Pelicans, Pacers agree to draft-pick swap

The Pelicans and Pacers have agreed to a trade, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reports that Indiana is sending the No. 23 overall pick in this year’s draft to New Orleans, along with the draft rights to 2023 second-round pick Mojave King.

In exchange, the Pelicans will trade Indiana’s 2026 first-round pick back to the Pacers. That pick, which was originally sent to Toronto with top-four protection as part of the Pascal Siakam blockbuster at the 2024 deadline, was flipped to New Orleans at the 2025 deadline in the Brandon Ingram deal.

The deal will give the Pelicans some extra ammunition in this year’s draft. New Orleans also controls the No. 7 overall pick but previously traded away its second-rounder. The Pelicans will now have an opportunity to add two of the top 23 players from the 2025 draft pool, assuming the front office hangs onto both picks.

King, who was the 47th overall pick in the 2023 draft, has played in the G League, New Zealand and Puerto Rico in the past two years. Although he’s not considered an elite draft-and-stash prospect, the 6-foot-5 guard is still just 23 years old, so it’s not out of the question that he’ll come stateside at some point.

As for the Pacers, the deal is accomplishing two things. For one, it will remove a cap hold of roughly $3.24M from their books for 2025-26, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That will give the team slightly more cap flexibility as it looks to re-sign Myles Turner without going too deep into luxury-tax territory.

Additionally, as Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports tweets, the move will free up more of the Pacers’ future first-rounders for trade purposes. Previously, due to the Stepien rule that prevents teams from leaving themselves without a pick in the first round of consecutive future drafts, the Pacers wouldn’t have been able to offer more than two first-rounders unconditionally in any trade package. Now, they could offer up to four (2026, 2028, 2030 and 2032).

While teams typically aren’t permitted to make trades between the in-season trade deadline and the end of their season, the Pacers can make this deal while they remain alive in the NBA Finals because it doesn’t involve any players on their 15-man roster.