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2022 NBA Draft

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The Pacers own the rights to five selections in the upcoming NBA Draft, which will be held on Thursday, June 22 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Three of their draft picks are set: 26 (via Cleveland, Caris LeVert trade), 29 (via Boston, Malcolm Brogdon trade), 55 (via Cleveland, Victor Oladipo trade).

Their top pick falls within the lottery — picks 1 through 14 — so we won’t know for sure where they’ll select until after the draft lottery is held on May 16.

(I was one of eight reporters invited inside the draft lottery drawing room last May. Click here to read what that experience was like.)

Get to know Scott agness 11 year pacer beat writer

Monday was an important day because the NBA resolved several tiebreakers — and two directly impacted the Pacers, who finished the season 35-47.

Six ties were broken with random drawings conducted by Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, at the NBA office in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was overseen by Marie Dhimmar of Ernst & Young.

  1. For the third straight summer, the Pacers have a lottery pick. And after winning a tiebreaker with the Washington Wizards, they are slotted in 7th entering the draft lottery. They have 6.8% chance of securing the top overall pick and a 29.4% chance of jumping inside the top four.
  2. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the random to the Memphis Grizzlies. That directly impacts the Pacers because they have the rights to both of the Cavs’ picks. So it is No. 26 and 55.

Had the Pacers lost their regular-season finale in New York, they would’ve finished in a tie for sixth with the Orlando Magic.

The top three teams each have a 14% chance at landing the No. 1 pick: Detroit, Houston and San Antonio.

The other significant outcome the Pacers will be watching closely at the draft lottery involves the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. And they’ll be rooting for the Spurs to draft first.

Both teams finished 22-60 so whichever team has the better first-round pick, the other team selects higher in the second round. If the Rockets are behind the Spurs in the first round, they will receive pick No. 32 — and it then belongs to the Pacers.

If not, the Pacers will receive the Miami Heat’s second-round pick at 50. That’s a significant difference in what was a complicated deal with several teams involved.

The next key date: The Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 16 inside a Chicago ballroom.

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