With their eyes on returning to contention after a season off for Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers had a shot at adding a top 4 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, one of the deepest in draft 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 from the Clippers at the in-season 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.
The result prompted an apology from Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard on social media.
“I’m really sorry to all our fans,” Pritchard wrote on social media. “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.”
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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