Pelicans acquire Pacers’ 1st-round pick, give up 2026 selection

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The Indiana Pacers swapped draft picks with the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday while gaining financial flexibility going into the offseason.

The Pacers, currently trailing Oklahoma City 3-2 in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, sent the No. 23 pick in next week’s draft to the Pelicans as well as the rights to former G League shooting guard Mojave King, per ESPN.

In exchange, the Pelicans gave the Pacers the 2026 first-round pick that Indiana originally had before sending it to Toronto last season as part of the trade bringing All-Star forward Pascal Siakam to Indiana. The Raptors shipped the draft pick to New Orleans in February in their acquisition of forward Brandon Ingram.

New Orleans now has picks No. 7 and No. 23 in this year’s draft on June 25-26.

Indiana now has its own first-round selections from 2026 through 2032. The Pacers also save almost $3.2 million in salary cap space, ESPN reported, and will be about $20 million below the luxury tax.

That space is valuable as the Pacers have most of their core players under contract for next season with starting center Myles Turner eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

The 6-foot-5 King, who turned 23 on June 11, is a native of New Zealand and played professionally this season in his home country as well as Puerto Rico.

The Los Angeles Lakers selected King in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft and dealt him the next day to the Pacers as part of a four-team trade.

King played a combined 45 games (eight starts) in the G League in the 2022-23 (Ignite) and 2023-24 (Indiana Mad Ants) seasons and averaged 6.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 assist.

–Field Level Media