{"id":706986,"date":"2026-06-01T03:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706986\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T03:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:05:09","slug":"future-draft-picks-indiana-pacers-can-trade-after-draft-lottery-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706986\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Draft Picks Indiana Pacers Can Trade After Draft Lottery Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2013 The Indiana Pacers don\u2019t have a single pick in the 2026 NBA Draft<\/a>. They traded away their first-round selection back in February, officially losing it during this month\u2019s NBA Draft Lottery<\/a>. Their second rounder is owned by the Memphis Grizzlies thanks to a string of transactions that started back in 2021. That leaves the Pacers as one of two teams (Portland Trail Blazers) without a selection in the coming draft as of now.<\/p>\n

The Pacers would have loved to get a top-four pick in the 2026 draft. It is considered a strong group of prospects at the top. But they lost the pick, sending it to the Los Angeles Clippers in a trade to acquire Ivica Zubac<\/a>, and now have to pivot. One way they can do so is trading other draft picks.<\/p>\n

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They have more available now despite losing their pick this year. President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard hinted at this when speaking to reporters just after his franchise was hit with poor lottery luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some flexibility. We have five of our next six years [of first-round draft picks],\u201d Pritchard said. \u201cSome of those trades where it\u2019s four and five and six picks, they\u2019re out. They\u2019re done. They\u2019ve shoved their chips in and they\u2019re done. And we\u2019ve got a full slate, five out of six.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can the Pacers do with their future first-round picks now?<\/p>\n

Teams are able to trade first-round picks that are as far out as seven drafts away. Right now, the 2026 draft is included in that calculation, though it won\u2019t be the instant that draft ends. So after the Pacers\u2019 lottery loss, they were left with five of their next six first rounders after 2026 \u2013 they own 2027, 2028, 2030, 2031, and 2032.<\/p>\n

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The 2029 pick is missing from that listing. It, too, was sent to the Clippers in the aforementioned Zubac deal. It\u2019s completely unprotected, so there\u2019s no way the Pacers can get it, even with lottery luck. And, of course, their 2026 pick is in LA\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Indiana hasn\u2019t made a first-round selection since 2023, when they selected Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard. In the interim, they traded their 2024 first rounder for Pascal Siakam and their 2025 top pick to re-acquire, then later flip, their 2026 selection. It\u2019s been a long time since the blue and gold made one of the first 30 choices.<\/p>\n

They won\u2019t have a chance until the 2027 draft. As of now, they aren\u2019t allowed to move their 2027 first rounder, but they will by the end of June. That\u2019s because of an NBA rule that permits a team from not holding a first-round pick in consecutive drafts.<\/p>\n

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\"2023<\/p>\n

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 22: Bilal Coulibaly (R) poses with NBA commissioner Adam Silver (L) after being drafted seventh overall pick by the Indiana Pacers during the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 22, 2023 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The timing of the NBA Draft is a critical component of that rule, known as the Stepien Rule. Named after former NBA owner Ted Stepien, the rule is as stated above: NBA teams must hold at least one first round pick in every other draft, at least, for the upcoming seven drafts. At the time of this writing, that covers the 2026 through 2032 drafts. When the 2026 NBA Draft is over on June 24, that rule will cover the 2027 through 2033 events.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a key distinction for the Pacers. Right this second, they cannot trade their 2027 first-round pick since they don\u2019t have one in the upcoming 2026 draft. But they will be able to move their 2027 top pick once next month\u2019s draft is over. And at that time, something else happens that Pritchard mentioned.<\/p>\n

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Once the 2026 NBA Draft ends, teams will be able to move their 2033 first-round picks. Their willingness to do so is tough to say after the NBA\u2019s lottery reform, but it\u2019s at least a possibility. And that pick being moveable would make it so the Pacers would have four first-round picks that could be moved in deals.<\/p>\n

From June 25 onward, the Pacers could trade their 2027, 3031, 2032, and 2033 first-round selections. They could not move all four of them \u2013 trading all of 2031, 2032, and 2033 at the same time would not be allowed thanks to the aforementioned Stepien rule. But the 2027, 2031, and 2033 picks could all be moved in the same deal, as could the option to swap picks in any other year.<\/p>\n

Pritchard somewhat noted all of this on social media<\/a> well before the NBA Draft Lottery. While the Pacers would undeniably have preferred to keep a top-four pick in this year\u2019s draft via that lottery drawing, they retained their 2031 pick by losing the 2026 selection. That does offer some future trade flexibility.<\/p>\n

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How the Pacers use that optionality will be telling. They have a window to contend right now. Dealing some future picks for win-now talent would improve their chances at success. Yet their youth pipeline is shrinking. If the team does want to trade for young talent or add a solid veteran, they have the picks to do it.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2013 The Indiana Pacers don\u2019t have a single pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. They traded away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[42510,24621,10427,49,48,42505,2697,14418,95838,42504,1522,1527,15718,459,64861,17317,14614,6683,82],"class_list":["post-706986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ben-sheppard","tag-bilal-coulibaly","tag-brooklyn","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-draft-picks","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-jarace-walker","tag-kevin-pritchard","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft-lottery","tag-nba-draft","tag-pascal-siakam","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}