The Indiana Pacers have been slapped with blatant disrespect in an early outlook for next season.
The Indiana Pacers suffered through a brutal 2025-26 NBA season. Just one year removed from taking the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7 in the NBA Finals, the Pacers went 19-63 and came nowhere near the playoffs.
Adding insult to injury, Indiana lost its first-round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the trade for Ivica Zubac.
Heading into the upcoming 2026 NBA offseason, the Pacers have work to do. They just watched the New York Knicks, a team they have eliminated from the playoffs in each of the last two years, win a championship. That should give Indiana a push to be ultra-aggressive this offseason.
Of course, the biggest part of the team's lack of winning this season was due to Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles injury. He missed the entire season after tearing his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
With that being said, ESPN clearly isn't buying the hype of the Pacers being a top-tier championship contender next season even with Haliburton back at full health.
In their early look at power rankings for the 2026-27 NBA season, Indiana wasn't named in the top-10. Instead, the Pacers were ranked No. 11.
Ahead of Indiana were the Thunder at No. 2, the San Antonio Spurs at No. 2, the Knicks at No. 3, the Boston Celtics at No. 4, the Detroit Pistons at No. 5, the Denver Nuggets at No. 6, the Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 7, the Minnesota Timberwolves at No. 8, the Los Angeles Lakers at No. 9, and the Houston Rockets at No. 10.
That left the Pacers as the perceived No. 5 team in the Eastern Conference.
No one in Indiana is a stranger to the team being overlooked. Each and every year, the Pacers are constantly undervalued by the national media. Next season will be more of the same.
Despite that fact, Indiana has continued to embrace the role of underdog. The Pacers embraced that role all the way to the NBA Finals two years ago.
Hopefully, the return of Haliburton and the rest of the roster will be ready to rise to the challenge once again. There would be nothing sweeter than to see Indiana return to the NBA Finals and finish the job during the 2026-27 season.
