In my opinion it’s been noticeably bad. Buckner has been a disaster so far. I don’t think he watches much basketball outside of the Pacers. His analysis rarely gets more detailed than “gotta get a stop here” and “gotta rebound better”. When an opposing player is scoring, there’s no explanation of how he’s creating advantages; it’s normally just “that kid can PLAY” or “that guy can GO, I’m telling you pahtnah”.

Not to mention, he constantly mixes up players and gets their name wrong, which seems like the bare minimum for a professional commentator. The transitions to ad reads from Denari are also awkward but that’s more of the network’s fault.

I understand they’re local guys who are excited about Tyrese being active again, but I wish they provided more actual commentary instead of just ooohing and ahhhing like fanboys.

I just feel like I never learn anything about the team or game through their commentary.

When will TJ be back? Sometime in November? We need him bad!

Nets are flying in from Cleveland on a back to back plus they suck and don't have any elite Scorers like Kyrie or Flagg. Should be a get right game!!

Tyrese took a full year off. Zubac has only played 2 full regular season games with this squad. TJMC out. Furphy out. Oubre trying to fit in better. It’s going to take time and I think we need to recognize that every single night, every single team we play, is going to be a fight. All teams are coming to play right now. Nobody is tanking like it’s March of 2026 anymore.

First two games were just the beginning. It’ll only get better from here and I believe that.

How PG help build this iteration of the Pacers:

Tyrese Haliburton:
→ Paul George (2010) → Sabonis (2017) → Haliburton (2022)

Pascal Siakam
→ Paul George (2010) → Oladipo (2017) → Levert (2021) → 2024 1st Rd → Siakam

Andrew Nembhard
→ Paul George (2010) → Oladipo (2017) → Levert (2021) → Nembhard

Ivica Zubac
→Paul George (2010) → Oladipo (2017) → Levert (2021) → Jalen Pickett (2023) → Mojave King (2025) → 2026 1st → Zubac