NBA Draft stories: Looking at the Indiana Pacers through the years

I was checking out the NBA Register yesterday and trying to figure out if the NBA Draft really helps teams in the long term as opposed to making trades. Without making any conclusions yet, I was amazed at what the Indiana Pacers of the 1980s & 90s put together via first round draft picks (not through trades so we’re clear on that) and a second round one.

1985 Wayman Tisdale (Oklahoma)

1986 Chuck Person (Auburn)

1987 Reggie Miller (UCLA)

1988 Rik Smits (Marist)

1989 George McCloud  (Florida State)
1990 Antonio Davis (UTEP 2nd Round)

1991 Dale Davis (Clemson)

1992 Malik Sealy (St. John’s)

1993 Scott Haskin (Oregon State)

1994 Eric Piatkowski (Nebraska)

1995 Travis Best (Georgia Tech)

1996 Erik Dampier (Mississippi State)

1997 Austin Croshere (Providence)

1998 Al Harrington (St. Patrick’s HS NJ)

Tisdale, McCloud, and Person played well for Indiana before they left for Sacramento, Dallas, and Minnesota respectively.

Those left behind went on to form a core that would compete for an NBA title.

When the Pacers battled the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, the only players left from those years of building a contender were Miller, Smits, the Davises, Croshere, and Best (Harrington joined them the year after).

Other key players on those contending teams -- Jalen Rose, Chris Mullin, Derrick McKey, and Mark Jackson -- were acquired through trades. Indiana traded Mark Jackson and Rickey Pierce  for Jalen Rose, Dampier for Mullin, and Detlef Schrempf for Derrick McKey.

It’s amazing that Indiana was able to select good players who played long years with the club and contributed memorable moments and finishes for the franchise. It was only in the late 90s where the team finally rounded out into a real contender's form. looking back at it, only Reggie Miller and Rik Smits played their entire careers with Indiana. Obviously, the best pick was Miller whose #31” was retired, but they still were unable to land that “game changing” draft pick. That's where you make your trades because the draft should aid you.

Unlike Boston or Chicago.

But looking at the team now, they've picked up Danny Granger (2005 New Mexico) and Tyler Hansbrough (2009 University of North Carolina) who are major contributors to their campaign.  We'll see how far they can go. This coming draft, they own the 15th pick in the first round. Doesn't look to be a deep draft though so it would be interesting to see what they will do with that selection.