How The Pacers Became The NBA’s ‘Second Draft’ Oasis

There are many ways to add talent in the NBA, but the Indiana Pacers took the road traveled by very few to get their star.

It takes some real guts (and even more job security) to do what they did: Trade a two-time All-Star just entering his prime for an unproven, second-year player. 

But that’s what the Pacers did when in February 2022 they traded Domantas Sabonis for Tyrese Haliburton. Knowing how the deal turned out, it’s easy to call it a success. Haliburton has emerged as one of the premier talents in the league and made All-NBA third team (along with Sabonis, funny enough) this season as he helped lead the Pacers to a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals.

“I will say this: We had one player targeted, and we were able to get him,” Pacers president Kevin Pritchard said after acquiring Haliburton after the 2022 trade deadline. “We have a point guard of our future.”

Pritchard and the Pacers picked right, and the franchise has a brighter future because of it. But it wasn’t just the Haliburton gamble that got the Pacers to this point. Trading for Haliburton was the most extreme and important example of Indiana’s team-building strategy – one that takes advantage of a market inefficiency and could become a model for teams going forward.

Haliburton is what we call a “second draft guy” – a player traded to a new team while still on his rookie scale contract. 

While some are quick to label disappointing rookies and sophomores “busts,” others might see a talented individual in the wrong situation. One person’s trash, another person’s treasure, sort of thing.

For a team like the Pacers that isn’t accustomed to picking near the top of the draft, these second-draft guys represent a quick and easy way to acquire top-tier talent, even when that talent has gone unrealized.

Besides drafting Bennedict Mathurin with the sixth pick in 2022, and Jarace Walker at No. 8 this past summer, the Pacers haven’t picked in the top 10 again since selecting Paul George with the 10th overall pick in 2010.

Pritchard started running the team in 2012. In 2017, he traded George to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Sabonis. Oladipo had bounced around from the Orlando Magic to the Thunder, then blossomed into an All-NBA player in Indiana before injuries derailed his career. Sabonis was still on his rookie contract going into his second year when he was traded to the Pacers. He finished second in Sixth Man of the Year voting the next season and, by his fourth year, was named an All-Star. That was Pritchard’s first second-draft success.

Pritchard spun his first success (Sabonis) to his biggest (Haliburton), but he’s also built a big chunk of this current Pacers roster with second-draft guys: Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith, Jalen Smith and Obi Toppin are all former lottery picks who joined the Pacers while on their rookie contracts. That’s more than a quarter of Indiana’s roster. Haliburton and Nesmith were starters in their conference finals run, while Toppin and Smith (before his injury) were key contributors off the bench.

And look at what they gave up for them:

• Haliburton: Acquired for Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round pick
• Nesmith: Acquired by the Pacers along with Boston’s 2023 first-round pick (top-12 protected) and Daniel Theis for Malcolm Brogdon.
• Smith: Acquired for Torrey Craig.
• Toppin: Cost two second-round picks.

Net-net, the Pacers used three second-round picks, zero first-round picks, one All-Star and a handful of role players for four lottery talents including the current face of the franchise. That’s just good work.

Of course, this strategy doesn’t work without Haliburton’s leadership and Rick Carlisle’s coaching, but that’s also the point. The Pacers bet on their superstar and their structure to make the most out of players other teams failed to develop. 

What’s more is that the Pacers acquire those young players’ rights, including their restricted free agent status, making it easier to keep them after their rookie-scale contract expires. The Pacers will have to decide whether to re-sign Toppin this summer.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, teams around the league view the Pacers’ roster construction as a blueprint under the new CBA, with two players on max deals (Haliburton and likely-to-be resigned Pascal Siakam) and value contracts.

“Teams ESPN talked to during the season pointed to how the Pacers constructed their roster next season as a blueprint under the new CBA: two players on max contracts (Haliburton and Siakam) followed by nine players earning between $2 million to $19.9 million. Five of those players (Bennedict Mathurin, Jarace Walker, Isaiah Jackson, Ben Sheppard and Andrew Nembhard) are on rookie contracts,” Marks wrote.

I’ll add this: Haliburton is a specific player who needs specific teammates. For teams trying to build around a particular identity, the draft is an unreliable mechanism where your draft slot can enter a lottery and the players you want may no longer be on the board. Free agency is tangled with big money, cap exceptions and politics. Most teams want the raw potential of a rookie or the reliability of a veteran. 

But targeting players on cheap contracts who fit a need is a smart way to allocate resources, especially when those players are under-valued recent draft picks. The Pacers figured this out.

Other teams will, too, and second-draft guys could become a more sought-after commodity as soon as this summer. An abbreviated list of second-draft guys who could need a change of scenery:

• Washington’s Johnny Davis
• Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey and Ousmane Dieng
• Charlotte’s Mark Williams
• Memphis’ Zaire Williams
• Sacramento’s Davion Mitchell
• Detroit’s Jaden Ivey

These players might not get a fanbase excited, but that’s kind of the point. Their value is low and, if a front office is high on their potential, they could be worth a flier. The Pacers saw the potential, and they enjoyed their best season in a decade because of it.