Pacers GM Chad Buchanan says Indiana would still make the Ivica Zubac trade after its 2026 first-round pick fell to No. 5 and went to the Clippers.
Chad Buchanan would make the Ivica Zubac trade again, even after the 2026 first-round pick in the deal fell to fifth and went to the LA Clippers. The Indiana Pacers general manager said so Thursday at the Pacers Foundation golf outing, where he and assistant general manager Ted Wu met with reporters before training camp.
Indiana entered the May 10 lottery with a 14% chance at the top pick and a 52.1% chance of landing in the top four, which would have kept the pick and sent the Clippers an unprotected 2031 first-rounder instead. Wu represented the Pacers in the drawing room. The pick slid to No. 5.
Pacers Believe Zubac Was Worth the Draft Capital
The Clippers took Illinois guard Keaton Wagler.
Myles Turner signed a four-year, $108.9 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2025. Buchanan said keeping the pick would have left Indiana with a young player and the same hole at center.
"I think as you look at how things played out last season into this offseason, our glaring need at the center position," Buchanan said. "I felt like, and I think we as a staff all felt, that our team was right there. We're right on the cusp of being a championship team. Why should we be patient and wait for something else down the road? Why should we be thinking long term? It's right there in front of us."
"And we felt like an opportunity to get a top 10 center in our league at the position that was obviously a big need for us," Buchanan continued. "We've been very selective on when we put in draft picks into trades in the past. And that was a moment where this is time to go for it. This is a player that fits our — what our roster needs right now. Our character of our locker room fits what his personality is, and it was time to go for it. It was time to fill that need and put our team in the best position we could going into this season to be where we were at before."
"If we would not [have] done the trade, you keep [the] pick, you have a young player, you still have a hole at the center," Buchanan added. "Other things come to play with contracts with free agents. I just don't think we felt great about that situation. Here's bird in hand for us. Let's go grab him. He's a great player. He's a great human being. He's gonna help this team, and it was really an easy decision for us."
Zubac made the All-Defensive Second Team in 2024-25. He is under contract through 2027-28.
The Clippers rescinded Bennedict Mathurin's qualifying offer this summer, and he agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. Kobe Brown, who came to Indiana with Zubac in the Feb. 5 deal, holds one of the Pacers' three two-way spots.
Pacers Value Zubac's Early Integration
Wu joined the Pacers in December 2020 from the NBA league office, where he worked on the salary cap management team and helped with the 2017 collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The Athletic named him to its NBA 40 under 40 list in 2024.
Wu said the Pacers sent coaches and trainers to Croatia over the summer.
"Two points, just to add to that," Wu said. "I think the marketplace this summer was quite interesting from the center market, so it's kind of one of those decision points, and do you wait until the summer to kind of jump in, but you don't know what's actually gonna play out in that way."
"The other thing that I don't know really gets talked about as much, I think, [is] Zu integrating with the team in February, getting to know the guys, getting to know our staff," Wu continued. "We had a lot of touch points with him throughout the summer. We sent many coaches and trainers out to Croatia. He's able to get his family settled out here. He's bought into being with us in Indiana. You do a trade like that later, it gets quite interesting to see how they get integrated. So we're excited kind of just with that integration."
Zubac played for Croatia in FIBA World Cup qualifying in July and August. Against Cyprus, he scored 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds in 18 minutes of a 123-50 win.
Zubac Returns Earlier After Summer With Croatia
Buchanan said Zubac has told the Pacers this is the earliest he has ever returned from Europe before a season.
"I think he would tell you he's in better shape than he probably has been at this point of the calendar year," Buchanan explained. "He's not used to coming back this early. He's told us that this is the soonest I've ever come back [from] Europe to start the season. So I think he's bought into what we're about and how we operate."
"I think he played four very, very good games with his national team," Buchanan added. "Like Ted said, our staff is over there with him a lot this summer talking about our system, what we need from him. And he's a very, very bright player. And so he's trying to adapt what we need from him to his body, his play type, and play style."
Pacers' 2029 First-Round Pick Is Gone
The other first-rounder, Indiana's unprotected 2029 pick, no longer exists. The NBA took it from the Clippers along with four of their own first-round picks as part of the league's salary cap circumvention penalty. It does not return to Indiana. Wu said the Pacers do not give up picks lightly.
"No, not particularly," Wu explained. "We made the trade for Zu because we wanted Zu, and once you kind of offer up the picks, like Chad said, we don't give up those picks lightly, but once we do, they're not really in our control anymore. So the league was able to kind of look at what the Clippers had and took that one in that year."
Zubac, 29, appeared in five games for Indiana after the trade, all in March, while he worked back from an ankle sprain that had sidelined him since December with the Clippers. A fractured rib ended his season on March 20. The Pacers hold media day Monday.
