CHICAGO – The Indiana Pacers won’t have their first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. On Sunday, the league held the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery at the Navy Pier in Chicago, and the results were unkind to the Pacers.
That’s because the Pacers traded away a protected part of their first-round selection to the Los Angeles Clippers back in February. Indiana sent LA a 2029 unprotected first-round pick, a future second rounder, Bennedict Mathurin, and Isaiah Jackson as well as their 2026 first-round selection protected for picks one through four and 10-30. The Clippers sent the Pacers center Ivica Zubac and forward Kobe Brown.
In short: the Pacers would keep their top draft pick unless it landed somewhere between five and nine. But after the team’s poor finish to the season – they had the second-worst record – only the top-four protection was in play. Entering Sunday, the Pacers first-round selection could only land somewhere between one and six.
The odds were slightly in the Pacers favor to keep their top selection. 52.1% of the time, the lottery would have landed the Pacers between one and four. The other 47.9% of outcomes would have sent the pick to the Clippers.
And in the end, the slightly less likely result happened. The first pick went to the Washington Wizards. The second selection is headed to the Utah Jazz. The Memphis Grizzlies will pick third and the Chicago Bulls climbed up to fourth. That was all of the lottery slots. Indiana fell to fifth, and that selection will go to the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Disappointed, because this is a great draft,” Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said about 15 minutes after the final draft order was revealed.
There was a 27.8% chance the Pacers pick would fall to fifth in the order, the most likely one outcome for them. Most mock drafts have the same four players – AJ Dybantsa, Caleb Wilson, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer – going in the top four, then a run of guards after that. The Pacers took a risk and hoped to get one of those four players. But that won’t happen.
Why did the Pacers give up the pick for Zubac?
Now, the price for Zubac and Brown is known: An unprotected first rounder in 2029, the fifth pick in 2026, a second rounder, and the two aforementioned players. It’s a steep price. The Pacers are betting Zubac can elevate them to new heights as their starting center.
“We really think (Zubac) is a great fit for us. And at the end of the day, this is what is really important: I felt like that championship team, we needed to fill that starting center [role],” Pritchard said. “That was priority one. Because they’ve earned the right to go try to get a championship. That was not doable with protecting this to eight or nine to ten or wherever.”
Zubac finished sixth in defensive players of the year voting and nearly made the All-NBA Third Team in 2024-25. His peak as a rebounding, defending center is high. The Pacers need it to be. He played in five games for the franchise his past season before a rib injury ended his campaign early, and Zubac averaged 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the Pacers.
With the Pacers losing their 2026 first rounder, they hang on to their 2031 unprotected first-round selection. That pick would have been sent to the Clippers had the Pacers pick landed between one and four on Sunday. Pritchard did note the flexibility the Pacers now have with most of their future first rounders available, minus the 2029 selection.
As of lottery day, the Pacers don’t own a pick in the 2026 draft at all. They now pivot to an offseason that will be defined more by free agency than the draft, a path they are prepared for.
“If [the pick goes to the Clippers], there are other ways to improve the team. There’s a pretty significant salary slot for a top-four pick,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “Theoretically, there’s the opportunity to use that money, if it’s not being spent on a high draft pick, on some players in free agency or use that gap of money to be a part of another transaction that could help us.”
While the Pacers do have other ways they can add to their team going forward, they undeniably would have preferred to keep their top selection in this draft. The trade will now be judged by the result: The team trading away the fifth overall pick.
“I never feel like you can slow-play your way into success in this league. You have to swing,” Pritchard said. “I know people are going to be disappointed, but you have to remember our top seven or eight players are still with us.”
As with all major trades, time will tell if Pritchard and the Pacers made the right bet. For now, it’s a stinger for a franchise trying to get back to the NBA Finals after a magical run in 2025.
