The Pacers trade for Ivica Zubac cost Indiana the no. 5 pick in the NBA Draft 😬

The Pacers trade for Ivica Zubac cost Indiana the no. 5 pick in the NBA Draft 😬

May 11, 2026



The Pacers trade for Ivica Zubac cost Indiana the no. 5 pick in the NBA Draft 😬

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View Comments (32)

  2. I mean, the pacers are f'd… this was a weird reactionary trade, they could have made a move to get Zubac now as opposed to mid season, and gave up something else. Could have moved up to 4 and got Caleb Wilson or something if they had 5, so they have something to replace/spell Siakam, now they have an oft injured, older, less talented version of the team that lost in the finals, and got generationally lucky to get there.

  3. so the biggest media market gets the highest pick they could possibly get while a middle-market team gets totally shafted?

    weird how those ping-pong balls bounced exactly how commissioner Slither wanted them to, eh?

  5. This is the most “We DoNt RiGg ThE dRaFt” rigged draft outcome possible.

    Adam silver “everyone’s on our back for rigging last years draft. I know what to do let’s give a high pick to the Clippers because no one will think the draft is rigged then and LA gets another young promising prospect 😎”

    You ain’t slick clown hahaha

  10. I feel so bad for Indy, but at the same time the zubac trade is made to win NOW. Yes hali is still young, but he's already been around enough. People act like zubac isn't a top 5 centers right now. For sure we still need to see if he will fit indy play-style, but i have hopes.

  14. The trade was always a terrible idea because we traded a young promising player for an older worse player with none of the skills we need. And we gave them a whole other player AND another first rounder for him. Just insane.

  16. There’s never been a degenerate gambling trade like this as far as I could remember. Indy could’ve easily just waited til after the lottery and either kept whatever pick they got or traded it for way more than for way more than zubac, but instead decided to do a literal coin flip to decide whether they’d massively overpay or massively underpay

  17. Funniest thing seeing people celebrating the pacers’ failure as if we didn’t see 3 other tankjobs get rewarded, including a fucking Bulls tank job where they made a bunch of bad trades to start tanking too late but they jump everyone else anyway. Like what are we actually doing here?

  20. Let's stop pretending the first pick is that much of a deal-breaker. Last team that won with their first pick was Cleveland ten years ago and it took TWO first picks and then some to do it. The Ringer has only become more sensationalistic since taking that Netflix cash.

  21. All defense center on a great contract. We just saw Boston get crushed bc they dont have a playoff worthy center by an inferior team. Worst case scenario for us but the pick was ultimately gonna be a luxury have instead of a need.

  22. It doesn't make sense to me, it was extremely lucky they were able to get their pick back from New Orleans before it became obvious they were going to be a lottery team next year and to gamble that away for Zubac? Makes no sense.

  24. As a Pacers fan this is so insane what they did. The Clippers won this trade even without this 5th pick. Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, 2026 First-Round Pick (No. 5), 2029 First-Round Pick, and a 2028 second-round pick. This may even be worse than the Kawhi Leonard trade for George Hill who was a bench player for the Spurs. Leonard went on and won 2 championship. Whoever made that deal along with this deal should be fired! All they had to do was to wait til the season was over, keep Bennedict Mathurin as he is a solid starting caliber player and draft great. They woukd instantly be championship contenders once Haliburton returns. This was so stupid in all levels.

  26. Not as bad as Bill is saying. Pacers plan did fail, but these talking heads always say this prospect is the next kyrie, lebron, jordan ect. If anything the Pacers retained their 2031 first round pick and can still use it in trades during the off season. They're getting back Tyrese and got Zubac who is severely underrated. Zubac and Gobert are probably the only two bigs who can play Jokic man to man and Zubac is the only one of those two who has any offensive game. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

  28. You think it’s bad being a Pacer fan? Try being a Kings fan. Pacers have our best player, Spurs have our other best player, Kings transform into the Bulls West, then tank this season only to get 7th pick. I’d rather be in Pacers position ANY DAY!

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