{"id":195791,"date":"2026-05-17T10:01:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=195791"},"modified":"2026-05-24T10:20:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:20:45","slug":"pacers-2026-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/17\/pacers-2026-nba-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers 2026 NBA Draft Recovery Starts With Finding $15 Million In The Couch Cushions"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANA \u2014 The Indiana Pacers<\/strong> 2026 NBA Draft outlook is currently a ghost town, but Kevin Pritchard is sitting on a $15 million exception that could change everything.<\/p>\n

Pacers 2026 NBA Draft Recovery Starts With Finding $15 Million In The Couch Cushions<\/h2>\n

Indiana has always been a team that has made its own luck. This is a setback the team should be able to bounce back from. They don’t have any draft picks in either the first or second round this season. Still, there are obvious reasons to be optimistic about next season with the return of star point guard Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> and the further integration of Ivica Zubac<\/a> into the team, still just months into his arrival in Indiana.<\/p>\n

The jury is still out on the means of his arrival, specifically whether the Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> trade was an overpay given how the lottery turned out.<\/a>\u00a0Now that the lottery balls have settled and the #5 overall pick has officially conveyed to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, the cost of the Ivica Zubac trade is finally set in stone. Indiana is pick-less in 2026, but the $15.1 million non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (MLE) is the strategic ‘get out of jail free’ card the front office needs to play.<\/p>\n

As the New York Knicks run through a historic 10-0 postseason,<\/a> the gap between the Pacers’ current bench and the elite in the East is glaring. Using that $15 million exception on a ‘microwave’ scorer\u2014think of it as a tactical replacement for the Bennedict Mathurin spark\u2014is the only way to ensure Tyrese Haliburton returns to a roster that can actually contend<\/p>\n

Indiana’s Financial Flexibility Could Define Their Entire Offseason<\/h3>\n
\"Pacers
Mar 18, 2026; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers center Ivica Zubac (40) reacts to a basket in the first half against the Portland Trail Blazers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indiana are going into next season counting, as always, on continuity carrying them to a championship. They currently have 14 players on the roster for about $200 million. If they don’t guarantee Quenton Jackson<\/a> and Kam Jones<\/a>‘ contracts, that number could drop low enough to allow Indiana to use the non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (MLE). It can run up to four years. They could also use the lower Bi-Annual Exception (BAE) worth $5.4 million. If ownership chooses to continue its decades-long streak of not paying the luxury tax<\/a>, then Pacers president Kevin Pritchard could have to settle for the BAE.<\/p>\n

That would be disappointing because this roster feels one serious bench scorer away from becoming truly dangerous again. The Pacers have a $15 million exception sitting there like a glowing power-up in a video game. The challenge is avoiding the temptation to spread it across three ‘solid depth pieces’ that average six points per game combined in the playoffs. Indiana already has depth. What they need is offensive volatility. The good kind. The type that can flip a playoff quarter in four possessions.<\/p>\n

Replacing Bennedict Mathurin Is Easier Said Than Done<\/h3>\n

Indiana can use the $15 million exception to sign a free agent or acquire a player via trade. Top on their list should be finding a new volume scorer off the bench. They have missed having a microwave scorer since the Mathurin trade. As a player, Mathurin had his shortcomings. However, he was a consistent spark plug off the bench, often igniting the offense when it got stale. He left a 17.8-point-sized hole in the rotation.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

It’s possible for the Pacers to find someone else who fits that description. Philadelphia 76ers wings Quentin Grimes<\/a> and Kelly Oubre Jr<\/a>. are both going to become free agents and could fit the team’s need for a physical wing as well.<\/p>\n

Grimes especially feels like the kind of player Indiana would convince itself it can \u201cunlock\u201d offensively. After being traded to the Sixers in 2024-25, he averaged 21.9 points per game for a 28-game stretch. That’s not nothing. And to be fair to Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, he does deserve the benefit of the doubt there. The man has spent the better part of two decades turning random role players into productive rotation pieces. Oubre would bring more scoring punch and downhill aggression, though his decision-making can occasionally resemble someone speed-running chaos. Still, that’s not always a bad thing for second units. Sometimes bench offenses need a little healthy disorder.<\/p>\n

The Pacers Can’t Afford Another Passive Summer<\/h3>\n

Indiana’s front office deserves credit for staying passive over the last two years. Small-market teams rarely get anywhere playing it safe all the time though. This offseason feels different because expectations are now real. Haliburton is entering his prime, 32-year-old co-star Pascal Siakam<\/a> isn’t getting younger, and the Eastern Conference is currently being dominated by the New York Knicks<\/a>‘ but anything can happen.<\/p>\n

The rest of the field is less formidable. Philadelphia remains Philadelphia until proven otherwise. The Boston Celtics<\/a> look vulnerable. The Detroit Pistons still have very visible flaws.<\/a> The Cleveland might be headed for a retool if they get swept by the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The window is there. That’s why sitting on flexibility would feel like a mistake. The Pacers have $15 million they can use to aggressively target a real rotation changer. Continuity matters, but eventually every contender reaches the point where ‘internal improvement’ becomes code for hoping everybody shoots 41% from 3 at the same time. Indiana needs more certainty than that. The Mathurin trade created the opportunity for Zubac on the team. Now comes the next part: fixing the leak caused by that swap. Alternatively, the Pacers could just use this $15 million exception to trade into the 2026 NBA draft.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit:\u00a9 Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDIANA \u2014 The Indiana Pacers 2026 NBA Draft outlook is currently a ghost town, but Kevin Pritchard is sitting on a $15 million exception that could change everything. Pacers 2026 NBA Draft Recovery Starts With Finding $15 Million In The Couch Cushions Indiana has always been a team that has made its own luck. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":196985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,11,27,62,3,4721],"tags":[49942,4303,652,1315,297,3160],"class_list":["post-195791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-2026-nba-draft","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-kelly-oubre-jr","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-quentin-grimes"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196989,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195791\/revisions\/196989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}