Pacers Notes: Zubac, Jackson, Toppin, Roster

After losing Myles Turner in free agency last summer, the Pacers experimented this season with players like Isaiah Jackson and Jay Huff in the starting center role. However, the team felt that acquiring a veteran five was a priority, according to general manager Chad Buchanan, who tells Tony East of Forbes that Ivica Zubac emerged as Indiana’s “number one clear target” ahead of the trade deadline due to his fit, age, production, and character.

The Pacers are lottery-bound this season and could’ve waited until the summer to address their center spot, but Buchanan and the front office felt like it made more sense to come up with a solution now rather than wait to see what options were available in a few months.

“You just never know if you wait, is the opportunity still there? There could be other opportunities. There could be no opportunities. You just don’t know,” Buchanan said. “Other teams may have a need this summer and now you have more competition for a player. I kind of equate it as if there’s a race taking place for a championship – some teams are in the race, some teams are preparing for the race, some teams are watching the race. And we wanted to be in the race, not standing on the sidelines watching.”

The package that the Pacers sent the Clippers for Zubac includes a 2026 first-round pick that will stay in Indiana if it lands in the top four or outside the top nine, with L.A. receiving it if it’s between No. 5 and No. 9. There’s a possibility the Pacers will end up surrendering the fifth or sixth overall pick in a strong draft, but Buchanan said the team was happy not to have to sacrifice the upside at the very top of the draft and recognized giving up assets of real value was necessary to land a player like Zubac.

“Ideally, you don’t have to give up anything, but hey, to get a good player, you’ve got to give up something too. There’s a little pain on both sides in any trade,” Buchanan said. “The pain for us is giving up two players that we drafted and developed and had a lot of good experiences together (Bennedict Mathurin and Jackson). And obviously the picks. On their end, they’re giving up a player who was a big part of who their organization was. Had a lot of longevity there, a lot of attachment emotionally to what he’d done for that team. So there’s always a little pain on both sides.”

Here’s more on the Pacers:

• Indiana has an open spot on its 15-man roster after its deadline moves and Buchanan acknowledged to East that promoting Quenton Jackson from his two-way contract is a “real possibility” to fill that opening. The Pacers’ GM referred to Jackson as “a big part of our culture in our locker room” and lauded his energy, toughness, and positive attitude. Jackson still has 18 games of eligibility remaining on his two-way deal, so if he’s going to fill that 15th roster spot, there’s no real urgency for the Pacers – who are operating less than $900K from the tax line – to convert him right away.
• Zubac has yet to make his Pacers debut due to an ankle issue while forward Obi Toppin has been out since October as he recovers from foot surgery. However, Buchanan tell East that he expects to see both players back on the court this season.
• Asked by East what the Pacers’ roster still needs now that it has a new starting center, Buchanan joked that it’d be great to add a top-four pick in this year’s draft. The GM went on to say that the team will use the final two months of the season as an evaluation period before making additional roster decisions in the summer. “Depending on if we have the pick or don’t have the pick determines some of what we do roster-wise, what we have flexibility-wise with the cap,” he said. “But we’re 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’re going to try and do it.”
• Zubac has made just 1-of-12 three-pointers since entering the NBA in 2016, but he said this week that he and head coach Rick Carlisle have already talked about him spending more time in the corner and having more opportunities to shoot from beyond the arc. “I always thought I could shoot that shot,” Zubac said, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required). “I obviously didn’t get a lot of chances to do it with the Clippers, but I always worked on it and wanted to shoot it but never had a chance. We’ll see how open he will be for that. If that’s what they want me to do, I have the rest of the season and the whole summer to work on it and be ready for next year.”