Not much went on this weekend in our house, so we\u2019ll focus on a few basketball stories.<\/p>\n
So much for the Hoops Gods rewarding the Pacers for the heartbreaking loss of Tyrese Haliburton at the worst possible moment in the NBA Finals a year ago.<\/p>\n
After a season of tanking, which only came about because basically the entire Pacers roster was legitimately injured for long stretches of the season,[1]<\/a> the Pacers lost their first round draft pick to the LA Clippers thanks to the trade the teams made that brought Ivica Zubac to Indy in February.<\/p>\n It seemed like a reasonable risk to take at the time. Get a top 10-ish center who is a good match for Haliburton\u2019s game with 50% odds at a top four pick this season.<\/p>\n Sunday the Pacers could only land in seven lottery spots. If they hit 1\u20134, they kept the pick. Five-through-seven, though, and the pick went to the Clippers.<\/p>\n When Dallas came up at nine, that meant the Bulls jumped to the top four. Then Brooklyn came up at six, moving Memphis into the top four. There were just three slots left for the Pacers, two safe, one not.<\/p>\n When the Clippers logo came up at five I cheered at first, not realizing the NBA had already accounted for the trade. That was the Pacers pick. Dammit.<\/p>\n Bill Simmons had the Pacers as #1 in his Draft Lottery Karma ratings going in, meaning that the Pacers deserved the top pick more than any other team. So much for karma. And the Hoops Gods are dead to me.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think the Pacers would have handled this season any differently had they known they would lose that pick. Again, almost the entire roster was legit injured at various points in the season. Only two players appeared in more than 70 games. They certainly were \u201cextra cautious\u201d with the rehabs of several players. Pascal Siakam could have played more in the last month of the season, for sure. But that just means this team wins 10\u201312 more games, still not enough to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n Losing that pick, though, changes the math of the Zubac trade dramatically. Now the Pacers gave up the #5 pick in the deepest draft in decades, another first round pick, a second round pick, Bennedict Mathurin, and Isaiah Jackson for one player. Yes, they needed a center, and Zubac is that. Yes, there weren\u2019t any quality free agent big men hitting the market this summer, and if there were odds were they would not sign with the Pacers. Yes, Mathurin was going to get traded anyway and Jackson was always injured.<\/p>\n But holy shit, Zubac better hit now. If he\u2019s not healthy, or we get to next spring and he can\u2019t match up with Jalen Duren, Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid, or whatever Eastern Conference centers the Pacers face, that alone will determine the Pacers\u2019 grade for the trade. If he can get the team back to the NBA Finals, it doesn\u2019t matter who the Clippers pick, he did his job here.<\/p>\n Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan just threw away the chance to extend the Pacers\u2019 window and turned it into a one, two, maybe three if you squint hard enough, season opportunity. And that assumes Haliburton comes back 100% healthy and the team can somehow manage to change its injury luck.<\/p>\n There were questions of how a top four pick would fit into the current Indiana roster. How would AJ Dybantsa or Carlos Boozer slot into a front court that already had Zubac and Siakam? Darryn Peterson would join a backcourt that featured Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith. How would those minutes get divvied up? More than any team, Caleb Wilson might have made the most sense for the Pacers as his game needs more refinement and you could bring him in slowly, in a reserve role, and hope he developed into a starter right as Siakam ages out of his prime years.<\/p>\n I had even started thinking of who the Pacers might trade to make room for Dybantsa, Booker, or Peterson.<\/p>\n So much for all that.<\/p>\n Seeing the Clippers logo come up Sunday was like a kick in the stomach. In reality, though, a top four pick would have been a pleasant bonus. The Pacers will begin next season returning four starters from game seven of the 2025 NBA Finals, and an upgrade in the one spot that features a new player. They are in a great spot for the immediate future. Even if they added one of those top four players, there are no guarantees that guy would extend the Pacers championship window.<\/p>\n It just sucks after months of assuming there would be some balance for losing Haliburton, that counter will not come in the form of a top pick in a generational draft.<\/p>\n Friday it was reported that Darryn Peterson claimed he began having his cramping issues last fall after taking a large dose of creatine, and it was just recently discovered that he has naturally high levels of creatine, which led to his body shutting down.<\/p>\n I have no idea how much of this is true. I\u2019m not a sports medicine expert and haven\u2019t seen his lab work.<\/p>\n It seemed like weird timing to figure this out, though. The story I read didn\u2019t make it clear if he was taking the supplement on his own, or on the advice of KU\u2019s training staff. And if they were doing all these tests during the season to figure out what the hell was going on, why had the cause just been determined?<\/p>\n To me, this just raises more questions than it answers. Since Peterson won\u2019t be a Pacer, I\u2019m done with the story. Hopefully he gets everything figured out and can move forward in Utah or Memphis or Chicago and have a successful career.<\/p>\n Jeez, maybe the Hoops Gods do exist, but are telling me I should focus on some other sport where there\u2019s no controversy, stomach punches, or heartbreak. Soccer is drama free, right?<\/a><\/p>\n A bit of a dud by the Fever in their season opener, losing to Dallas in a really fun game. The Fever decided they didn\u2019t need to play defense in the first half and dug a hole they could never fully pull themselves out of. Dallas has to be the most improved team in the league. Last July L and I watched the Fever beat them by approximately 1000 points. Saturday they controlled the game for most of the last three quarters. Paige Bueckers is legit.<\/p>\n The Fever might have as good of a top three as any team in the league, with Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston all scoring over 20 points Saturday. Second-year player Makayla Timpson has made huge leaps and looked fantastic at times Saturday. Raven Johnson might have been the steal of the draft, already causing havoc on defense and making terrific reads on offense.<\/p>\n The ABC crew said Saturday\u2019s game was the first season opener in league history where both teams scored over 100 points. That seems impossible to be true.<\/p>\n The Fever just need to lock down better on D – I\u2019m looking especially at you Caitlin – and they\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n
\nThe DP Saga Continues<\/h3>\n
\nFever<\/h3>\n