Why Are The Pacers Dealing With So Many Hamstring Injuries Already?
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 11: Aaron Nesmith #23 and Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers celebrate in the second quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game Four of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 11, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
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Getty ImagesINDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers have only played seven games in the 2026-27 season, yet the defining characteristic of their early-season games has already been decided: Poor health.
Sunday night, the Pacers fell to the previously-winless Brooklyn Nets and scored just 90 points. Asked postgame about offensive struggles in the loss, head coach Rick Carlisle brought up the injury report.
“We’re missing a lot of guys,” he said. “That makes it hard.”
In that outing, the Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac, two of their top players and key starters. Their projected bench group was missing T.J. McConnell, Ben Sheppard, and Obi Toppin. Reserve forward Johnny Furphy, who suffered a torn ACL last season, is still sidelined.
With six of their 17 players out, the Pacers don’t have as much high end talent and are missing much of their depth. That depth, plus Haliburton’s brilliance, made their winning ways possible in recent seasons.
While a few of their injuries happened at clear moments in basketball settings (Furphy’s ACL, Zubac’s ankle after landing on a teammate, Toppin’s back avoiding a flying basketball during a shootaround), most of the team’s ailments are hamstring issues. Haliburton and McConnell are both currently out due to hamstring injuries. Quenton Jackson, Larry Nance Jr, and Aaron Nesmith have also missed time with hamstring problems for the Pacers this year.
The Pacers changed their offseason approach to conditioning in an attempt to avoid this specific outcome. They didn’t make the playoffs last season and had a long summer, so the team designed a longer ramp-up approach to the 2026-27 season. “I think just the way we prepared through the summer, tracking our load management stuff,” Haliburton said of the differences from past offseasons. “Obviously dealt with a lot of soft tissue stuff over the last year and a half, two years. So just trying to manage all those things the correct way.”
The Pacers could be without as many as 10 players tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. This is the second-straight season in which the opening weeks of the campaign have been defined by absences. And hamstrings have been the majority of those injuries.
What, exactly, is the cause of this? The Pacers want to find out, especially after they tried to avoid this problem. “I guarantee you every team’s looking into it and studying it as best they can,” Carlisle said.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 21: Head coach Rick Carlisle of the Indiana Pacers looks on during the second half of an NBA game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center on October 21, 2026 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesWhy have there been more hamstring injuries for the Pacers this year?
The veteran head coach, like so many, has several theories as to why there are so many muscle injuries on his roster. It’s a trend across the league, but it’s hitting the Pacers harder than anyone – particularly with their hamstring problems.
“There’s a lot of speculation about (the) reasons why there have been a lot of injuries. I think generally, if you look at the league the last couple of years, there have been quite a few early in the season. The game is fast and not slowing down,” Carlisle began when asked about the many hamstring-related absences hitting his team.
“There’s a school of thought that summer training has to evolve to the way the game is played now. A lot of training with trainers, one-on-one, one-on-zero, it’s a running game and it’s a running and speed game,” Carlisle continued. “So it’s a different kind of conditioning than it’s ever been. That’s something that’s logical to me.”
Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote pointed out that after about a week of the ongoing NBA season, teams were averaging (all references in the player tracking era);
• The most possessions per game,
• The shortest average possession length,
• The highest average pickup distance (defending opposing players farther from the basket they are trying to score on), and,
• The most possessions with at least three offensive players crashing the glass for rebounds.
In short, the game requires more movement and physicality than it has before. That’s hard on players, especially over an 82-game season with more than a dozen instances in which teams play on back-to-back nights.
Nesmith is one Pacers player who has missed time due to a hamstring issue. He had a minutes restriction during the team’s first back-to-back this season and won’t play tonight as the team manages his injury. He was out for the team’s home opener, too.
Before the Pacers took on the 76ers last week, Nesmith was using a massage gun on his hamstring as he fielded questions about why there have been so many injuries to that body part for his team. “I think teams are playing a lot harder and a lot faster,” he began.
“There are a lot more possessions in our game now. I think that just takes a different kind of wear and tear on the body that guys [need] to get used to,” Nesmith added.
He shared that the Pacers had discussions about coming into this season physically ready for how the Pacers want to play: Fast and physical. Even with a new approach to the offseason, players still went down with hamstring injuries early on.
“I think it’s more inevitable than anything,” Nesmith said. “I think that you just can’t replace game reps [and] game speed. If everybody’s playing that way, you’ve got to keep up.”
It takes time to get used to that game speed and acclimate one’s body. The Pacers – perhaps as coincidence, perhaps strategically – have been much healthier to close seasons than to start them. Last year, it took until December for the team to feel even close to whole.
In Nesmith’s eyes, it takes about 20 games for his body to really adjust to what is being asked of it. Along the way, he and others feel the impact of a speedy, demanding game.
“The game is played differently and something’s gotta give. The body can only take so much and the floor doesn’t give,” Marques Johnson, a five-time All-Star and Milwaukee Bucks broadcaster that played almost 60 years ago, told CBS Sports.
Inevitable or not, the Pacers are hit hard by injuries for the second-straight season. With expectations back for the blue and gold after a 19-win campaign, they need to get healthy and find ways to win. “Right now, like right after the game, not great,” Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard said when asked how he feels about the losing and injuries after being excited for this season. “But the NBA moves quick, so flip the page. Tomorrow, we’ve got to come in and work… It’s very early. There’s still a lot of excitement within our group of us getting better and peaking at the right time.”
This article was originally published on Forbes.com