The Pacers are about to enter their most important draft in decades. A team on the rise, they will have a lottery pick to potentially pick up another star to go alongside of Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin for years to come. However, the Pacers have had some trouble in the past when it comes to making the right lottery picks.
Larry Bird was routinely criticized for making bad lottery picks (and you will see a couple of them on this list), while the jury is still out on Kevin Pritchard. However, last season getting both Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard at bargain basement prices is certainly a good start to the Tyrese Haliburton era of drafts.
So in this piece, we wanted to look at some of the biggest draft busts in Pacers history and ask, if we had to put a starting five together of Pacers draft busts, who would they be? We put the restriction on ourselves that it had to be 2 guards, 2 forwards, and 1 center. And boy do we have quite a terrible list of draft picks for you.
The man we chose instead of Larry Bird: Rick Robey
You read that right, the Pacers had the chance to draft Larry Bird with the 3rd pick in the 1978 draft but instead drafted Rick Robey. Sounds like a great tradeoff right? You would be wrong. Here is the long list of accomplishments that Robey achieved in his time in the NBA with the Pacers:
43 games. 8.6 points. 5.9 rebounds. 1.2 assists.
That’s right, the Pacers passed on a hometown hero, that would go on to be an All-Time great, to get 43 games out of a below-average center. He didn’t even make it one season in Indiana! Now to Robey’s credit he did have a decent career, playing alongside of Larry Bird in Boston who he was traded to midway through his first season.
This was just an unmitigated disaster by the Pacers that should have never happened. However, Robey doesn’t stand alone as there are four other players that must round out the starting lineup of the biggest draft busts in Pacers history.
A guard that didn’t even stay in the NBA after leaving the Pacers
George McCloud was one of the highest draft picks in Pacers history at the 7th pick in the draft. Prior to Bennedict Mathurin this prior draft, it had been over 30 years since the Pacers had picked that high. And while Mathurin is looking like a homerun, McCloud was exactly the opposite.
He played four seasons in Indiana, never averaging more than 7 points per game. For someone who had the ball alot, he also only averaged just over 2 assists in his time in Indiana. And while for a bottom of the barrel role player that may be acceptable, for a top 10 pick in the draft it was far less than what was expected.
After his four years McCloud didn’t even get another contract in the NBA for the following season and had to go play in Italy. And while McCloud eventually found his way back into the NBA (he even averaged 18 points per game for Dallas one year), he was certainly one of the biggest draft busts in Pacers draft history.
A player who had one good season after the Malice at the Palace
Fred Jones was supposed to be a good player. Picked at 14 in the draft, Larry Bird and co thought that he could be a game changing addition to the franchise. Boy we’re they wrong.
Fred played four seasons in Indiana, and while he was necessarily a horrible player, he wasnt anything special either. In four seasons in Indiana he only started 19 more games than I did for the Pacers, meaning he started 19 games.
During those four years he generally struggled to find the floor and averaged fewer than 5 points. He did have one season where he averaged over 10 points per game, but it was the year after the Malice at the Palace when most of the best Pacers players were suspended for significant amounts of times.
Fred Jones played four more years in the NBA before playing in leagues overseas in Italy and China. Unfortunately Jones just never gained momentum in the NBA. And because of this, he is a started guard on the Pacers all-time draft busts team.
A former national college player of the year comes to the NBA
I think everybody knew that Tyler Hansbrough was probably not going to be a great NBA player. Well, that is everybody but Larry Bird. Tyler’s game was built largely around working hard and being agressive in play. And while that worked well amongst his collegiate peers, he struggled mightily in the NBA.
He was with the Pacers for four years and during that time averaged 8.9 points (which honestly isn’t bad). However, Hansbrough was an awful 3 point shooting forward and wasn’t a particularly large individual so also lost in many matchups where the defender was a decent sized power forward.
Later, the Pacers would also sign Hansbrough’s little brother as well. After his four years with the Pacers, Tyler headed to Toronto and Charlotte before leaving the league entirely. And while Tyler may be one of the best college basketball players of all time, his time in the NBA was less than stellar.
A career journey man that could find traction anywhere he went.
The Pacers don’t often get into the lottery and so they need to make the best of their draft picks that they do have. Shawne Williams was definitely not a case of wisely used draft picks. He played two seasons for the Pacers before being traded to Dallas. And while his time in Indiana wasn’t increibly terible (5.6 points, 2.3 rebounds) he wasn’t necessarily a positive addition to the court of to the team.
After leavine the Pacers, he had stop with multiple NBA franchises such as Dallas, Knicks, Nets, Lakers , and Raptors. So no matter where he ended up, he couldn’t seem to stick which certainly is a tally in the negative department for the ranking here.
His best year was with the Knicks where he averaged just over 7 points per game for the season. However, he left the Pacers after two years and for a 17th overall pick, that is considered a failure for a borderline lottery pick in the NBA draft.
What do you think? Who is missing from the all-time Pacers draft bust starting five?
Indiana Pacers: 50 greatest Pacers players [2023 update]
The Indiana Pacers are a storied franchise, even though many casual NBA fans may not realize it. But back in the ABA days, the Pacers were a force.