RECAPPING THE OFFSEASON:

5 months have passed since the Pacers concluded their worst regular season ever. A miserable season of injuries, bad luck, poor performances, and measles. The light at the end of that tunnel was meant to be a top 4 pick with the best prospects the NBA has seen this decade but the lottery betrayed us. Dreams of Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson, and AJ Dybantsa faded away. To compound the misery, we then watched as the Knicks won the championship, the East and the Spurs rolling over and dying with little resistance. Watching the parade through New York City and thinking of Ty's achilles tearing, slamming his fist on the floor through tears.

Should have been us.

The offseason progressed all the same though, the draft came and went. Braden Smith joined the team on a two-way contract after an underwhelming Summer League showing, maybe the Boom will provide a better opportunity for his skills to shine. Regardless, it is unlikely the former Purdue guard contributes to the team this year, if ever. The Pacers did manage to make a pair of free agency additions in Kelly Oubre, a surprisingly positive addition, and Larry Nance Jr., considered a personality hire more than a contributor. Micah Potter getting the boot to make that happen. Since those moves, it has been rather quiet for the team with most of the news being about Huff or Ty having added muscle or Johnny Furphy running in an empty gym. Such is the offseason at this point.

Expectations for the team vary, many "experts" seem down on the Pacers chances and intimating that the Finals run was a fluke, ignoring a ECF run the prior year. If you don't iso score to losses, are you really a winner? Sure, you get the win but do you look flashy doing it? Anyways, the East should be more competitive this year with teams like the Wizards, Sixers, and Hawks improving, the Magic changing coaches, and less incentive for tanking. Still, the Pacers should be in familiar territory as a team and as underdogs. They love the having that chip on their shoulder, it fuels their very souls with energy. As the opponent's legs grow heavy, the Pacers run all the same.

No one fears the Pacers until they have to beat the Pacers.

Pacers Roster: (2026-2027)

PG: Tyrese Haliburton, TJ McConnell, Braden Smith (TW)

SG: Andrew Nembhard, Kelly Oubre, Ben Sheppard, Quenton Jackson

SF: Aaron Nesmith, Jarace Walker, Kobe Brown (TW)

PF: Pascal Siakam, Obi Toppin, Johnny Furphy, Jalen Slawson (TW)

C: Ivica Zubac, Jay Huff, Larry Nance Jr.

TOURNAMENT RECAP AND INFORMATION:

Last season, NortheastNightmare won the Prediction Tournament to join Dwaink as the only two champions thus far. I will admit I was a little hopeful for a sports curse to spawn, it would have been a funny for him to lead all season again just to lose at the end but he could not be denied. For his efforts, he got a nifty jersey and bragging rights around these parts. Congratulations to him once again.

This year the tournament will run much the same as last season. I am keeping the four segments aspect of the tournament, I liked how that worked out for last season. I will be adjusting the extra points for each position down this year from the (5-3-1) for first, second, and third to a simpler (3-2-1) system. Should keep it a bit more competitive hopefully.

Next I have removed the pop-up prediction games. I had too many people missing out on those just because they didn't happen to open up the site over a few days.

Aside from that, the overall scoring has shifted somewhat. If you get the season record on the dot, it will still be worth 10 points but missing by one game has been reduced from 7 points to 5 points. Subsequent games missed see the point total reduce until you reach 6+ games where you earn zero points.

The spreadsheet has been updated this year, made some color and minor format changes. I added notations for notable games next to the outcome column. Stuff like B2Bs, a game in Mexico, and Cup games. I would ask people not to change the color of the player names at the top this year but you are free to change the color of the white space where you make your game predictions, I would even encourage it.

Scoring Rules:

1 point will be awarded for every correct game prediction

10 points will be awarded for a correct season W/L record

5 points for missing by one game

4 for missing by 2 games

3 for missing by 3 games

2 for missing by 4 games.

1 for missing by 5 games.

0 for 6+ games..

For the 4 season segments the scoring will go as follows:

First place in each segment will receive 3 extra points

Second place in each segment will receive 2 extra points

Third place in each segment will receive 1 extra point

Link for the Prediction Tournament Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o94wcEOa_slkcZfpnj1A5BC6068Dx0rIOQOq3kJBPk4/edit?usp=sharing

The sheet will be open until October 21st, 2026, it will close when the season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans starts.

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