The Indiana Pacers Are Neither Lucky or Unlucky in the Draft Lottery
By Ben Gibson
Over the years, the Indiana Pacers haven’t had drastic swings of luck in the NBA Draft lottery.
The Indiana Pacers might be agnostics in regards to the worship of Lady Luck because they’ve never been on her good or bad side.
The NBA draft lottery gives the teams that missed the playoffs a chance at one of the top picks, but luck can either move a team up or down and, with it, change the course of NBA history.
While Indiana wasn’t in the lottery this season, it has played a big role in the history of the Pacers.
Since 1985 when the NBA draft lottery began, the Pacers have been in it 10 times and only seen their pick move 3 times for an average change of 0.2. Indiana moved a total of 8 spots over the years, but overall they’ve moved up two spots when their number was called.
Indiana Pacers Draft Lottery Profile | PointAfter
In 1985 and 1986, luck wasn’t on their side as they ended up two spots lower in the first year and one spot down in the latter. But their luck changed in 1987 when they moved up five spots.
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In 1985, their luck could have completely changed as slipping one spot allowed the New York Knicks to take Patrick Ewing while Indiana selected Wayman Tisdale. While Tisdale had a solid career, getting a Hall of Famer like Ewing could have pushed the Indiana to a title in the 1990s.
1986 offers a somber “what if” as the Pacers dropped two spots, allowing the Boston Celtics to take Len Bias and the Golden State Warriors to take Chris Washburn. Bias died days after the draft due to a cocaine overdose, while Washburn struggled with the same drug and was out of the league three years later when he received a lifetime from the NBA.
With the fourth pick in the draft that year, the Pacers picked Chuck Person.
The Pacers weren’t in the lottery in 1987, but they returned in 1988.
This time, however, luck was on their side. Indiana should have been picking 7th, but ended up moving up five spots to take Rik Smits with the second pick.
Hall of famer Mitch Richmond was taken 6th in that draft.
In 1989 they had the 7th pick and didn’t move up or down with it, taking George McCloud. Indiana would have been better off having a later pick as they could have ended up with Mookie Blaylock (No.12), Tim Hardaway (No.14), Dana Barros (No.16), Shawn Kemp (No.17), B.J. Armstrong (No.18) or even Vlade Divac (No.26). However, that’s easy to say in retrospect (and obviously they could have taken any of those guys at #7).
In the other six drafts when the Pacers were in the lottery, they picked outside of the top 10 and didn’t move up or down either. While Jerryd Bayless (traded for Brandon Rush) and Tyler Hansbrough were taken with some of those picks, the Pacers did well for themselves with the selections of Austin Croshere, Paul George, and Myles Turner in those later lottery spots.
Next: The Official Indiana Pacers 2016 Draft Primer
Fate, luck, the butterfly effect — whatever avatar you wish to give for chaos — manifests itself in the draft lottery, changing how NBA history plays out each time.
The Pacers will get another chance on Thursday, albeit outside the lottery, to prove that fate is what you make it when they make the 20th overall selection.