Per Carlisle/Tony East:

Shep’s surgery revealed the need for a full repair and a recovery that takes ‘Months’.

Hali has a mild hamstring strain, is week-to-week but will not play in the next two weeks.

I know there is a lot of panic because of the injuries. But let’s remember the 24/25 season. We didn’t get over .500 until January, 37 games into the season. Let hope we can ride out this recent storm of injuries. Hover around .500 until the new year and people can start getting healthy.

With the Injuries piling up, its Walker Time

Not karma farming, would delete my account today, don't care. I just want to give props to our current leadership for setting a good example on how to run a sports team. They haven't always been perfect, but I feel like they have always cared and tried to do the right thing and 99.9% of the fans seem to appreciate them. Thought they deserved a shout out given the complete other side of the coin the Colts are right now. As a fanbase, a lot can be said about having honest leaders who do things the right way and give the fans and players hope for the future.

According to Grok, In 2022, a rapper named “Babytron” tweeted at Myles Turner asking “ARE YOU EVER GOING TO MAKE AN ALLSTAR TEAM” To which Myles responded “No 🧢 I have no idea who you are and you ain’t bad… wager sumn. I make an all star team or you get a billboard top 10 single. Put $100k on it 🤝.”

Babytron ended up getting a top 10 single recently and pulled up to Pacers Bucks game yesterday to try and get the $100K Myles rightfully owes him.

Based on last season: I highlighted only 7 (which includes the previous 2), with Brooklyn and Chicago selected🫣. But since they're not tanking this year, it seems to be more difficult.

Can we even get to 10-15 by December 12?

At this point, am just happy for any wins we get + games we complete where a player doesn't get added to the injured list.

Hopefully 2027 will change everything.

Andrew Nembhard commented: 😂😂😂 rickyy

This is one of my favorite assemblages and proves that not every part of a supercollection needs to be complete (or even healthy) to compete. The core is Topps Finest—common & uncommon—rarities, with Cactus Jack black /10s framing the top row. One of my favorite inserts (in sought-after black /10) POWER Player anchors the bottom. Oh and a not-suited-up Leech (representing Nembhard’s fashionable current state) holds it all together in the middle.

[Access the evolving supAAcollection.]

Topps Finest debuted with baseball and basketball in 1993 and was the first premium, lower print run chromium Topps product. It contained the first refractors.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times—an era of innovation and reboot. Think of the junk wax era of its introduction, a market flooded in mass print runs from a plethora of manufacturers (Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck), whole boxes freely available on convenience store and Walgreens' shelves for under $40.

Upper Deck had launched the premium product category in ’89 with its holographic foil, while the storied Bowman brand had been licensed and launched by Topps as an inexpensive cardboard product. The rookie showcase Bowman Chrome was not yet a whiff in the Topps firmament.

That made Topps Finest king, though not of King James' biblical proportions. Finest’s reign at the apex of what Topps offered was brief. While premium for its era, it was still a mass-printed product without serial numbering or parallels (other than 1:12 pack refractors). It also didn’t have the iconic feel of flagship Topps, with its in-action shots from real games. By design, the backgrounds were chromed out.

And yet, though overshadowed, affordable TF is one of my favorite sets design-wise of the seminal 1996-97 season when so many careers were launched. I love Mystery Finest, which was a mystery until peeled and revealed (take that Ginter & Allen rip packs) and Apprentices, which vividly depicted rookies popping out of the card.

I remember buying a stack of these during the pandemic from a collector in Cebu, fresh as the day they were pack pulled and in a big stack, missing the Iverson and Kobe natch. Many of them greening and none with patina (that “color of money” discovery came later for me). A classic creative mid-1990s issue. Yet, from a hobby standpoint, the brand has been completely overshadowed by Topps Chrome, which also launched in 1996-97.

The current year’s Topps Finest licensed reboot was roundly castigated by collectors, yet has some nice inserts and autos. I think it looks really good in the /15 and /5 iterations with black backgrounds. The rare-image Siakam in the center row is /5 (technically red-and-black), the Haliburton and Nembhard are black /15). Making things more complex, the Siakam on the bottom row right, is red /10, common-image. This may actually explain why Topps Finest is not as popular as it could have been. Too much unintuitive brain freeze, figuring out what is desirable. While /10 is traditionally the true rarity chase, I argue that here /5 and /15 look the best. (/50 is gold and looks great as always).

I like the Finest Autographs in faded out colors that remind me of ’20-21 Panini flux, which also evoked the way mid 90s chromium cards age. Call it the distressed Levis of the basketball world, with the hole-in-the-knee already fashionably included. I also like the graffiti design First rookie insert a lot. So yeah, I wouldn't want to be ripping overpriced wax on this, but I enjoy the cards in some parallels and inserts.

Rounding out the assemblage, the Cactus Jacks are fire. They just look cool, unlike Topps Black, and are really rare. Leech, in a /10, is a current-year Finest Marvel issue. He is actually the most powerful superhero in the MU, as he can sap the energy from an entire crowd. But he doesn’t do offense, can’t really attack. His image has evolved from like a mutant dweeb, to college slacker, which is cool as well.

"I wanna die"

Just remembered I had this picture.

Best plate ever?

At the presser after a hard fought game against the bucks (in which he had 20 pts and 13 reb, 6 straight to cut it to 3) Pascal was talking about boxouts as a way of protecting the boards from crashes on rebounds. That's the first time I have seen him say anything about defensive strategy ever and I think he meant it.

Anyway, Haliburton had this crazy thing wrapped up around his quad last night on the bike. He is not doing that as an image. This team is Pascal's until further notice.

I want to see Q in all the way as point, Nesmith doing a Mathurin impression with fewer isos, and Walker handling Huff passes with finesse. If Spicy P can pull this off, orchestrating greatness with all possible injuries in play (still leaving hope of a win) I say his name belongs in the rafters.

Hello guys! New Nba fan over here all the way from Portugal. I started watching random games in march 2026 but always felt like I didnt like any of teams. So I came to the conclusion I wanted my team, a team to root for and to follow their games. I dont know why and how i got to the Indiana Pacers but here I am... So you guys are now the team I support.

I just wanted to know what are your expectations or what do you think of the current roster just to catch up more to the team and to understand some dynamics... (Players injured that I may not know, recent team problems/Unlucky moments are also welcome).

Every little detail would be welcome, so that I can form a better opinion on us.

Thanks and sorry if I mispelled some of my words, as English is not my main language.

4 games, 2-2, injuries, best player getting back into game shape. It has not been perfect at all, and there are lots of questions, but this team and front office have earned a little grace and patience from us.

The bench needs some work, but half the league can not be traded right now. Oubre plus Jarace's salary could net us a decent bench piece.

Love this team and I feel confident they will grow.

Hali is coming off 17 months of not playing NBA basketball and we decide to play him in a back to back? IN MILWAUKEE??? I know he wanted to play but sometimes you have to save players from themselves.

Random Thoughts from behind the Pacers bench:

1. That was one of the strangest atmospheres I've ever seen for a game. I bet at the end of the day there were probably 4,000 people there in a 17,000 seat stadium. There were entire portions of the 200 level with less than 20 people in it. I've never been to a major sporting event that was that empty.

2. Ware is a better player than Turner right now, but they're going to play Turner because of that contract. That said, a dude like Ware is an absolute matchup nightmare for this Pacers team. We don't have anyone to match up against a guy like that. His speed around the rim killed the Pacers.

3. On the offensive rebounding issue, Milwaukee was just crashing the boards faster and harder.

4. Hali looked exhausted from the third quarter on. When he wasn't in the game he had ice on his hamstring and was on the bike.

5. It felt like a couple of the players were frustrated with the substitution patterns last night. At least once, I think twice, Rick called for Slawson and ended up putting someone else in.

6. We really missed Nembhard as a second ball handler once Rollins started picking up Hali full court. Q allowed the D to sag more than Nembhard would.

7. You could just tell that they were worn down in the second half last night. They were going to live or die by the three in that second half because I don't think they had the legs to take it to the hoop. A frustrating loss, but I have to give the Bucks credit. They didn't pack it in when they went down 10, and under the circumstances they really could have.

Edit

1. One more thing to add. Rick huddled with his assistant coaches for about a full minute before he pulled all the starters and put in the bench. I don't know if he was sending a message but it sure felt like it.

I member

I have two and can't go. If you can go, and especially if you are taking a kid to the game, please let me know and ill transfer the tix.🤙

1. We have a great starting big man, then we have a solid 3rd string big man (Huff), and finally we have a guy who should be playing in the Big 3 (Nance).

2. Jarace Walker has not shown anywhere near enough for me to stick around. The good news he has a nice $8mil contract that is very tradeable and very expiring.

3. I'm slightly concerned about TJ, I know we are looking for that next guard via the draft. First with Kam Jones and now Braden Smith, but I feel like we need to have a look at players already in the league.

4. James Johnson will fix everything when he signs his standard non-guaranteed deal in early November.