Obi Toppin Out Months, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl Joins Injured Pacers

The Indiana Pacers signed forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a 10-day hardship contract over the weekend. Hardship contracts are granted as an exception to teams that need them given their injury outlook, and the Pacers are currently a team that qualifies.

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

It speaks to his ability, and the Pacers current health reality, that he debuted on the same day he inked his contract. Robinson-Earl spent preseason and training camp with the Dallas Mavericks but wasn’t able 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. “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 waived last week. Obi Toppin, the team’s backup power forward and a useful center, is out for months. Suddenly, the Pacers were light in the front court – even when Furphy did end up playing they had minutes for Robinson-Earl.

Why the Pacers signed Robinson-Earl

It speaks to the team’s health situation. T.J. McConnell, Kam Jones, and Tyrese Haliburton have yet to play in a game this season while Quenton Jackson, Taelon Peter, Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, Furphy, and Andrew Nembhard have all missed games due to injury this season. The Pacers have played just six games.

Indiana is only able to sign Robinson-Earl because they are so injured. For a team to be eligible for the 10-day hardship exception, they have to have a 15-man roster as well as four players who have missed three consecutive games and won’t return for at least two more weeks. Nembhard, Mathurin, Haliburton, Jones, and McConnell had all missed three-straight games when Indiana added Robinson-Earl.

Now, the Pacers get reinforcements. But they only get those reinforcements because they are down so much talent. A big theme for the Pacers this season has been injuries – they’ve had to be creative with lineups all year because of them and already made a move to re-balance their roster (the aforementioned Wiseman waiver allowed the team to bring in guard Mac McClung).

Nembhard, Jones, and McConnell and trending toward a return – the later two will have their status updated on November 9. Mathruin, as of last Tuesday, is week-to-week with a toe injury. Haliburton is, of course, out for the entire season with a torn Achilles. And Toppin is now joining Haliburton on the bench for a while.

Toppin, an athletic forward in his third season with the Pacers, has been diagnosed with a partial stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot. It will require surgery, meaning the earliest Toppin could return is in February.

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

Toppin, Haliburton, Mathurin, McConnell, and Nembhard were all among the top-nine in minutes per game for Indiana last season. So was 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 last year’s Eastern Conference winning group’s top-nine. Injuries have decimated the team early. They’re a major factor in the Pacers 1-5 start.

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

The Pacers are proud of their depth and what they have built over the last few years. They’ve managed their assets well to always have someone ready to step up during injuries. But they’ve hit a difficult patch to open this season in that they have so many injuries, both to their starters and their depth, that building a normal rotation has been almost impossible.

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

That’s why they added McClung and, after Toppin went down, brought in Robinson-Earl. Carlisle can field a rotation of players all playing their natural role, and Indiana will hope that’s enough to grab a few more wins while they get healthy.

Robinson-Earl’s 10-day deal will end on November 10. The Pacers will incur a $131k cap hit from the agreement.