The Indiana Pacers have been the most injury-plagued team in the NBA so far this season. They are missing five of their top seven players in the rotation, and even the backups to the backups have started going down. It’s the biggest reason why they have one of the worst offenses in basketball.
Indiana scores the seventh-fewest points in the league. Against the Bucks, the Pacers had two more players go down. Both Quenton Jackson and Johnny Furphy left the game with injuries, and neither returned. Both went straight to the locker room after suffering their respective injuries.
Head coach Rick Carlisle gave an injury update on both players ahead of a matchup against the Nets. It was yet another grim update, as neither player will be available for the foreseeable future.
The Indiana Pacers to Be Without Two Key Players For Weeks
According to Carlisle, both Jackson and Furphy will be out for quite a while. According to Tony East of Forbes, Carlisle indicated that they won’t play on the team’s upcoming road trip.
Furphy was seen leaving the arena after the Bucks game on crutches, which was an indication of just how serious his ankle injury is. Jackson is the second point guard to hurt his hamstring for the Pacers, as T.J. McConnell has yet to play this year due to a hamstring injury.
Without Jackson available, the Pacers will have to find another point guard to run the offense, which they are running very short of. They recently signed Mac McClung to be a third point guard, but now he might be thrust into a backup role.
Indiana will now be losing two guys who had started to come on in the last couple of games. Jackson had a career-high 25-point outburst against the Warriors. Furphy had just returned from an injury that had kept him from playing in all but just three games this season.
The Indiana Pacers Will Rely On Cody Martin For Valuable Minutes
With both Jackson and Furphy out, the Pacers will be forced to rely more on recently signed veteran Cody Martin. He will have to play real minutes for the team, and might have some ball-handling duties for them, as well. He has played in six NBA seasons.
Pascal Siakam is already being stretch very thin on the offensive end of the court, but he will have even more responsibility with even more ball-handlers on the roster missing time. Ben Sheppard will likely be tasked with playing more point guard, but RayJ Dennis is likely the biggest beneficiary.
He will be given more time to to run the team, even if he hasn’t quite developed his playmaking skills yet. Still, he will be on the court much more than Carlisle ever expected him to be when the season began. McClung might have to become the new backup.
The Pacers have already been granted two injury exceptions because of the rash of guys going down. They might be granted a third after this news.
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