The Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz spent much of last season chasing the same thing: a better future.
Both teams were stuck near the bottom, both were angling for a young cornerstone, and both were supposed to be aiming at a strong 2026-27 season. Indiana finished with 19 wins.
Utah had 22. That small gap ended up mattering a lot.
On lottery night, the Jazz climbed into the top four, while the Pacers slid to the fifth pick. That selection was later sent to the LA Clippers in the Ivica Zubac trade. One lottery swing, one extra ping-pong ball, and the two franchises were suddenly headed in different directions.
For a while, they were living parallel lives. They entered the season with preseason optimism, drifted into midseason tanking, and then made deadline moves for big men who brought upside but plenty of questions. Now they’re tied together by what Utah took from Indiana, even as their paths have split.
The Pacers are the ones left staring at what they missed. Indiana doesn’t have that young prize anymore and is instead hoping Zubac makes a full lost year worth it. Utah, meanwhile, landed both its rookie and veteran, Darryn Peterson and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Even since the summer, the contrast has been obvious. Utah has had the busier offseason, re-signing Keyonte George and trading Walker Kessler for multiple first-round picks and pick swaps. Indiana has mostly been left hoping Tyrese Haliburton can get back to form.
And the pressure is not the same. The Pacers need a strong year if they want to keep this era alive. The Jazz can stumble again and still only give up the pick they sent to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the JJJ trade.
That’s what makes the lottery break feel so harsh from Indiana’s side. It mattered more for the Pacers to keep that pick than it did for Utah to move up.
Indiana is trying to keep a car running with a blown tire and a deadline looming. Utah is just rolling along at 10 mph in a golf cart.
One team has to deliver to survive. The other is operating with house money.
The next layer of this comes from the players both franchises chose to build around after the deadline. Indiana and Utah were the two most aggressive teams at the deadline this year, even if the moves around the league - James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Washington Wizards buying low on Trae Young before that turned into an ill-fated payday - were for different kinds of players. Zubac and Jackson are the centerpieces here, and they’re nearly mirror images.
Zubac is a size-first big who makes life easier for everyone around him and ranks among the league’s best at winning the possession battle. Jackson protects the rim at a high level, but he does not rebound well and brings a level of versatility and modern play that Zubac doesn’t.
Now both are being asked to anchor teams trying to claw back into relevance after a lost season. Jackson will have to play center, even though that doesn’t really fit his game. Zubac will have to speed up after thriving in a mostly half-court pick-and-roll setup.
There are a lot of questions waiting to be answered once the season begins. Right now, waiting is the hard part.
In Other News...
Pacers May Have Passed On Their Boldest Title Swing Yet
The idea of Giannis Antetokounmpo in an Indiana Pacers uniform is the kind of hypothetical that stops a season cold, even if it never got close to reality. The piece looks at what a Milwaukee Bucks trade framework might have demanded from Indiana and why the Pacers, with their roster as constructed, could have been an intriguing fit for a superstar whose downhill force and rim pressure change everything around him.
It also underscores the risk and cost of a swing that enormous, because any deal for Antetokounmpo would have required a massive haul going the other way. Still, the appeal is obvious: a player of that caliber could have put Indiana squarely in championship-contender territory, even if the article makes clear the scenario was far more fantasy than negotiation. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Add Four Undrafted Prospects Worth Watching Closely
The Pacers kept their post-draft pipeline moving by formally bringing in four undrafted prospects on Exhibit 10 deals: Keba Keita, Rienk Mast, Kowacie Reeves Jr. and Jalen Warley. All four spent time with Indianas Summer League group, which gave the staff another extended look at players who are still trying to carve out a foothold after going undrafted in 2026.
For Indiana, the signing is as much about maintaining flexibility as it is about sorting out the back end of the roster. If any of the four are waived before the season, they could still be in line for bonuses by sticking with the Pacers G League affiliate, the Noblesville Boom, giving the organization a built-in way to keep tabs on developmental options without using a standard roster spot. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Offseason May Hinge On One Very Different Haliburton Fit
Ivica Zubacs brief run with the Pacers last season left more questions than answers, mostly because he only got into five games before the team ran out of time to really see what he could bring. Still, ESPNs Bobby Marks has flagged him as one of the more significant additions of Indianas offseason because he represents such a different kind of center than Myles Turner, with a more physical presence around the basket and a style that could change the teams interior identity.
What makes the fit especially interesting is how much it could influence the Pacers offense, which has long been built around pace, spacing and Haliburtons playmaking. Marks also raised the idea of Zubac extending his shooting range, a development that would give Indiana even more ways to use him and potentially reshape how the group attacks possessions next season. [Read more 🡒]