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NBA Draft Links: Pacers Move On To Free Agency After Adding Plumlee, Johnson

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By Tom Lewis
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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.

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