At the seventh pick, some feel that the Pacers are sitting just outside the range of the lottery they may want to be. While there are three blue-chip prospects in the draft, there are a few players on the board afterward that could still be homerun draft picks.
It’s up in the air as to how excited the Pacers would be to move up. And the other question is, what would we have to give up? In a lot of places in the draft, moving up a few spots isn’t that costly. But in the top ten picks? The cost can be extreme.
But some of the players the Pacers may be highest on (looking at you Cam Whitmore and Jarace Walker) may be coming off the board long before the seventh overall pick.
I can’t wait for the draft cause this is stressing me out lmao, cause most mock draft have amen at 4 and cam at 5. but then again, I remember everyone thought ivey would go 4 over keegan last year. 🤷🏽♀️ #Pistons pic.twitter.com/MJCpFixB8s
— Lions (6-2) 🦁 (@_KyonaJ) June 6, 2023
If that is the case, then the Pacers need to be prepared for how to move up and get one of the guys that they are highest on after the individual workouts are complete. It’s hard to say what they will do, but the Pistons might be one of the best opportunities in the draft to move up and get the guy that we want.
Or at least one writer in Detroit thinks so.
Pacers send Duarte out for pick swap in the first round.
One writer in Detroit believes that it may be beneficial to both teams to make a first round swap given who is available and what they are looking for in the draft. Here is the proposed trade from PistonsPowered:
At first glance this seems like a heavy price to pay for the Pacers. They would be giving up their first-round pick from two years ago in Chris Duarte, plus a young wing that they acquired from Milwaukee for letting the Bucks send players into their cap space.
In addition to that, the Pacers would be giving up another first-round pick in order to move up two spots in the NBA draft. This seems like a heavy price to pay for two spots in the draft, so it would have to be for a player that the Pacers absolutely have fallen in love with and don’t believe there is a suitable player that will be left for them at seven. This may be unlikely given that one of Hendricks, a Thompson brother, Walker, and Whitmore will certainly have to be on the board at seven.
This trade feels a littler closer to even than many we have seen, but we are unsure if there is enough motivation to jump up two spots.
The biggest problem working against this trade is that there are probably 7or 8 players that the Pacers would be thrilled to bring into the fold. If there was only five or six and we were fearful of losing one of the players that we were highest on, then perhaps this makes sense.
That being said, some of the individual workouts have yet to occur and the Pacers may see some things from those prospects that are red-flags for the team. If that is the case, there may be some behind the scenes motivation for not wanting to draft one or two of those listed prospects.
If that is the case, then this trade might make sense, given that KP has mentioned not wanting to bring in a whole class of rookies. It would allow us to condense our draft picks to move up at the cost of moving off of a few players that may not get a ton of time on the court anyway.