Indiana Pacers Post-Draft Grades: The Good, The Bad, and the Guards

Second Round and Final Grade:

The second round was more or less unremarkable, as Indiana ended up getting the aforementioned Mojave King from the G League Ignite with pick 47, and Miami’s Isaiah Wong with pick 55, both guards by the way. This does call into question Indiana’s bloated guard rotation at this point, as they will have some major competition to get extra minutes at the shooting guard spot. One can only ponder why the Pacers passed on Indiana’s own Trayce Jackson-Davis twice with him falling to the second-to-last pick, going 57 to the Warriors.

Either way, Indiana had a pretty decent draft all things considered, and actually came out as one of the biggest winners of the draft in my opinion. After all, trading down and still getting Jarace Walker while getting extra money and a few draft picks is a great move, and Ben Sheppard was also a good selection at pick 26. The only problem with the Pacers’ draft selections was the overabundance of guards taken, as every pick with the exception of Walker was a guard, and the passing over of perhaps more worthy candidates in the second round like the aforementioned Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Other than these gripes, however, Indy made out like a bandit in the 2023 NBA Draft and they will ultimately get a pretty high grade.

Final Grade: B+ (Walker was a bullseye pick, Sheppard was pretty good, falls apart in the second round more or less)

Pacers follow initial draft confusion with a strange decision

The Pacers started the 2023 NBA draft turning some heads by picking a player that was on nobody's radar for them headed into their seventh pick.