Why NBA stars are suffering Achilles injuries
After Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles early in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, Daniel J. Kaplan, MD, a Sports Orthopedic Surgeon with NYU Langone Health, joins Brandon London for the weekly 'Injury Report' segment to explain why basketball players are prone to suffering Achilles injuries.
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Indianapolis Star
32 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Six players the Pacers could target in the NBA Draft second round
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Pacers didn't have a first-round pick Wednesday's NBA Draft after trading it last week to the Pelicans to retrieve their 2026 first-round pick. However, Wednesday evening, they traded back into the draft to get another second-rounder, acquiring the No. 38 pick from the Spurs for a second-round pick from 2030 and cash. That means the Pacers have the No. 38 and No. 54 overall pick in the second round, which begins Thursday at 8 p.m. on ESPN. The Pacers could potentially use those picks for any type of players. If they re-sign center Myles Turner, they will return key players from their NBA Finals run at every position and they have enough depth that they might not necessarily need anyone they draft to play right away. However, with All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton likely to miss all of next season thanks to an Achilles tendon tear, they could use some depth at each spot. They will need a third point guard behind Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell, who will handle the job in Haliburton's absence. Bennedict Mathurin will likely move into the starting lineup at shooting guard, so the Pacers could use a wing to backfill that move and they could also use perimeter shooting with Haliburton having led the team with 218 3-pointers in 2024-25. And the Pacers could go in a number of directions for depth at center, and the draft is one of them. With that in mind, here are six players the Pacers could target with Round 1 in the books. The 6-10, 235-pound Broome was the only other unanimous Associated Press first-team All-America pick along with NBA No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg and helped lead Auburn to its second Final Four in school history. The 22-year-old Broome obviously doesn't have anywhere near Flagg's ceiling, but he has the frame, athleticism and motor to be a very effective backup center or power forward in the NBA. Broome averaged 18.6 points per game as a fifth-year senior, making 55.9% of his 2-point shots including 78.6% of his field goals at the rim according to He led the SEC in rebounding (10.8 per game) and blocks (2.1 per game) to earn SEC Player of the Year honors. He also averaged 2.9 assists per game, showing excellent feel for the game as a passer out of the post. He's not a great outside shooter, making just 30.2% of his career 3-pointers including 27.8% (25 of 90) in his fifth year. However, his motor on defense and at the glass and ability to score around the rim and pass should be enough for him to make an impact as a backup center and he should be game-ready to step in behind Turner or share minutes with Isaiah Jackson or Thomas Bryant if the Pacers decide to keep one of them. The 6-7, 210-pound Watkins blossomed in his last two years at Florida State after starting his career at Virginia Commonwealth, averaging 15.6 points per game as a junior and 18.4 as a senior to earn All-ACC honors. He has some offensive inefficiencies, shooting just 32.1% from 3-point range this season. However, he's a strong ball-handler and creator and perhaps most importantly for the Pacers, a long-armed, switchable defender. His wingspan is nearly 7-feet and he has a 37-inch vertical leap, so he can keep ball-handlers in front of him and rebound well for his position. He averaged 1.9 steals and 6.0 rebounds per game as a junior. He could give the Pacers a fourth multi-positional wing option off the bench behind Ben Sheppard, Jarace Walker and Johnny Furphy. The Pacers could use another player capable of handling the point beyond Nembhard and McConnell who could still serve a purpose after Haliburton returns. Jones fits that bill, having operated both as a shooting guard next to Tyler Kolek and then a starting point guard at Marquette. Jones can create off the bounce for himself or for others, and is an excellent passer and rim finisher. He averaged 17.2 points per game as a junior, but then as a senior Kolek went to the NBA, Jones averaged 19.2 points and 5.9 assists per game, career-highs in both categories. The 6-4, 185-pounder is a strong defender, willing to pick up ball-handlers full-court, and he averaged 1.4 steals per game as a senior. He is a streaky shooter. He made 40.6% of his 3-pointers as a junior but just 31.1% as a senior. He's been strong as a spot-up shooter but not as accurate shooting off the dribble and if the Pacers need him to handle the ball off the bench, that might be an issue. But he can give the Pacers another creator and pressure defender and as a third point guard, that's plenty. The Pacers might be able to wait until No. 54 to get Andrew's younger brother, but they might not considering how well he played at the NBA Draft Combine, following in his older brother's footsteps. Like Andrew, Ryan thrives by doing whatever his team requires and by making his teammates better. He led Division I in assists with 9.8 per game against just 2.5 turnovers per game, and he put pressure on the ball, averaging a West Coast Conference-leading 1.7 steals per game. After earning Big East Rookie of the Year honors at Creighton to start his career, Nembhard was named first-team All-West Coast Conference in each of his last two seasons at Gonzaga. He won at least one NCAA Tournament game in each of his four seasons, helping Creighton to the Elite Eight as a sophomore and Gonzaga to the Sweet 16 as a junior. One thing Ryan doesn't have that Andrew does have is size. While Andrew is listed at 6-5, 195 pounds, Ryan was measured at 5-11 without shoes at the NBA Draft Combine and 176 pounds. The lack of size will make it difficult for Ryan to defend multiple positions the way Andrew can, but he can run an offense and pressure the ball and that could give him a chance to make an NBA team and possibly the Pacers. The 6-7, 218-pound Thiero followed John Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas and broke out as a junior from Fayetteville. He averaged 15.6 points per game, more than double the 7.2 per game he averaged as a sophomore at Kentucky, but more importantly he established himself as one of the top wing defenders in the class. He's powerfully built with lateral quickness and good hands and a 7-foot wingspan, and that combination led to 1.6 steals per game in his junior year. Whoever lands him will certainly want to see better outside shooting from him as he made just 11 of 43 3-pointers this year (25.6%) and 21 of 74 for his career (28.4%). But his defense should be enough to get him on the floor as a second-unit wing. The 7-1, 235-pound Kalkbrenner's dominating length could make him an elite-level rim protector, not to mention an excellent lob finisher. He led the Big East in blocks in each of the last three seasons and field goal percentage the last four. He made 65.8% of his career field goals including 69.6% of his 2-point shots and averaged 2.4 blocks per game in his career including 2.7 per game this year.
USA Today
an hour ago
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After the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft was completed in Brooklyn, there was still plenty of talent left on the board for teams drafting on Day 2. Last year, there were several notable players selected on the second day of the 2024 NBA Draft in New York City. Those players included Johnny Furphy (Indiana Pacers), Tyler Kolek (New York Knicks), Kyle Filipowski (Utah Jazz), and Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies) were grabbed after the first night already concluded. For this exercise, we used my latest mock along with other mainstream mocks from the following publications (sorted alphabetically): Our scoring methodology was based on a trade value chart from ESPN's Kevin Pelton. The following rankings in parentheses are based on a consensus big board provided by our friends at Rookie Scale.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
NBA studying uptick of Achilles injuries
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday the league is studying a rash of recent Achilles tendon injuries, days after Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton became the latest player to be hobbled by such an injury in game seven of the NBA Finals. Silver, speaking to ESPN before the start of the NBA draft at the Brooklyn Nets' Barclays Center arena, said that there was no convincing evidence that the length of the NBA season was a factor, but that a range of causes are being studied. "We are looking at it," Silver said, "and in fact, we had already convened a panel of experts before Tyrese's most recent Achilles rupture. "So we had seven this year," he added. "We had zero last year under the exact same circumstances." He said the NFL had had a rash of Achilles injuries as well, and the purpose of convening the panel of experts "is to try to figure out what's going on." Haliburton was already playing with a sore calf when he was stricken in the title-deciding game seven against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who claimed their first title since moving to Oklahoma in 2008. The 25-year-old had surgery on Monday and is at risk of missing the entire 2025-26 campaign. Haliburton was the third player to suffer a torn Achilles in this post-season, after Boston's Jayson Tatum and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard. Critics point to the grueling 82-game regular season, but Silver said the most important thing was to try to find a pattern. "It's interesting, when we look back at the last 10 years the majority of the Achilles injuries have happened before the All-Star break, so it's not clear it's the number of games," he said. Silver said training players undertake in the off-season, and even stress on their bodies playing youth basketball -- before they ever even start their pro careers -- could be a factor. He suggested that Artificial Intelligence could eventually be a useful tool in pinpointing what needs to change. "This is one area where AI people are taking about how that's going to transform so many areas -- the ability with AI to ingest all video -- of every game a player has played in to see if you can detect there's some pattern that we didn't realize that leads to Achilles injury. "Whether it's associated with calf injuries we don't really know," he added. "But, look, we're taking it very seriously." bb/rcw
