Indiana
The Indiana Pacers Need Tyrese Haliburton To Find Consistency
MIAMI, FLORIDA – JANUARY 02: Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers shoots the ball during the … [+]
Last season, the world saw the early-season rise of Tyrese Haliburton, in which the Pacer guard averaged over 26 points, and 12 assists per game, leading his team to the number one offense in the NBA.
Unfortunately, an avalanche of injuries, including to his knee, ankle, hamstring, and back, forced Haliburton to play the majority of the season in limited fashion. His numbers, understandably so, fell to a point where fans and pundits essentially decided to wait for this season, 2024-2025, to see his full production return.
Inconsistencies
37 games into this season, however, Haliburton is nowhere near the same place as he was to start last season. His 18.4 points, 8.8 assists, and 3.7 rebounds are stil All-Star caliber numbers, but for a team that was expecting their point guard to return to his elite levels of production, it’s been a rough year.
Fortunately for the Pacers, they’re 19-18 and are winning at a decent rate, at least decent enough compete for a Top 6 playoff seed, which means avoiding the play-in tournament altogether. This, in large part, is due to the play of Pascal Siakam, Bennedict Mathurin, and Myles Turner.
Haliburton unquestionably plays a big part in their winning record, inconsistencies aside, but there seems to be a lingering feeling that the Pacers would be considerably better if he was back to form.
In seven games this season, Haliburton has failed to crack double-digit scoring. The Pacers have lost each and every one of those.
In the six games he’s scored over 30 points, they’re 5-1, and have outscored their opponents by 51 points in those five wins.
It’s not rocket science to conclude that teams tend to win more when their best player is producing at elite levels, but in the case of Indiana, it’s absurdly relevant given how one small losing streak can put them right back into play-in territory.
Deadline goals
The Pacers do have a little under a month to further upgrade its roster, which should help offset some of Haliburton’s inconsistent play.
Indiana doesn’t have a major pool of assets to toy around with, and they’re currently over the luxury tax limit by a hair over $400,000 which means they’re probably looking to also shed money to get under it.
(Historically, teams that are so close to go under the tax line make deadline moves that save them just enough to get under, so they can partake in receiving payments from the teams that do go over.)
Can the Pacers make a roster upgrade, and simultaneously get under the tax line? It’s not impossible, but they’ll have to carefully construct a deal that helps both of their endeavors, while also making sure to not waste too much of their future flexibility.
If possible, the franchise should seek out a shooter who can also rebound the ball.
The Pacers are one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, and while they rank seventh in three-point efficiency, they rank just 27th in attempts, and are thus in need of volume.
Those players aren’t easy to find, so they’ll have to get creative.
Hope ahead
Setting aside the trade deadline, there might be good news coming for the Pacers in regards to Haliburton.
Over his past five games, the 24-year-old has averaged 25.3 points, 9.0 assists, and 5.0 rebounds, including a 33-point, 15-assist performance against Miami.
This has been Haliburton’s best stretch of the season, and the Pacers would love to see him maintain this level of production, especially as they’re paying him over $244.6 million over the next five seasons.
Should the Pacers succeed in making a real upgrade before the deadline, and get Haliburton back to form, they could become a serious surprise team in the East by April.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
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