Rick Carlisle Signs Contract Extension With Indiana Pacers After Postseason Success

Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, center, celebrates after his team won Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle has agreed to a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in Indianapolis. He was originally hired by the Pacers in the summer of 2021.

Since then, the team has steadily improved. Their regular season win total has climbed every year since Carlisle’s first, with Indiana finishing 50-32 in 2024-25. They had home court advantage in the playoffs for the first time since 2014 this past season.

In the postseason, Carlisle has been excellent during his current stint with the Pacers. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals as the sixth seed in 2024, then the NBA Finals earlier this year. Having a 5-2 record in postseason series is remarkable and has changed the outlook of the franchise.

“Since his return to the Pacers in 2021, Coach Carlisle has been integral to our success, which includes leading us to consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances and our first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years,” Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said.

The contract extension comes two years after Carlisle’s last new deal with the Pacers. He received an extension in 2023 after steadily improving the team’s fortunes via success and players development – and since then he has continued to win games. Indiana is 97-67 since their head coach last signed an extension.

He is the winningest coach in the NBA portion of the Pacers franchise history with 338 victories. No other coach has more than 250 (Frank Vogel), though legendary coach Slick Leonard has 529 in total when counting ABA wins.

Why the Pacers wanted to keep Rick Carlisle

Wins have always followed Carlisle, who is 11th all time in victories by an NBA head coach and will reach 1,000 this season. He’s guided eight teams to 50+ wins in a single campaign, has a Coach of the Year honor under his belt, and has been the head man in the NBA Finals twice – including a championship with Dallas in 2011.

Winning is priority number one for the Pacers, and Carlisle does that. The traits that have made him the right coach for the franchise in recent years go beyond that, though. His creativity, for example, often sets up his teams for success while also forcing his players to become more versatile.

He, along with the play of star guard Tyrese Haliburton, has set an identity for the Pacers, something the team was lacking prior to Carlisle’s arrival. They play fast, physically, and in a way that’s random to their opponents but comfortable to them.

Beyond the strategy, Carlisle has improved tremendously as a player development coach in recent years. He acknowledged an increasing love for one-on-one skill work with young players a few years ago, and that has continued for he and his staff even as wins kept coming for the Pacers.

“Rick has been phenomenal for me,” Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said in 2023. He has developed tremendously and has been given more playing time with Indiana after being traded to the franchise from the Boston Celtics. He, along with Jalen Smith, Obi Toppin, Jordan Nwora, and Haliburton represent a list of young players that came to the blue and gold from other franchises and improved quickly. James Wiseman and Jay Huff hope to be next, and Carlisle will be guiding them.

That doesn’t even account for the likes of Andrew Nembhard, Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin, Jarace Walker and other Pacers draftees that have grown under the team’s current coaching staff. All four of those players have important seasons coming as Indiana enters a season with lowered expectations thanks to Haliburton’s injury. Having a coach who can develop those talents further while still racking up wins is exactly what the Pacers should want right now, and they added to Carlisle’s deal largely because of those abilities.

“(Owners) Herb Simon, the Simon family, Steven Rales, Kevin Pritchard and our players make Indiana such a special place,” Carlisle said of his new extension. “Let’s go!”