Could you imagine having a shitty team and falling from 1 to 5?  That’d be horrible.  Especially if there’s a generational talent in the draft.  Would be even worse if it happened 2 years in a row, one of which you lost a record number of games.

Yeah we literally just saw Dallas and Philly jump into the top-4 with terrible odds. Lottery is pure casino at this point.

Easily is strong.

It’s a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance.

And if the Pacers start winning, then they get to #10 pretty easily. Then they literally can’t pick from #5-9.

Why do we continue pretending the ‘lottery’ is real every year? Especially after last year.

They’ll be watching with Tyrese instead of playing

Probably with mostly made up injuries.

Must think it is a 4 person draft and we are all in for the next 4 years of Halis contract

If they had have kept their pick and not done the trade would they have gotten a buff to their draft odds to stay in the top 4?

Surely the draft is always a massive gamble? 

Maybe I’m crazy but I really don’t think this is a terrible trade. People loved zubac on here last season and I think he fits well with their projected lineup for next year.

We see loads of “great drafts” and “great prospects” flame out every year for whatever reason, if I was a pacer fan I would be happy.

Also I hope it goes well for them because what happened to haliburton in the finals was awful.

That’s an extreme fucking gamble holy shit. We better be shutting down EVERYBODY for the rest of the season.

You gotta know when to hold them.

Know when to fold them.

Know when to walk away.

Know when to run.

Correct, there are 4 players that we want, and if it ain’t them then Zubac is way more valuable

…is it??????

I mean there’s massive salary differences from Zubac and a rookie scale deal. Not to mention the other unprotected first

*and mathurin, and another unprotected pic.

Look I can respect a team making an aggressive gamble. But this is one hell of a gamble. If the pacers lose their pick this year, it will absolutely be a heavy heavy loss.

This is a dynamic lottery this year. And it’s extremely rare for a team as good as Indiana to have the opportunity to add a young Blue Chip Prospect . There are absolutely going to be players drafted after the fourth pick in this year’s draft who are going to be All-Star caliber. I would bet everything on that

If Indiana ends up with their pic finishing top four this ends up being a really solid trade. But if not, regardless of how good zubac is …. That’s going to end up being a really, really stiff price to pay for his quality

more like they will bench Siakam and try to lose out

They can do nothing and the odds won’t change much for them, they just have to have a little luck

I watch college basketball and the draft even more than the NBA. This is a really, really, really, really good draft. You’re under selling? How many other dynamic prospects there are this year? There will absolutely be some player who goes after the fourth pick this year.Who ends up an All-Star.

The pacers should absolutely care about potentially losing the ability to add a very high-end young talent to such a talented core. It’s extremely rare to be able to do so and if they end up losing like the 5th or sixth pick that will hurt regardless of how good Peterson/aj/boozer are.

Why would they bring Hali back

Pacers basically said we don’t care outside the top 4, and if we fell to 5th, we’d rather have Zubac. It’s not that bad of a deal honestly.

31 unprotected 1st if it doesn’t convey this year.

Great return for the clippers

Yea but shams should include what it rolls over to. This is so dumb how they announce the trades eithout the full details and people are forced to wonder/jump to conclusions. Now most of us know this trade isnt complete until the full details are known since it will come down to the lottery no matter what

Changes to a 2031 unprotected 1st.

This draft is like 9-deep the only issue is that outside of Wilson, Dybantsa, and Boozer they’re all guards which ig the Pacers don’t really care about.

We joke but it’s literally ‘50/50 either it does or it doesn’t’ gonna be fun

I mean, if you’re the Clippers, you’re not mad at all if you don’t get their 5-9 this year. If they don’t get it this year they get the Pacer’s unprotected ‘31 pick, and it’s not hard to imagine the Pacers being bad in 5 years.

Clippers in the dog house and Haliburton is a future face of the league. Peterson is a Pacer, book it!

If they end up at 5 it’s basically an unprotected lottery pick. Clippers fleeced them.

Doesn’t seem like many players outside of the top 4 would be able to crack our rotation right away. Even with Mathurin gone, we have tons of talent at guard & wing that is buried as-is.

Y’all said the same about Siakam, but I think that worked out ok…

Damn they said fuck Flemings

with all due respect to Zubac

the 2026 Pacers pick is way too valuable for them to risk. Zubac is on a great deal, wont dispute that

i will say, im not even sure a big like him is the ideal fit for someone like Haliburton to work with. cant have best of both worlds thinking a Huff-type bench option is the alternate when you need spacing. need a starting big who can give Haliburton actual floor spacing, especially coming off an Achilles when he’s not gonna be exploding as hard to the rim coming off screens

they are in last place in the East right now

even if they somehow out tanked everyone and got the best lottery odds there is a 47.9% chance they pick #5

AND LOSE THE PICK. AND TANK THE ENTIRE YEAR FOR NOTHING

Nesmith is starting over Darryn next year. We run 2 PGs not 3. Also he just came off the best shooting % playoff run in history. Let’s give the guy his respect.

But your point is still good.

Now I wanna see an FRP that has protection for only odd numbers

In this draft that could be a steal there are so many great talents in this class

What are you smoking? The 5th overall pick plus maturin plus another first is highway robbery for the clippers

I mean they can also just make up injuries for Nembhard and Siakam and they’ll have like a 75% chance of a top 4 pick