot. A few miles away, Horseshoe Indianapolis offers horse racing and casino games for anyone wanting a livelier change of pace.
Connersville, IN
Connersville has long been a solid option for seniors, which is probably why nearly 20% of the population is over 65. The town sits about an hour and 15 minutes from Indianapolis, a reasonable drive for those commuting regularly. The cost of living offsets the distance, falling below the national average across most categories. If assisted living becomes a need, places like Hickory Creek promote independent living with various levels of assistance.
Standing here since 1813, Connersville blends history and nature for retirees ready for a slower pace. The historic downtown district has a few protected properties, including the Canal House, a museum focused on Fayette County’s history. The Whitewater Valley Railroad runs along the historic Whitewater Canal on diesel locomotives with a direct connection to Metamora. Connersville is also a gateway to Brookville Lake, with 25 miles of shoreline and access for fishing, camping, and hiking.
Greenville, OH
Crossing into Ohio, Greenville sits about an hour and forty-five minutes from Indianapolis and only about 50 minutes from Dayton. The cost of living runs below the national average, including a $650 a month median rent that comes in below what people pay in Indianapolis. Connection is another big draw, starting with Wayne HealthCare’s facilities, which now include a helipad and robotic technology for orthopedic surgeries. For assisted living, Trustwell Senior Living at Oakley Place is a top option.
Greenville works for seniors looking for an American Main Street town. Local history is on display at the Garst Museum & National Annie Oakley Center. The historic downtown has many protected facades and shops including the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe, which has been there since 1934. Greenville also hosts the Great Darke County Fair in August, with entertainment, showcases, rides, and harness racing.
Richmond, IN
About an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Indianapolis, Richmond is one of the most cost-effective and connected options on the entire list. The general cost of living runs below the national average and below Indiana’s average. Reid Health’s campus covers emergency, cardiovascular, orthopedic, and vascular care. The town has multiple senior amenities including Springs of Richmond and the Friends Fellowship Community for retirees who need more attention as they age.
Richmond has historical depth from several angles. Wayne County’s evolution gets the full treatment at the Wayne County Historical Museum, housed in an old Quaker house from the 19th century. Richmond was also home to Gennett Records, a recording studio that produced songs for Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, now honored at the Gennett Records Walk of Fame. The arts side runs through the Civic Hall Performing Arts Center, with a packed performance calendar from Richmond’s own professional symphony.
Towns near Indianapolis can mean greater savings for seniors without giving up the resources of the big city. Each of the six places listed brings something different, whether it’s the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe in Greenville serving loose meat sandwiches since 1934 or riding the rails on refurbished diesel locomotives from downtown Connersville.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A business owner on the city’s south side on Friday morning reported a theft, saying a person stole thousands of dollars’ worth of Pokémon cards from his store.
Security footage captured the suspect breaking into Grandmaster Games and targeting valuable card collections.
The thief gained entry by breaking through a window and immediately went to a display case containing high-value cards.
The suspect bypassed six other display cases, making a direct route to the owner’s private collection, which included a One Piece card alone worth approximately $12,000. Other stolen cards are valued between $5,000 and $6,000 each.
Alex Bradshaw, owner of Grandmaster Games, said many people underestimate the value of such collectibles. “People think ‘cardboard,’ not really worth a lot. Except for these instances where a bunch of stuff gets taken. You can see the suspect trying to break into the display case, but couldn’t get it open.”
Bradshaw described the suspect’s actions inside the store. “He came over here to where our Pokémon cases are, and he smashed one of our cases that had our ungraded cards. Took the top row of those and moved on to graded cards.”
Approximately 60 Pokémon cards were stolen during the break-in, with their total value estimated to be between $10,000 and $15,000. The suspect was inside the store for only about five or six minutes.
Bradshaw thinks the suspect had prior knowledge of the store’s layout due to the targeted nature of the theft. “Because if you aren’t familiar with my store, you wouldn’t necessarily know to go to this display case because this has stuff of value.”
Grandmaster Games has been in business for about a decade, and it’s the first break-in the store has experienced.
Following the theft, Bradshaw is reconsidering how he displays his valuable collection. “I don’t know if I’m going to completely take this display down because there’s a lot of cool nostalgic stuff from the last 20 years — especially the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! items. But the manga collection is definitely going into the safe. I realize having this stuff out makes me a target.”
With the PopCon Indy convention underway during the weekend at the downtown Indiana Convention Center, Bradshaw was concerned the stolen cards could easily be sold or concealed among other merchandise.
Despite the significant loss, Bradshaw has expressed a desire not to press charges. He attributes the theft to potential desperation and indicated he would rather offer assistance than punishment. “Nobody steals because they want to. They steal because they need to. Most of the time, people are at the end of the rope. They want something easy, which you can’t blame them for wanting something easy. If you need some help, most of us are willing to help one way or another.”
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department encouraged anyone with information regarding the theft to contact them.
Bradshaw said he simply wants his cards returned.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 10: Jarace Walker #5 of the Indiana Pacers fouls DeMar DeRozan #10 of the Sacramento Kings on a shot with Jay Huff #32 of the Indiana Pacers during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center on March 10, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Kelley L Cox/Getty Images)
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INDIANAPOLIS – Just two days stand between the Indiana Pacers and their offseason-defining date. May 10 is the 2026 NBA Draft lottery, and the Pacers have a 52.1% chance of keeping their first-round draft pick.
If the lottery places the Pacers top selection inside the first four slots, Indiana will keep that draft pick. If it falls to fifth or sixth, the only other possible outcomes, it will be sent to the Los Angeles Clippers as a part of the trade that netted the Pacers center Ivica Zubac.
“We were trying to protect our upside at the top of the draft mostly,” Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said of the trade and draft pick protections in February. The Pacers would also have kept the first rounder if it landed between 10 and 30, but that became irrelevant after the Pacers ended the season poorly.
Now, the team has roughly a coin flip chance to hang on to their high draft selection this season. They have an offseason plan for any draft lottery outcome, but a top pick would be preferred. Any direction the Pacers go this summer will be determined by their lottery fate.
Buchanan had much more to say about the Pacers offseason during a recent interview on The Ride with JMV on 107.5 The Fan in Indianapolis. “When we made the trade, we knew there was risk involved just as there is in any other trade. But with the draft pick involved, you’ve got to look at the finances of the situation and the scenario where you keep the pick, the scenario where we lose the pick. We felt that both scenarios provided opportunities to help our team be better next year,” he said. The Pacers eyes toward championship contention right now made the trade worth it, even with the draft-related risk. “We feel like we have a team [that]… We’re in that [Contention] mix when we’re healthy.”
What will the Pacers do to stay contenders?
Buchanan admitted that while long-term thinking is generally prudent, the Pacers have a window right now with Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam on the roster. They want to go for it. Losing the top-four pick would hurt, but there are other opportunities for the team to get better.
“Should we lose the pick, there’s other opportunities to improve our team through free agency. We still have trades. We gain a pick that we can use in the future for a trade. We felt like there’s a way to improve our team either way with whatever the ping pong balls, however they fall for us. We’re not putting all of our eggs into one basket, that ‘Hey, if we don’t keep this pick, it’s doom and gloom,’ [thinking], because it’s not,” Buchanan said. “Because there’s other windows and other doors that open with that opportunity. If we do get the pick, obviously it’s a great opportunity to add a young player to this team. The core of it comes down to, Ivica [Zubac] is a great player. We’ve been a big believer, a big fan of him for a long time. This team has shown that it’s capable of doing some really special things, and we were missing a starting center that we felt could keep us in that mix.”
Buchanan and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle have discussed the two directions the Pacers offseason could take. One is more draft focused, with the team’s major addition obviously being a top-four pick in that case. The other way Indiana could go is into free agency. That’s far more likely if they lose their first-round selection. They could use various salary cap exceptions to add talent in that reality, though the roster would still be expensive and near the luxury tax or first apron.
But if the team isn’t providing lip service about their belief that they have a contention window right now, they shouldn’t care as much about those spending barriers. Rather, they should be focused on adding to the team, and in particular replacing some key roles they’ve lost in the last few seasons.
Kevin Pritchard speaks during a news conference Monday, May 1, 2017, in Indianapolis. Larry Bird resigned from his position as Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations. Pritchard is assuming Bird’s position. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
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While the Pacers core remains intact, some of their better reserves have either taken deals elsewhere or been traded across the last few seasons. Zubac replaced Myles Turner, but since the Pacers first made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023-24, they’ve also lost the likes of Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin, Doug McDermott, and Thomas Bryant. Along the way, most of those departures made sense for one reason or another – Jackson and Mathurin were traded as matching salary for Zubac, as an example. But the Pacers depth, a superpower in recent campaigns, has slowly dripped away.
That influences their needs in the offseason. “Can I say health? Does that count as a need?” Buchanan joked when asked about what the Pacers need next season. To his point: The Pacers had the second-most games lost due to injury and the most salary lost in player absences.
In terms of actual roster needs, Buchanan identified a few. The departure of Mathurin created a big hole for the team’s second unit, and they have some other questions to answer.
“I think one thing this season revealed for us is the need for some scoring off our bench… Probably from the wing position. Losing (Mathurin), you lose some of that. But I think this team, we have some depth. We still have some holes to fill,” Buchanan began. Some of the projected top-four picks in the upcoming draft could fill that role, as could a free agent acquired using some of the Mid-Level Exception.
Most of the Pacers rotation seems fairly set. Their starting five from the 2025 NBA Finals – minus Turner, plus Zubac – seems fairly set. T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin have obvious roles off the bench. A draft pick could be in the mix, as could one or both of Ben Sheppard and Jarace Walker.
On the interior, Jay Huff currently projects to be the Pacers backup center. Buchanan did mention that position as a possible spot to look at in the offseason.
“I think you look at maybe the five position, do we have a backup center we feel comfortable with? We had (Huff) and (Micah Potter), both had good moments this year. Do we feel good about that position?” Buchanan wondered. Huff’s production given his contract is solid, and he’s never played with Haliburton. But his first season in Indiana was certainly up and down.
Buchanan also mused about the depth of the wing position on his roster, a natural thought with Johnny Furphy injured and Kobe Brown entering free agency. He also mentioned reserve point guard as a possible need – the Pacers cycled through many players in that role during the 2025-26 campaign.
Some of the team’s needs may be filled by internal candidates. And they won’t have a ton of spending power in the offseason. But they will look to make improvements as contenders, and they’ll explore every avenue to make it happen. Including, yes, trading their first-round pick if the right opportunity appears.
“You’ve got to consider everything. If you have a pick up there, you’re looking at obviously who are the players on the board to pick from,” Buchanan began. “But if we can find another player or multiple assets that help us with this team to try to compete for a championship, we’re going to consider everything on that.”
While there will be top-end stability for the Pacers, the offseason could come with changes to the rotation. How those changes look will be determined at Sunday’s draft lottery.
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