> No team’s future, immediately and in the long term, could be impacted more Sunday than the LA Clippers’.
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> They won’t have anyone in the lottery drawing room or on stage, but they could be huge winners -- or significant losers.
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> Here’s why: In a trade deadline deal for center Ivica Zubac in February, the Pacers sent the Clippers their 2026 first-round pick if it falls within Nos. 5 and 9. This is a coin flip.
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> The Pacers have a 52% chance of getting a pick in the top four and a 48% chance of the pick falling to spots 5 or 6, thus sending it to LA. It’s a gigantic sliding-doors moment.
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> For the Clippers, it’s a chance to land a potential franchise-changing prospect and kick-start a retrofit they began last winter when they traded Zubac and James Harden.
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> If they don’t get the pick, they will be forced to wait. As part of the Zubac trade, they’d then get the Pacers’ first-round pick in 2031.