Copy the best-run franchises
The Thunder and Pacers know things
Over the weekend we asked TrueHoop subscribers to send in Finals questions, which opened a portal into all kinds of Finals talk. Today: why the whole league should be copying the Pacers and Thunder.
HENRY: There are several questions that are basically along the lines of, what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two coaching staffs?
DAVID: The Pacers have a superstar coach on the sidelines in Jenny Boucek. She's basically managing the defense. It's impossible to argue that they're not significantly improved on that end. And you have to give the head coach credit, and you have to give the players credit. Tyrese, specifically, Andrew's in year three. Nesmith is in his second year as a full-time starter, and that's when their defense took off, when those two guys came back.
You know, everyone's talked about them being 10 and 15 to start the year, but Nesmith and Nembhard were out. Since January 1, they’re fourth in the league in wins. And so this has been a powerful team for a long time. They’ve lost four total games in the playoffs, same as OKC. They beat a five seed, a three seed and a one seed, after this same group of starters beat a three seed and a two seed last postseason. So, four “upsets” in two seasons–how often has that happened in a two year window?.
I know the West is allegedly stronger, but the Thunder’s path was easier. The Grizzlies fired Taylor Jenkins and the Nuggets fired Mike Malone.
With what Coach Boucek and Rick Carlisle have done with their defense this season is a big deal. Ninth in defensive rating in 2025, .9 points per 100 possessions away from fourth-ranked Orlando, a team everyone respects for their gritty D. Boucek should be a candidate to be a head coach going forward.
The Pacers had a very good success rate with challenges until the last couple of games. I don't think they had lost one of the playoffs until Game 4, if they had it was not often. Mike Weinar is an assistant coach who was with Billy Donovan for years when they were winning championships. He's super sharp and in charge of “yea or nay” when Carlisle looks to the bench for guidance on whether or not to challenge. But obviously Rick is the guy.
He has had a transformation as a coach. People from Dallas are astonished at just what he's become.
I think his new approach is just looking at personnel. You have Tyrese Halliburton and a bunch of racers–why shouldn't you play fast and why shouldn't you stack actions together and play that way? And especially now with with Nembhard moving into the starting lineup the way he did his rookie season, and having experience with it, and then getting Siakam, which obviously was key
They’re good at it. If you look at the top five players assist-to-turnover ratio in the playoffs, three Pacers (Haliburton, Nembhard, and Siakam) are in the top five with Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. When you can have three playmakers that are high IQ, low turnover guys, and gifted, willing passers, then you should always play the way the Pacers are playing. Rick deserves a lot of credit for that, and (we've already written this) they've set a model that more teams are gonna start to copy.
They call it BlurBall, right? You heard Kenny Atkinson say “the league has become this,” and he wondered if his team can match that level of intensity. Rick has built this system that the rest of the league copies.
I give Carlisle credit for something else—he plays his best players rather than his highest picks. Nembhard has been a point guard his entire career, but Carlisle likes two playmakers in his backcourt, so his second-round pick from Gonzaga three summers ago beat out Chris Duarte for a starting spot at shooting guard even though Duarte was named to the second team All-Rookie the year prior after getting drafted in the lottery range, then beat our Benn Mathurin all three seasons despite Mathurin (as Duarte before him) being a prototypical “two” as a position. Not many head coaches are willing to rock the boat like that. His relationship with the Pacers brass, Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan, seems beyond strong. It is their lottery picks (add Jarace Walker to that list) that spend time playing behind men drafted later than them and management has not made that feel weird. Of course, I’m sure Carlisle is more than appreciative that those two men landed great players like Tyrese, Pascal, Nesmith, and Obi Toppin in trades, too.
Then go to the other side. I mean, I think Mark Daigneault is the single best coach in the league at human development. And you've got Chip Engelland as the shooting coach. It's very clear to me that what they've done in player development has been league leading. It's really been very impressive the way they developed their players, not just shooting, it's playing. Mark has real trust with his guys.
Sam Presti deserves credit as well. For Shai to be as patient as he's been, as he's grown as a player, I got to give Mark a ton of credit. His guys really have bought into the system for some time now, and that isn't so easy in this game.
We were reporting about the acrimony between Denver’s Calvin Booth and Mike Malone while they were winning a championship. Even when they were last in the standings OKC didn’t have drama. Their approach is the envy of the league.
Daigneault too deserves credit for playing guys that help the team regardless of salary or draft status. From Lu Dort, for years, to the plethora of guys who come at opponents in waves in the second unit, the Thunder are not just three lotto picks and then a bunch of former first round pick vets.
It's a very interesting snapshot. When Denver was winning, well, they had the best player in the world by a mile. That's not so easy for other teams to duplicate. But what OKC and Indy are doing? Hello! There should be neon posters all over 30 NBA cities. You can do this without the best player in the world. SGA is amazing, but they helped make him this superstar.
Justin Kubatko just published on Statitudes: “With a games-weighted average age of 25.4 years (based on age in years and days on the day of each playoff game), the Thunder are the third-youngest team in history to reach the NBA Finals.”
These teams are not in the luxury tax. This is what other teams should absolutely reverse engineer. What did Indiana and OKC do to get to where they are?
HENRY: There are all these players who could succeed in this system, who are available cheaply.
DAVID: Indiana is in a position now where there's a lot of talk that they're going to have to go into the tax. Maybe! We don't know yet. Can we wait and see? In theory, they have to, because if they're going to pay Myles Turner with the Nembhard extension kicking in, adding to max deals for Tyrese and Siakam … it gets close. But there really might be bargains available to fill out the roster.
Rick can get the best out of many different players. Nesmith is extension eligible, but even that extension will be a bargain for the Pacers, and Aaron may take it. Jarace Walker has shown signs. Mathurin can absolutely be a guy who scored 20 points. He broke an all-time NBA playoff record for points per minute. He scored more points and fewer minutes than anyone in the history of the NBA Playoffs.
I have no idea what’ll happen in the draft, and no one else does either, but the Thunder could dominate this draft if they want. Yep, they can move in more. They can move out more. They can package players with picks to do whatever the hell they want, and they can go get players. They'll be able to manage their money really well. But still, you've got a major bill coming, because Chet and Jalen will get max extensions.
HENRY: So this actually gets into another question that we have, which is basically, last summer, a lot of people wanted the Thunder to make a trade for a big-name player, and they didn't. Do we now know that was smart. You know, would should they still consider doing that? And if so, who?
DAVID: I said all along that I think Giannis is the perfect partner for Chet. He fits with what they do, and he is an amazing complement to a perimeter based player like Chet. I don't know if they should do it or not. I do think that fits amazing. (I also thought Siakam was a great fit. But then he went to Indiana.)
There's no way the Thunder knew what was coming but now it's the most physical league it has been in years and they’re perfectly designed for it. The 2019 Raptors were huge underdogs against Golden State, and only won because of all those injuries.
But I'm telling you, if that series were played over again with the way the refs are calling it whistles now, man, the Raptors might sweep the Warriors–because that Toronto team was incredible at causing chaos.
Siakam was 24. OG was young. You had Marc Gasol in the middle, and then you had Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry on the perimeter. Oh my goodness. Oh, and Kawhi too! It was harder because they called fouls back then.
We’ve had different models. Boston had a million All-Stars, the Mavericks had Luka. This is a different model but it's more duplicatable, and it's what everyone should be doing.
HENRY: It's based on a really good front office, long-term vision, really good coaching, a lot of trust between the players and the coaching staff. And it is not based on a whole bunch of money, which means it's kind of the meritocracy that we always wished would work in the NBA–but didn’t work because you couldn’t go out and get your own LeBron.
But now it's like, oh, look, there's a way you can do it. That feels like a big win.
DAVID: I couldn't agree more. I can imagine Adam Silver telling 28 teams, “guys, don't let me hear about your small market. Don't let me hear you about doing payroll, your tax. This is what's possible. You may think it's not possible, but you'd be wrong.”
The other teams just didn’t do as well. Now we know that the Pacers won the Haliburton trade, where the Kings got Domantas Sabonis.
HENRY: This is the point. Indy’s front office, they were better. They just did a better job.
DAVID: I totally agree with you. When they got Tyrese, he wasn't going to be a max player. When they got Siakam, he wasn't going to be a max player. And their culture and their system made them superstars. The Thunder nabbed Shai before it was clear he was on an MVP path. We all thought he was a good player, and everyone could see that. But nobody could have predicted this.
They’ve also correctly assessed their problems. The Thunder went and got Hartenstein to solve a problem, just like the Pacers got Nesmith and Siakam to solve problems. The Pacers didn’t give up outlandish amounts in those trades.
We should mention that both these teams are essentially the same as last year. Tyrese Haliburton has said this publicly multiple times now. “Management let us run it back.” Remember, a year ago, everyone just knew the Pacers were another Atlanta Hawks. Remember? Yep, one magical run.
Well, they got another shot at it and they’re in the NBA Finals.
I think OKC has done a better job developing their draft picks than anyone else. Adam Silver should be telling everyone, don't bitch and moan. Just do your jobs better. Any team can do what the Pacers and Thunder did.
HENRY: They didn't waver, right? The Pacers had Rick's BlurBall vision in Indiana, and Presti had the Thunder Way or whatever. And when better players became available, they could have switched their strategies, but didn’t.
DAVID: Both could have panicked after losing their final game last year and chased another star. I've talked to a president of a team whose team is middling, with upside. He told me that when agents tell him that “you should kick around with some deals that would turn your team immediately into contenders,” he responds “I just want us to grow. We’ll fill holes when we see those holes later.” I think that's OKC that they're copying.
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Great answers and information--thanks!