Obi Toppin out for months, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl joins the injured Pacers

The Indiana Pacers signed forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a 10-day hardness contract during the weekend. Hardship contracts are exceptionally awarded to teams that need them given their injury prospects, and the Pacers are currently a qualifying team.

Robinson-Earl officially signed his contract on Saturday afternoon. Just hours later, he played in a game against Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. The then 24-year-old scored a rebound as his only stat during a five-point win over the Western Conference powerhouse.

It speaks to his ability, and to the Pacer’s current health reality, that he debuted the same day he signed his contract. Robinson-Earl spent the preseason and training camp with the Dallas Mavericks, but failed to crack their top-15 and make the regular season roster. He averaged 7.3 points per game in four tune-up games for Dallas.

“We needed someone with some size,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of Robinson-Earl. “A good opportunity for him, and an opportunity for us.”

When Robinson-Earl was signed, forward Johnny Furphy was still to be determined when it came to his status against Golden State. James Wiseman was fired last week. Obi Toppin, the team’s backup power and a useful center, has been out for months. Suddenly, the Pacers were light on the front court — even when Furphy finally played, they had minutes for Robinson-Earl.

Why the Pacers signed Robinson-Earl

It speaks about the health situation of the team. TJ McConnell, Kam Jones and Tyrese Haliburton have yet to play a game this season, while Quenton Jackson, Taelon Peter, Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, Furphy and Andrew Nembhard have all missed games this season due to injury. The Pacers have played just six games.

Indiana can only sign Robinson-Earl because they are so injured. To qualify for the 10-day hardship exception, a team must have a 15-man roster and four players who have missed three consecutive games and will not return for the next two weeks. Nembhard, Mathurin, Haliburton, Jones and McConnell had all missed three straight games when Indiana added Robinson-Earl.

Now the Pacers are getting reinforcements. But they only get those reinforcements because they lack so much talent. A big theme for the Pacers this season has been injuries. This has forced them to be creative with lineups all year, and they have already made a move to rebalance their roster (the aforementioned Wiseman waiver allowed the team to bring in Mac McClung at guard).

Nembhard, Jones and McConnell and are trending towards a return – the status of the latter two will be updated on November 9. Mathruin has been week in week out with a toe injury since last Tuesday. Haliburton is, of course, out for the entire season with a torn Achilles tendon. And Toppin has been on the bench at Haliburton for a while now.

Toppin, an athletic forward in his third season with the Pacers, has been diagnosed a partial stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot. It will require surgery, meaning Toppin wouldn’t be able to return until February at the earliest.

The 27-year-old played in all 82 games in his first season at Indiana and 79 last season. It’s a big absence for the blue and gold. Toppin is a talented shooter who can play multiple positions. He’s been out for months now, with his last game coming last Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Toppin, Haliburton, Mathurin, McConnell and Nembhard were all among the top nine in minutes per game for Indiana last season. So did Myles Turner, who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Only Ben Sheppard, Pascal Siakam and Aaron Nesmith are currently healthy and available for the Pacers from the top nine of last year’s Eastern Conference-winning group. Injuries decimated the team early. They are a major factor in the Pacers 1-5 start.

“We just have to focus on what we have and not what we don’t have,” Carlisle said last weekend. “We all have to be solution-oriented thinkers.”

The Pacers are proud of their depth and what they have built in recent years. They have managed their resources well so that there is always someone ready to respond to injuries. But they have hit a rough patch to open this season as they have so many injuries, both to their starters and their depth, that building a normal rotation has been nearly impossible.

In some games, the Pacers didn’t have a nominal point guard on the floor to open the game. In others they have played two, sometimes three, centers at the same time. They haven’t had better options. Those have been their most effective ways to build a credible rotation.

So they added McClung and, after Toppin went down, Robinson-Earl. Carlisle can field a rotation of players who all play their natural roles, and Indiana will hope that’s enough to pick up a few more wins as they get healthy.

Robinson-Earl’s 10-day deal expires on November 10. The Pacers will incur a $131,000 cap hit from the deal.