Pacers Land Their Center in Ivica Zubac

It was bound to happen. After months of speculation and a grueling season watching our center-by-committee rotation disappoint, the Pacers pulled the trigger on the move we've all been expecting in one form or another. Indiana acquired Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown from the Clippers in exchange for Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, and draft picks. This is, you could argue, exactly what the team needed.

Losing Myles Turner to Milwaukee last summer left a gaping hole at center, and Kevin Pritchard & Co. just filled it with an All-Defensive caliber player who's averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds on a spectacular 61% shooting this season. Zubac isn't flashy, but he's very good at places where the team has holes. He'll be a rim protector who can clean the glass and finish lobs from Tyrese Haliburton, when the time comes.

There's the question of floor spacing, something that served us very well in the playoffs last year. While Zubac will not be able to stretch opposing bigs to the top of the arc, he may be able to open up the corners with his roll gravity. In any case, you can't deny that, if healthy, our core is legitimate contender next season.

Now there's the question of price. Yes, we gave up Mathurin, who showed flashes of brilliance but he never cemented his status as an ideal fit for this iteration of the Pacers. The writing has been on the wall that a trade like this would happen.

I admit the picks could sting, depending on where we end up in the drafts. Winning any of the top 4 picks in the lottery this year just became a lot more significant.

It's steep, but championship windows don't stay open forever. We were one game away from a title before Haliburton went down in Game 7. This move signals the front office believes we can get back there and it's hard to blame them for that.

The other benefit is that Zubac is on a very team friendly deal, with two years left on his contract after this abomination of a season.

That leaves the Pacers with very little wiggle room for the remainder of the year but gives them some Luxury Tax flexibility going forward.

It seems the team will try to win as many games as possible for the rest of the year. So we can hopefully look forward to better basketball than we've become accustomed to and, of course, some lottery luck this summer.