Ranking the Last 10 Pacer Drafts

#4. 2012 NBA Draft

• Selected Miles Plumlee (#26)
• Acquired Orlando Johnson (#36) for cash

This is a draft that showed Bird´s ability to evaluate talent.

He was mocked near and far for taking the second-best Plumlee brother who played for Duke. Many fans were adament that the Pacers had blown yet another late first-round pick on an older NCAA player with no upside.

And that seemed to be valid criticism as Miles Plumlee languished on Frank Vogel´s bench all season, playing just 55 minutes all year.

Then, just like that, he was gone.

Bird included Plumlee in a multi-asset deal that sent him, Gerald Green, and Indiana´s 2014 first-round pick to the Suns for Luis Scola.

The deal, to me, seemed obvious: The Suns were agreeing to trade Scola for a first-round pick. And since the pick was more valuable than an aging power forward, Phoenix also agreed to take on a contract Indiana that saw as a burden (Green, with $6 million left over two years).

Perhaps Phoenix even saw Green as a bit of a reclamation project the same way Bird had the previous summer. He could run and jump.

What I never considered was that the Suns actually also liked Plumlee. I thought it was filler.

Obviously, the Suns got a good player in Miles, however, and it now looks like another case of Bird getting Frank Vogel a good player who he was unwilling or unable to use.

As Miles continues to prove himself in this league — at least as a player who is better than a 33-year-old Luis Scola — this trade will only contine to look worse and worse. There is no doubt that getting a player who can put up numbers like Plumlee did last season with the 26th pick is impressive.

Too bad those numbers got put up in Phoneix.

Orlando Johnson, however, did play a fair amount in his rookie year with Indiana, avergaing 4.0 points per game in 12 minutes per night while appearing in 51 games. Some of this was legit rotation time, and I thought he could be a decent bench scorer in this league. A homeless man´s Leandro Barbosa type, perhaps.

But the Pacers would cut ties midway through the 2013-14 season. Bird made a one-for-two trade, acquiring Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen for Danny Granger, and needed the extra roster spot.

Bye bye, Orlando.