Caleb Wilson playing with Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac would be fun to watch.
North Carolina star Caleb Wilson will be one of the top picks in the 2026 NBA Draft and Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report has linked the youngster to the Indiana Pacers.
Buckley has the Pacers drafting Wilson with the fourth overall pick.
"The Pacers maybe wouldn't love the idea of drafting fourth, but this at least spares them from the nightmare scenario of their top-four protected pick getting sent to the Los Angeles Clippers," Buckley wrote. "And even if Wilson is often mocked outside of the top three, that's not a universal opinion—meaning, he'd be much more than a consolation prize.
"The wager here is that Wilson still lands fourth, but that's a good reminder that he might just belong in the same elite prospect tier. He's a rim-wrecking force in the Shawn Kemp-Blake Griffin mold of mash-everything dunkers, plus a chaos-creating defender, open-floor firework and developing dribbler."
Wilson appeared in 24 games for UNC this season. He averaged 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest while shooting 57.8% from the field, 25.9% from beyond the arc and 71.3% from the free-throw line.
Wilson was named a second-team Associated Press All-American, a distinction that will ensure that he will be included among the honored jerseys in the Smith Center rafters.
Wilson playing with Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac would be fun to watch. The Pacers missed the playoffs this year because Haliburton missed the entire season recovering from his Achilles tear, but the team will be a playoff team in 2026-27.
Many NBA draft experts have compared Wilson to former Pacers star Jermaine O'Neal. If Wilson can have a career like O'Neal's, that would be a huge success.
O'Neal played in the NBA from 1996 to 2014. He made six All-Star teams and three All-NBA teams and averaged 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. His best season was in 2004-05, when he averaged 24.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the Pacers.
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