Pacers Likely to Explore Trades Involving Their Five Picks

May 17, 2023

The Pacers own five picks in the 2023 NBA Draft, and the consensus around the league is there is no way they will be adding five rookies to next year’s team.

“We will be giving Indiana a call for sure,” a rival executive told Hoops Wire.

For the record, the Pacers own three first-rounders — Nos. 7, 26 and 29 overall. Along with that, they own two seconds — Nos. 32 and 55.

So it would not be a surprise if the Pacers looked to keep No. 7 and be open to packaging the rest for veterans. Or they could pair some to try to move up.

Basically, they were aggressive at the February trade deadline and are expected to take a similar approach this summer. When you’re armed with five picks, the possibilities are endless.

“We like where we’re picking,” president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said, via Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “Would we have liked No. 1? Sure. That pick is going to be transformational. But I still think whether we move from 7, we have to decide what tier that is in the draft yet. We haven’t really got there.

“There’s Tier 1, which everyone feels pretty good about. Then there’s probably a tier next to it that’s probably a couple players. It feels like the next tier is a bigger tier. The need to move around probably isn’t as big. But we like 7.”