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The Indiana Pacers play a very unique style of play in the NBA. They are one of the fastest teams in the league, as they love to get up and down the floor so they can score before defenses get set up.
While the Pacers do shoot a lot of threes, they also sprinkle in some midrange shots. They aren’t strictly a layup or 3-pointer team like a lot of other teams are around the league.
There have been some concerns that too many teams play alike. Rick Carlisle doesn’t seem to believe in that criticism of the NBA.
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While he was talking to Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote, Carlisle criticized the thought that NBA teams are too homogenized.
Do all NBA teams play the same?Is the NBA becoming too homogenized?
Our answers: https://t.co/682Rtp7oVx pic.twitter.com/MHrQcxQkGG
— Caitlin Cooper (@C2_Cooper) August 5, 2025
“I disagree with that, and I’ve experienced that really over, I’m going into 24 years as a head coach. I mean, things have changed a lot. I think high pick-and-roll at the end of the game is something we’ll always see some form of.”
Carlisle believes that sentiment is only shared by people who are looking for something to complain about.
“I would also write that off to people who are a bunch of glass-half-empty people. I can’t view the game like that and I can’t view our team like that.”
The Pacers certainly don’t play like any other team in the league. They have so many possible options in the half-court that it’s impossible to say they just shoot layups and 3’s.
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Indiana plays a random brand of basketball, and that is very intentional. Carlisle wants his team to be hard to predict, and that’s exactly what they are on a game-to-game basis.
Sometimes, they will have Tyrese Haliburton run a high pick-and-roll. Other times, they’ll throw the ball to Pascal Siakam in the post. Other times, Andrew Nembhard will slither into the paint for a midrange jumper.
All of those things show that the NBA game is varied from team to team, because no one else plays with as much randomization as the Pacers do.
Carlisle is the architect of this style of play and has been building it for years. Other teams have their own philosophy when it comes to playing offense.
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For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, visit Indiana Pacers on SI.
