{"id":636241,"date":"2026-05-11T08:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636241\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:48:18","slug":"pacers-president-kevin-pritchard-apologizes-for-ivica-zubac-trade-that-cost-them-lottery-pick-after-falling-out-of-top-4-i-own-taking-the-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636241\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers president Kevin Pritchard apologizes for Ivica Zubac trade that cost them lottery pick after falling out of top 4: ‘I own taking the risk’"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their eyes fixed on returning to contention after a season off for Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, the Indiana Pacers<\/a> had a shot at adding a top-four pick in this year\u2019s NBA Draft<\/a>, one of the deepest in league history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, they won\u2019t have a first-round draft pick at all.<\/p>\n

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The Pacers fell out of the top of Sunday\u2019s NBA Draft lottery,<\/a> and their pick that wasn\u2019t protected outside of the top four will now fall to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> via the Ivica Zubac<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n

The Pacers traded to acquire Zubac<\/a> and Kobe Brown<\/a> from the Clippers at the trade deadline. In return, they sent Los Angeles<\/a> Bennedict Mathurin<\/a>, Isaiah Jackson<\/a>, a first-round pick in 2029, a future second-round pick \u2014 and Sunday\u2019s first-round pick that ended up being No. 5 in a loaded draft. Now that pick belongs to the Clippers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really sorry to all our fans,\u201d Pritchard wrote. \u201cI own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI thought we were due some luck. But please remember \u2014 this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disaster for Pacers<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and Brooklyn Nets<\/a> for the second-shortest odds to do so. The lowest the Pacers could have landed in the lottery was pick No. 6.<\/p>\n

Had they landed in the top four, they would have retained the pick. But the pick wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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Why did Pacers do this?<\/p>\n

The 76ers<\/a> acquired Zubac in part to replace Myles Turner<\/a>, who left in free agency last offseason to the rival Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>. Turner\u2019s exit alongside the Achilles tear that Haliburton<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their eyes fixed on returning to contention after a season off for Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66348,56224,4,450,671,73116,451,3441,56197,25174,56194,211752,3031,11952,360,6401,138187,3,452,453,20629,99867],"class_list":["post-636241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-76ers","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-draft-pick","tag-headlines","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-isaiah-jackson","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-kevin-pritchard","tag-kobe-brown","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba-draft-lottery","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-tyrese-haliburton","tag-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}