With their eyes fixed on returning to contention after a season off for Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers had a shot at adding a top-four pick in this year’s NBA Draft, one of the deepest in league history.
Instead, they won’t have a first-round draft pick at all.
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The Pacers fell out of the top of Sunday’s NBA Draft lottery, and their pick that wasn’t protected outside of the top four will now fall to the Los Angeles Clippers via the Ivica Zubac trade.
The Pacers traded to acquire Zubac and Kobe Brown from the Clippers at the trade deadline. In return, they sent Los Angeles Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, a first-round pick in 2029, a future second-round pick — and Sunday’s first-round pick that ended up being No. 5 in a loaded draft. Now that pick belongs to the Clippers.
The result of the lottery and the end result of the trade prompted an apology from Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard on social media Sunday afternoon.
“I’m really sorry to all our fans,” Pritchard wrote. “I own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year.
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“I thought we were due some luck. But please remember — this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.”
Disaster for Pacers
The Pacers finished the season with the second-worst record in the NBA and had a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 52% chance of landing in the top four. They were tied with the Wizards and Brooklyn Nets for the second-shortest odds to do so. The lowest the Pacers could have landed in the lottery was pick No. 6.
Had they landed in the top four, they would have retained the pick. But the pick wasn’t protected for slots 5 and 6, and now the Clippers will have a premium draft pick with the chance to land a difference-maker from a deep draft.
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Why did Pacers do this?
The 76ers acquired Zubac in part to replace Myles Turner, who left in free agency last offseason to the rival Milwaukee Bucks. Turner’s exit alongside the Achilles tear that Haliburton sustained in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last season triggered a shift in Indiana from a title contender to one of the worst teams in basketball.
The Pacers were hoping this season would be a bump in the road and that they could return to contention next season with Haliburton back from a season-long absence. Zubac was part of those plans. As was a potential lottery pick with the chance to draft a difference-maker in the top four.
But the Pacers gambled with that lottery pick by sending it to the Clippers with only a top-4 protection inside the top 10. Ultimately, they lost. And their long-term plans have taken a significant hit in the process.