Indiana Pacers: A look back at NBA Draft history before 2018

The Indiana Pacers have been historically good at selecting rotation players and even stars with minimal draft positioning. Hopefully, they can pull out that and more with this year’s draft.

The Indiana Pacers‘ draft history is peppered with great selections throughout the course of their 51 years as a franchise. Some have been hard to swallow, while others have been pound-for-pound some of the best selections in the history of the draft.

Let’s start with the heartbreak, particularly in recent times.

In the 2016 NBA Draft, the Pacers took swingman Caris LeVert, and later traded him to the Brooklyn Nets for Thaddeus Young. While Young has been a great piece for the Pacers, Caris LeVert still offers great upside as a young player who can score and play aggressive defense. He is part of how the Nets stole some unlikely victories throughout this injury plagued season. This might be a player they would’ve perhaps regretted passing on, given that there is no guarantee Thaddeus Young will even be in a Pacers uniform next season.

Indiana also has a history of finding gold on the fringe of lottery picks, such as the selection of All-Star swingman Danny Granger at No. 17 overall in the 2005 NBA Draft. However, that lucky streak bit them back pretty hard in 2011, when they selected Kawhi Leonard at the 15th overall spot, only to trade him to the San Antonio Spurs for George Hill.

Ouch.

On the plus side, the Pacers did a keen job of selecting Myles Turner in 2015 at the 11th overall position, who is busting out as an elite shot-blocker. And of course, they managed to grab Paul George at the 10th overall position back in 2010. So even though the Pacers aren’t on the clock until the 23rd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, there is still hope that they can pull a rabbit out of the hat.

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Historically, the Pacers have fared well in selecting solid rotation players, such as Al Harrington at the 25th pick in 1998, as well as back-to-back picks in 1987 and 1988 in Reggie Miller (No. 11) and Rik Smits (No. 2). Those guys went on to anchor the deep playoff runs of the 1990s.

While the Pacers might seem limited in the 23rd pick of this year’s draft, it is worth noting that back in 1976, the Milwaukee Bucks used their 23rd pick to draft Hall-of-Famer Alex English. Another notable 23rd pick is NBA champion Tayshaun Prince.

There’s also been World B. Free (1975), A.C. Green (1985), Wesley Person (1994), Bobby Jackson (1997), Tyronn Lue (1998), DeShawn Stevenson (2000), Wilson Chandler (2007), Kosta Koufos (2008), Omri Casspi (2009), Trevor Booker (2010), Nikola Mirotic (2011), Rodney Hood (2014), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (2015) and OG Anunoby (2017) taken there.

The only three times the Pacers have had the 23rd overall pick, they used it on rotation players Solomon Hill (2013), Travis Best (1995) and Mitchell Wiggins (1983), the father of current Minnesota Timberwolves wing Andrew Wiggins.

With the 50th pick, the Pacers could do as well as five-time NBA champion Steve Kerr, who was drafted 50th overall back in 1988 by the Phoenix Suns. Meanwhile, the last time (and only time) the Pacers had a 50th overall pick was back in 2016, when they selected Georges Niang. Now a member of the Utah Jazz, he has hardly been a blip on the radar, averaging four minutes per game this season.

Next: 2018 NBA Mock Draft - Doncic still No. 1 in post-lottery edition

So, with the 23rd and 50th picks up in the air, let’s hold our breath that the Pacers pull out something special to add to their already impressive and gritty roster.