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Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Indiana Pacers 2025 NBA Draft grades for every pick
The post Indiana Pacers 2025 NBA Draft grades for every pick appeared first on ClutchPoints. Despite coming off one of their best seasons in franchise history, the Indiana Pacers had a lot to evaluate at the 2025 NBA Draft. While dealing with the unfortunate injury to star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers ended up leaving the draft with a pair of second-round picks: Kam Jones and Taelon Peter. Advertisement Indiana entered the process with just one second-round pick, but acquired another through a trade with the San Antonio Spurs. The pick turned out to be Jones, whom Pacers fans are already high on. The move did not send shockwaves through the league, but it was a savvy deal for a team currently in a state of limbo. General manager Chad Buchananan then used his original second-rounder on Peter at No. 54. The Pacers' magical 2024-2025 season just ended on Sunday, giving them only three days to turn around and prepare for the NBA Draft. They originally held the No. 23 pick, but traded it to the New Orleans Pelicans during their 2025 NBA Finals run to recover their 2026 first-rounder, which they used in the 2023 Pascal Siakam deal. With Haliburton likely out for the entire 2025-2026 season, their first-round selection next summer will almost certainly be more valuable than the No. 23 pick was. After a chaotic week, the Pacers now have less than a month before they get an initial look at Jones and Peter at the 2025 NBA Summer League showcase. Despite going without a first-round pick, Indiana already has reasonably high expectations for its two rookies. Round 2, Pick 38: PG Kam Jones (Marquette) Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images At 23, Kam Jones was one of the older prospects of the class, causing him to fall into the second round. However, aside from many doubting his shooting — he hit just 31.1 percent of his threes as a senior — there is not much to dislike about his game. Jones is a proven floor general with good size for a guard whose scoring increased each year at Marquette. Advertisement As a natural-born leader, Jones' age might actually work to his benefit as he transitions to the NBA. Similar players might not rank highly on pre-draft boards, but tend to settle into the next level quicker than their younger counterparts. Jones, a do-it-all point guard, has a style much like a bigger, more athletic version of 2025 playoff hero T.J. McConnell. After what the scrappy veteran did for the team once Haliburton was compromised in the Finals, it would be an arduous mission to find a Pacers fan who would not want more of McConnell on their team. The comparison is not perfect, but Jones, who has been Marquette's engine for the past three years, brings the same nightly intensity. With Haliburton going down, the Pacers need the rest of their guards to step up in 2025-2026. Andrew Nembhard will get the first look, with Indiana also asking for more out of McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin and Aaron Nesmith. Unlike 2024 second-round pick Johnny Furphy, Jones will likely be looked at for immediate contribution off the bench. Given their undesirable situation, trading up to add an experienced point guard like Jones early in the second round was a brilliant move. In the best-case scenario, Indiana has a Jalen Brunson-like gem or an early-career Ben Simmons on their hands. Worst-case scenario, the pick flops, and the Pacers get another chance to find their next star in the 2026 NBA Draft. Advertisement Grade: A Round 2, Pick 54: SG/SF Taelon Peter (Liberty) Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images There are not many players who generate buzz within the final 10 picks of the draft, but the Pacers selecting Taelon Peter certainly did so. After a breakout season with Liberty in 2024-2025, Peter became one of the biggest surprises of the draft when his name was called late. Fans who watched Peter play at Liberty were likely impressed by what they saw from him as a senior. They just likely did not expect him to become a future draft pick. Peter, who spent most of his career with Arkansas Tech in Division II, only played two years at the Division I level. That includes a pedestrian six-game freshman year at Tennessee Tech. Like Jones, the 23-year-old Peter is also one of the oldest prospects of the class. Advertisement Yet, despite the obvious questions, Peter is a worthy investment at No. 54. While fairly undersized, the 6-foot-4 guard was one of the best shooters in Division I in 2024-2025, nailing 45.3 percent of his three-point attempts. Peter started just two games but averaged 13.7 points in just 22.7 minutes per game to run away with the 2025 Conference USA Sixth Man of the Year award. Peter was also the nation's leading guard with a true shooting percentage of 73.1 percent. Scouts also criticized Peter's paltry assist numbers, but that was not his role at Liberty, nor will it ever be in the NBA. Peter's game is limited, but he has obvious Duncan Robinson-like potential on a team that lacked a true sharpshooting threat in 2024-2025. Late second-round picks tend to begin their careers in the G-League, which is where Peter will likely get his start. He could potentially net a two-way deal with an impressive outing at the 2025 NBA Summer League. Either way, Peter is a low-risk, high-reward prospect, which is exactly what teams want in the final few picks of the NBA Draft. Grade: B- Related: Siegel's Scoop: Latest Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga, NBA free agency intel Related: Pacers rumors: Myles Turner, Pacers hold 'mutual interest' on new deal in free agency
Indianapolis Star
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Lucky or good? Pacers are neither. They enter Eastern Conference Finals dangerous
INDIANAPOLIS – Was last season a fluke for the Pacers, that run to the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals? No. There are no fluke runs to the conference finals — qualifying for the NBA playoffs in the first place, eliminating one NBA playoff team, then another. Not easy. Not a fluke. But still. The Pacers heard the talk last season, about injuries to Milwaukee and New York paving their path to the conference finals. 'They feel slighted,' Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan had said in the preseason. Can confirm, all these months later. Here was guard Tyrese Haliburton on Friday, during the Pacers' first media availability since they eliminated top-seeded Cleveland to qualify for a second consecutive trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. 'I think everybody felt that way a little bit,' Haliburton said. 'The commentary around the (2024) run was based on that. "We definitely felt that way coming to the year: Wanting to prove people wrong, the doubters wrong, but we also wanted to prove ourselves right — that last year wasn't a fluke." Were the Pacers lucky last season, or good? Assuming there's room to argue each side, how about this: Let's agree to disagree. As for this season, don't even ask. The 2024-25 Indiana Pacers have not been lucky. Nor have they been "good,' if we're being honest. They are well beyond good, with very good in the rearview. They are bearing down on excellent, fully healthy and playing their best basketball at the right time. They are a problem, a wagon as the cool kids say. The evidence is empirical, emotional, exceptional, and clarified right here: Last season, the Pacers were playing banged-up teams in the playoffs and squeaking past them — beating the Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo in six games, and the Knicks without multiple key players in Game 7. This season the Pacers are playing teams much closer to full strength — and destroying them. They don't like looking back, these guys. Maybe a year ago. That was a time to reflect on how far the Pacers had come: From the 2023 NBA draft lottery to the 2024 conference finals? Seriously? This season, there's no need for reflection. The Pacers are in the same spot they were a year ago, the conference finals against the New York Knicks or Boston Celtics. 'I don't like looking backward,' said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who won the 1986 NBA title as a player with Boston and the 2011 NBA title as the coach in Dallas. 'We're not talking about it. There's really no point. Right now we have to concentrate on each individual day.' Pascal Siakam, the other former NBA champion in the house — Toronto in 2019 — had said something similar when asked a big-picture question about the 2025 Pacers. Now is not the time, he was saying, for cartoons. 'I don't want to get into all those things,' Siakam said. 'It is what it is.' Which begs the question: What, exactly, is it? Well, to shoot down an argument, it must be presented first, right? So, here you go: Milwaukee faced the Pacers in the first round, and played two of those games without Dame Lillard. Cleveland had a trio of key players — Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De'Andre Hunter — miss a game or two in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers didn't squeak past anyone. Milwaukee had Giannis at full health, and he had a historic series — 33 points per game 15.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists; 60.6% shooting from the floor — and the Pacers won 4-1. That included a 26-point rout at Fiserv Forum in Game 4. Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell was occasionally limping but always heroic (34.2 ppg), and the Pacers won that series in five games as well. In Game 4, the Pacers jumped the Cavaliers for an NBA playoff record 41-point lead in the first half. Then they closed it out in Game 5, in Cleveland. It's true: During the series Mobley and Hunter missed one game, and Garland missed two. But the Pacers won four. See the math? See what we're watching here? What are we watching here, anyway? The Pacers insist they aren't good enough. That's why they might just be good enough to win four more games and reach the 2025 NBA Finals. They appear to have taken on the personality of their coach in this very important way: They are not satisfied. 'We've obviously got to do a much better job rebounding the ball,' Haliburton said. 'Just keep trying to improve on every facet of our game,' Siakam said. 'We've got to stay grounded, continue to work.' This happened, when I asked Siakam what felt like a harmless question if not an outright softball about the 2025 Pacers roster being almost identical to the 2024 Pacers roster and wondering: Why are you guys so much better this year? Siakam: 'You think we're better?' Oh yeah. Siakam: 'Yeah, I mean, that's good.' There you have it. The Pacers aren't talking about it. Let everyone else talk. As Haliburton was saying Friday, the noise after a loss 'feels like you'll never win again.' And after a win? 'Like you'll never lose again.' Sometimes you wonder. The country has finally caught wind of the Pacers, a nationally televised revelation this postseason with an offense that passes and shares and scores and then does the unthinkable: Hustles back to play defense. The way they went on the road to demolish Milwaukee and Cleveland, the way they rallied from 20-point deficits twice in three games — Game 5 against the Bucks, Game 2 against the Cavs — the way they've fallen behind by 19 points five times in the playoffs and come back to win three of them … you wonder: What's it going to take to beat this team four times? The Pacers, who heated up in the final third of the season — 21-9 in their final 30 games — are even hotter now, entering the conference finals with the best playoff record in the NBA at 8-2. What's next? Retiring the question of 'lucky vs. good' raises so many more: How did this happen so fast? Are the Pacers still building toward a championship roster, or has their timeline been accelerated to now? Ask Carlisle. Go on, ask him all of that. He'll answer, but only because you asked nicely. And he'll answer it his way. 'You've got to have big dreams,' he says, 'and you don't know how often you're going to be in this position. There's a lot of talk about where you're at, and timeline and all that stuff, and it's not healthy right now.' Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
