The Indiana Pacers skipped the best-player-available theory in the NBA draft on Thursday night and selected a player to fill a need, a back up player to defend the rim and rebound. The Jeff Foster comps were too strong for the Pacers to pass up when they were literally trying to replace Foster.

After waking up this morning, nothing will change with the way the process worked out and there are more important days ahead this offseason. So if you want the positive spin, no one better than Frank Vogel to offer it, as he did last night following the pick.

"The first scouting meeting that I stepped in to, I jokingly said, 'Is there any Jeff Fosters in this draft? And about four of our scouts simultaneously said, 'Miles Plumlee!' And, we've had our eye on him ever since."

"He's clearly the best dirty-work player in the draft." Vogel continued. "A blue-collar guy. He falls right in to this team's identity."

The Pacers did a nice job of securing a guard who can fill it up, in Orlando Johnson. They took advantage of the financial shell game the Maloof brothers' seem to be playing in Sacramento by paying to add Johnson.

With Leandro Barbosa likely out of the picture there is an opening for a guard in the playing rotation as we see what happens with Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones before the start of the season. But first the Pacers move on to the free agency period next week with Roy Hibbert and George Hill in line for pay raises.

Check out all of the links after the jump, including a story of Johnson's brutal path to the NBA.

• Pacers.com speaks with Larry Bird about their 26th pick Miles Plumlee | video | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Pacers Draft 2012 Coverage | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Miles Plumlee Introductory Press Conference | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Pacers make surprise move: pick Duke's Plumlee | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Bob Kravitz If Miles Plumlee as Larry Bird's final pick really is 2nd coming of Jeff Foster . . . | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Twitter / Hoya2aPacer: I don't know why people are so mad about Miles. I saw his workout he killed. He's gonna b good for the pacers.
• Pacers stand behind decision to draft center Miles Plumlee - fox59.com
• Pacers acquire Kings second round pick Orlando Johnson - fox59.com
• Robbie Hummel gets his name called in the NBA Draft - fox59.com
• Robbie Hummel: Purdue standout snared with 58th pick by Minnesota Timberwolves | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Orlando Johnson ends up with Pacers after wild NBA Draft | KSBY.com | San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles
• Marquis Teague: Chicago Bulls make ex-Pike star NBA Draft's 29th pick | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Pacers take Duke F Plumlee in draft - AP
• Five Surprises From The 2012 NBA Draft
• Wildcats tandem makes history - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN
• Why did Perry Jones III fall in the NBA Draft? | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports
• Mavericks trade Tyler Zeller to Cavaliers
• Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist go 1-2 in NBA Draft - Ian Thomsen - SI.com
• Three guys who didn’t get drafted but should have been | ProBasketballTalk