esvl wrote:esvl wrote:Was Ind 1st 26 protected? If not, the Pels FO made a strange move
Exactly what happened. NOLA should fire their stupid GM effective inmidiately.
I do find it odd that NO was willing to do this trade at the time they did it even sitting aside the potential of Haliburton tearing his achilles. Pick 23 is low enough where I expect teams only want it for a specific player and you wouldn't trade for it until that pick is on the clock. From that standpoint I don't understand it.
From the perspective that they just lost out on a lottery pick in 2026 I don't think that will be the case. While the Pacers cannot contend without Haliburton they should still finish in the top 8 of the east if they keep most of the current group intact. The Pacers owner has never been willing to tank. Prior to the Pacers picking Bennedict Mathurin #6 in 2022 they had not had a pick inside the top 10 since 1988 when they pick Rik Smits #2. Plus, the city was really behind this current group with the run they just had. I think they will at least try to make the best of a bad situation in 2025-2026 and the chances of them having a significantly worse pick than 23 are not that good, IMO.