Pacers should – With the New York Knicks celebrated as the NBA’s 2026 champions, the Indiana Pacers are being positioned as a title-contending dark horse after trading their fifth overall pick for Ivica Zubac. Behind Tyrese Haliburton’s return from an Achilles injury in Game
The Knicks are lifting banners as the NBA’s 2026 champions, and the Pacers are already staring at the next problem: how to beat New York in a best-of-7 series when it matters most.
Indiana’s offseason math won’t fit into one slogan, but one move tells the story. The Pacers used the fifth overall pick on Ivica Zubac—an acquisition framed as a potential swing in their ability to match the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference as the league heads into 2026-27.
This is the part where Pacers fans feel the tension. That fifth pick no longer belongs to Indiana, and the intrigue still lingers around what it could have been. But there’s a sharper question under the excitement: can the frontcourt answer the season’s biggest matchup headaches?
The foundation matters because Indiana didn’t just roll forward. Myles Turner’s departure to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency forced the issue of who plays starting center for the Pacers heading into 2026-27. Replacing a player like Turner wasn’t optional, it was the hinge their next stretch had to swing on.
And then there’s Haliburton—Indiana’s heartbeat, and the concern that kept resurfacing after the 2025 postseason. Pacers fans will remember that Haliburton will return from an Achilles injury in Game 7 of the 2025 Finals. The memory doesn’t end with the injury itself; it extends into the unresolved argument inside the fanbase about what a fully healthy Tyrese would have meant against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Pacers also take a different kind of path into 2026-27. Losing Haliburton to that Achilles injury cost them what the organization could only treat as a gap year. and that pause became the reason their first-round pick value held up. Even with the 2025 Eastern Conference champions now set to build around their core. the draft situation offered Indiana something tangible: a projected strong draft class. and a viable Turner replacement through Zubac.
The emotional payoff is easy to see when the league’s picture is laid out like this—New York has the championship, and Indiana has to earn the right to chase it. The Pacers are pointed toward doing that by learning what it looks like to test themselves against the Knicks in a real series.
That’s why this detail stuck: after watching Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs lose to the Knicks in five games, Indiana can start measuring what it will take to defeat New York in a best-of-7 matchup.
Indiana’s best-case path is built around players who are already proven in high-leverage moments. Tyrese Haliburton and Pacers All-Star Pascal Siakam are the leaders at the center of the plan. and the supporting group is expected to reprise the roles that powered a 4-2 series win over the Knicks in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals.
Among those who are set to return are Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin and Aaron Nesmith. All four are 28 and under, which matters to Indiana’s timeline because their development curve is still rising—especially with Haliburton back in the lineup.
For Siakam and Zubac, the storyline shifts again. Both are in their prime years, and Indiana’s push in 2026-27 is framed around maximizing that window while the team challenges for the top of the Eastern Conference—an objective that could also set up a playoff rematch in 2027.
The current picture is simple, but it isn’t calm. The NBA is celebrating the New York Knicks as its 2026 champion. and Indiana’s return move—turning that fifth overall pick into Ivica Zubac—places the Pacers in the conversation not as an afterthought. but as a team built to contend. Whether the pieces click quickly enough is the question. yet the intent is clear: Indiana wants to be in the same sentence as the teams that get to win titles—and against the Knicks. not far from the finish line.
Indiana Pacers New York Knicks Tyrese Haliburton Ivica Zubac Pascal Siakam Myles Turner Andrew Nembhard Obi Toppin Aaron Nesmith NBA playoffs Eastern Conference
So they traded their 5th pick for Zubac… seems like a panic move? I don’t even know if he’s that much better than whatever they had.
Achilles in Game 7 and now the Pacers are “dark horses”?? That’s wild. If Haliburton’s still not right, they’re cooked in the next playoffs, no matter who they trade for.
Wait I thought Tyrese already came back from the Achilles like last year, but now it says in Game 7 again? So is this like a different injury or they just saying stuff for clicks.
The Knicks “title chase” part is funny cause everyone acts like NY is automatic. But yeah they lost Turner and replaced him with… Zubac? I feel like the Bucks are gonna be the real problem though. Also how do you even beat New York best-of-7 if Haliburton’s not 100% like they’re hinting. Sounds like another one of those “one move tells the story” things that never works.