The Pacers are not pretending.<\/p>\n
Asked what the roster still needs now that Indiana has a new starting center, general manager Chad Buchanan gave an honest answer to respected Pacers insider Tony East of Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Specifically, Buchanan joked he\u2019d like a top-four pick.<\/p>\n The joke carried meaning. Indiana is lottery-bound, and Buchanan said the final two months of the season will function as an evaluation window before bigger roster decisions arrive this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cDepending on if we have the pick or don\u2019t have the pick determines some of what we do roster-wise, what we have flexibility-wise with the cap,\u201d Buchanan told East<\/a>. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to be aggressive to try to put ourselves in a position to compete and contend for a championship next year. And whatever that means, we\u2019re going to try and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n That aggressiveness already showed up at the deadline.<\/p>\n After losing Myles Turner<\/a> in free agency last summer, the Pacers cycled through options at center. It never fully clicked. According to Buchanan, acquiring a veteran five became a priority, and Ivica Zubac<\/a> quickly emerged as Indiana\u2019s \u201cnumber one clear target\u201d based on fit, age, production, and character.<\/p>\n The Pacers could have waited until the offseason. They chose not to.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just never know if you wait, is the opportunity still there?\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cOther teams may have a need this summer and now you have more competition for a player. We wanted to be in the race, not standing on the sidelines watching.\u201d<\/p>\n The price was real. Indiana sent a 2026 first-round pick with protections that could still land the Clippers a selection in the five-to-nine range.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally, you don\u2019t have to give up anything,\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cBut to get a good player, you\u2019ve got to give up something too. There\u2019s a little pain on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n For Indiana, the direction is clear. Evaluate now. Push later. And be ready when the window opens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pacers are not pretending. Asked what the roster still needs now that Indiana has a new starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-601655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116065697200562414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}