We have a bit of a fact adjustment to make here on Eight Points, Nine Seconds. Yesterday, we posted a piece about the Los Angeles Clippers' cap circumvention, the effect it would have on the Indiana Pacers, and that fateful 2029 draft pick that the Clippers still held, despite having their own draft future stripped.
That was untrue.
Admittedly, at the time, Shams Charania had simply announced that the Clippers were losing a pick in 2029. As it turns out, that pick is the Pacers' remaining selection from the Ivica Zubac trade. While LA will keep all of the draft capital they are gaining from trading Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, they now have nothing left from moving Zubac.
Which brings the final return on the trade that kickstarted their rebuild, a move in which they gave up by far the best center on the open market at the time, and marked the end of an admittedly disappointing era to:
Keaton Wagler. That's it.
Bennedict Mathurin departed to join the New Orleans Pelicans, seeking the opportunity he believed he deserved, one that never materialized in Indiana or LA. Isaiah Jackson is entering the second year of a three-year, 21 million dollar deal he signed in Indiana and is not expected to play much of a role, if any, for the Clippers.
The focus of that deal was never the players for LA, but instead the picks. Their first lottery on Indiana's behalf went perfectly for them, turning that top-four-protected Pacers pick into the fifth slot and selecting Illinois wing Keaton Wagler.
Without that extra first-rounder, it seems like the Clippers got back one middling prospect for a fringe All-Star center. The Pacers made an aggressive move and are seemingly being rewarded, even if it's just due to the Clippers' circumstances and idiotically egotistical (no doubt spurred on by their wealth) ownership.
Still, it's funny to imagine how this could have been even worse for the Clippers if one lottery ball had just fallen slightly differently.
Imagine if the Pacers kept their pick
There's a world out there, not ours, but out there, in which the Pacers kept their top-four pick on draft lottery night and drafted one of the star-studded big four prospects.
Maybe they could've gotten AJ Dybantsa, playing Aaron Nesmith up a position and immediately adding a versatile athletic freak into a system that fits him. Could it have been Cam Boozer, transforming Indiana into a supersized bullyball lineup that could still play fast?
Whoever that pick would have been, the answer is less important than what it would have meant for their trade partners.
If LA had not gotten the Pacers' lottery pick this year to convey, they'd be heading into the late 2020s/early 2030s holding onto a late first-round pick from Indiana, a pair of picks from the Raptors, and still owing swaps to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Quite simply, they would have Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, Darius Garland, and a washed Brook Lopez leading the charge of a roster that has the flexibility of an all-in team with the ceiling of a play-in one.
This could have gone so much worse for LA, and truthfully, they probably deserve it.
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