The Indiana Pacers entered this season with two problems to solve.

The first, replacing Tyrese Haliburton, was unsolvable. Even with capable ball-handlers, passers, and shot-creators on the roster, there is no way to replace a team’s soul. It simply dies, and you move forward as best you can.

The second problem was replacing Myles Turner. This was a solvable problem, but it couldn’t be both cheap and easy. If they hoped to win games, at least.

Entering the season, who knows exactly what Kevin Pritchard and company were hoping to see out of this squad. Wins would be nice, sure, considering they fell just one short of sitting at the mountain top last June.

But without Haliburton, those wins were unlikely to lead them to anywhere near that high point either way.

The Basketball Gods had a clear plan in place for the 2025-26 Pacers: lose basketball games. From the opening tip, top contributors joined Haliburton on the bench, battling injuries of their own.

Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Bennedict Mathurin, and TJ McConnell all missed time in the early part of the season, digging Indiana into a massive hole at guard. Obi Toppin, who became a massive x-factor in the Pacers’ title chase last season, hasn’t played since injuring his foot in late October.

As a whole, the Pacers rank third in the league in games lost to injury.

Suddenly, filling the holes left by Haliburton and Turner didn’t seem so important. This season was a wash.

Approaching the trade deadline, however, Indiana had a chance to get a head start on the offseason. “Pre-agency,” as they call it. Haliburton will be healthy one day, and Indiana needs a reliable big man down low if they hope to jockey for a title again.

As lovely as Isaiah Jackson and Jay Huff are, they are pieces rather than fixtures. 

Another lingering question to answer heading into the deadline was the fate of Bennedict Mathurin. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer and has shown just enough flashes to earn some interest around the league.

For Indiana, though, he has been rather up-and-down and is always going to be second-fiddle, at best, next to Haliburton. He’s got a chance to thrive elsewhere, and if Indiana could pair him with other assets to lock down a starting big man, it made sense to do so.

And so it was done. Along with Jackson and some picks (more on that later), Indiana moved Maturin to the Los Angeles Clippers for Ivica Zubac.

Zubac is a defensive anchor, an elite pick-and-roll threat, and the best rebounder the Pacers have employed in a long, long time.

There’s only one hiccup in this deal: they risk losing their 1st-round pick this summer.

The Pacers have been very bad this year, and the only thing that has helped make that fact easier to stomach is that they’ll be awarded with one of the best prospects in this year’s loaded draft.

The pick is protected 1-4 and 10-30, meaning any slight improvement in Indiana’s performance down the stretch could risk losing the pick altogether.

Is it even possible that Zubac could make the Pacers that much better the rest of the way? That remains to be seen. Zubac may not suit up for some time due to an ankle injury.

Even if that was the case, and Indiana improved its record down the stretch, let’s remember that we’re dealing with a lottery here. There is no guarantee based on record. Finishing with the 3rd- or 4th-worst record could risk getting jumped in the lottery. They could also win the first overall pick.

This could’ve happened without the Zubac trade as well, pushing Indiana down to the next tier of players that may not have made much of a difference to a team pushing towards a title.

You’d still take the, say, 6th-best player in the draft, of course. But Indiana’s front office clearly saw a drop off big enough from the best four prospects to make Zubac as worthy of that risk.

A center like Zubac may not come available this summer, and Mathurin could get an offer well over what Indiana would pay him. The ‘26 1st is a great asset, but it’s far from Indiana’s best. Acquiring an A-level player on an affordable deal is not worth a top-10 pick to some teams, but it is for a team like the Pacers.

It feels weird to say the Pacers are in a good position when their best player is laid up for the season. But even if they do lose the pick to LA, they keep their unprotected 2031 1st which could be a valuable trade chip as Indiana chases a ring in the coming years.

The group is deep enough as it is, using this season to develop players like Jarace Walker and Johnny Furphy into potential rotation guys on a championship-level team. With or without a shiny new rookie, Indiana has its starting lineup locked and loaded for its next pursuit at glory.

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