{"id":769364,"date":"2026-06-24T13:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/769364\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T13:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:54:28","slug":"indiana-pacers-free-agency-targets-trade-rumors-who-they-gave-up-for-zubac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/769364\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Pacers free agency targets, trade rumors: Who they gave up for Zubac"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trade that has held the NBA hostage for more than a year (or longer) has finally happened: Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there was another trade that had an impact on the Pacers: Minnesota sending Julius Randle (and his salary) to the Brooklyn Nets<\/a>. It freed up the money for the Timberwolves to agree to a 5-year, $112-million deal with free agent Ayo Dosunmu, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n

Dosunmu would have been a perfect fit for the Pacers but his signing for more than the non-taxpayer exception put him out of their reach.<\/p>\n

We’ll be using this live story to track and update all the news that could affect the Pacers and their decision-making as they head towards the draft and then the formal opening of free agency. Follow this for updates.<\/p>\n

Strong options still on the board after Round 1<\/p>\n

The first round came and went and the Pacers did not get involved at any point. There were a few players who slipped who might have been worth a look for them to try to get involved as Alabama’s Labaron Philon Jr. fell to No. 22, Baylor’s Cameron Carr slipped to No. 24, Houston’s Chris Cenac Jr. fell to No. 27 and Arizona’s Koa Peat was last off the board in the first round at No. 30. If the Pacers had any interest — and there’s no publicly available evidence yet that they did — they didn’t act on it enough to get in.<\/p>\n

There are, though, several good options available at the top of the second round if they are interested in trading in as previously reported.<\/p>\n

Duke wing Isaiah Evans is arguably the biggest surprise among players still on the board, though he wasn’t expected to go higher than about 24. North Carolina center Henri Veesaar, and Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas were also on some draft boards, but they are still available. Cincinnati’s Baba Miller, Louisville’s Ryan Conwell and BYU’s Richie Saunders are also among the best players left available. German guard Jack Kayil is still there. Houston guard Emanuel Sharp and Purdue point guard Braden Smith, the best two players who worked out for the Pacers, are also still on the board.<\/p>\n

Thunder trade for Bennett Stirtz another sign OKC will trade Isaiah Joe<\/p>\n

Fifteen picks passed before the first in-draft trade — the Bucks acquired the No. 13 pick from the Heat in the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal — but there’s some bankshot impact for the Pacers on that one.<\/p>\n

The Thunder moved up one spot from No. 17 to No. 16 and selected Iowa sharpshooter Bennett Stirtz, who averaged 19.8 points per game for a Hawkeye team that reached the Elite Eight and made 92 3-pointers as a senior. if it wasn’t clear already that the Thunder will be trying to move guard Isaiah Joe, it’s even more clear now.<\/p>\n

Joe is due $11.3 million in salary, so the Pacers have to either match that with forward Jarace Walker or add him through the non-taxpayer mid-level exception while also sending the Thunder draft capital. If they do use the MLE, though, they have to get under the first apron and that might require them to move Walker or at least guard Ben Sheppard anyway. It’s a move that requires some sacrifice, but Joe could be a good fit as a 3-point shooter off the bench.<\/p>\n

As expected, Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, Wilson off the board at No. 5<\/p>\n

A big part of the reason the Pacers fought to protect their 2026 first-round pick through the top four but ultimately agreed to send it to the Clippers in the Ivica Zubac without protection from 5-9 is that they believed there was a significant drop-off after the likely top four picks in the draft.<\/p>\n

Now, four picks into the draft, the four players the Pacers and everyone else expected to be off the board are off the board. The order went as many expected. The Wizards took BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa No. 1, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson went No. 2 to the Jazz, Duke’s Cameron Boozer was drafted No. 3 by the Grizzlies and the Bulls quickly jumped on North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson at No. 4.<\/p>\n

This is where the Pacers would have been drafting had they not traded for Zubac and it’s where the Clippers get to pick now at No. 5. What’s on the table is a list of talented point guards that the Pacers considered less necessary then a center given that they have Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell on the roster. They can at least walk away from this draft knowing that it went mostly the way they expected and none of the top four surprisingly slipped.<\/p>\n

The Clippers selected Keaton Wagler from Illinois. Wagler probably would’ve been the pick if the Pacers were able to protect through the top five as he has some off-the-ball skills. Ultimately, he’s the player the Pacers will look at as the player they missed out on. At the moment at least, they still believe it was more important to get Zubac.<\/p>\n

Heat roster, free agents worth monitoring after Antetokounmpo trade<\/p>\n

As with any trade of the magnitude of the deal that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat, there’s still a ripple effect and a chain reaction coming that could take years to fully play out.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath, the Bucks have to decide which of the young players they just gained are worth keeping as foundational pieces for a rebuild and which are better used to add more pieces. Meanwhile, the Heat have to figure out how to fashion a championship caliber roster around two big men in Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo who will take up about $108 million in cap space just this season and more in the future. Their size could make Miami an exceptional defensive and paint-scoring team but they’ll need a way to space the floor. Also, their use of a trade exception in the deal means they are hard-capped at the first luxury tax apron for the season, which means they have significantly less financial flexibility to keep their current pieces.<\/p>\n

If small forward Andrew Wiggins picks up his $30.2 million player option, that will make things even tighter. The Heat apparently want to keep Wiggins, so their hope is that he will decline it to then sign a longer-term deal with a lower starting price, but even if he does they can’t expect him to start below $25 million so that probably will only clear up so much space under the apron.<\/p>\n

That’s particularly an issue for their attempts to re-sign guard Norman Powell who is coming off his first career All-Star appearance. Powell made $20.5 million last season and even at 33 had reason to hope to get a significant raise after averaging better than 21 points per game in each of the past two seasons. The Heat need a guard like Powell but keeping him will require them to find a way to off-load salary somewhere else. Forward Nikola Jovic’s deal pays him $16.2 million this season so that would be a player they’d like to be able to offload, but he still has four seasons left on that contract so it won’t be easy to get someone to take it.<\/p>\n

All of that could mean Powell will hit free agency and won’t be able to stay in Miami and there might not be enough teams with cap room to get him more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. There’s probably still away that Powell gets paid, via sign-and-trade or some other mechanism. He’s almost definitely above the Pacers’ paygrade, but he’d be a good fit and worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n

Any chance the Pacers would try to trade for Jaylen Brown? Nope<\/p>\n

Because Jaylen Brown’s name was firmly attached to the Celtics’ failed attempt to pry Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks, there was much media speculation early Tuesday morning after the news broke that Brown would be bothered by Boston trying to shop him and might want out.<\/p>\n

Nobody really asked this question, but in case you’re wondering, no it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for the Pacers to inquire about his services.<\/p>\n

Brown is due just over $57 million on a supermax contract for next season so it would cost the Pacers multiple assets to get them and they almost certainly wouldn’t come out of it a better team.<\/p>\n

Even if the Pacers included All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam in the deal, they still have to include another player to make the salary match. Though Brown is two years younger than Siakam and coming off a season in which he finished sixth in the MVP balloting, moving the 6-8 Siakam for the 6-6 Brown makes the Pacers as they’d have to use either Brown or Aaron Nesmith as the starting power forward or move Obi Toppin into the starting lineup and move one of those other wings to the bench.<\/p>\n

It’s impossible to imagine the Celtics would agree to a trade with the Pacers that didn’t include Siakam, but just to get a trade to work under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, the Pacers would have to trade almost all of their secondary pieces. If they kept Tyrese Haliburton, Siakam and center Ivica Zubac — all of who appear to be untouchable at the moment — they’d have to include each of their next four highest paid players in a trade for Brown. That would be Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin, T.J. McConnell and Aaron Nesmith. Again, the Celtics probably wouldn’t want that anyway and it would essentially reduce the Pacers to a four-man team.<\/p>\n

So in short, that’s not going to be a thing. The Celtics might look to move Brown, but he’s been displeased before and come back to be productive anyway and that’s most likely how this story ends again.<\/p>\n

Dustin Dopirak<\/a>\u00a0covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on\u00a0IndyStarTV<\/a>\u00a0and with the\u00a0Pacers Insider newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Pacers free agency targets, trade rumors and NBA draft intel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trade that has held the NBA hostage for more than a year (or longer) has finally happened:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,123,113,126,3866,532,189,6,114,25049],"class_list":["post-769364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-thunder-trade"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116805426500008102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769364","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=769364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}