Pacers Draft: Pacers trade picks with Wizards, select Jarace Walker with No. 8 pick

The Pacers add another young player in a vital position.

With the No. 7 pick in the NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers selected…Bilal Coulibaly.

What? Sweet! Wait! What?

The Pacers traded No. 7 (Coulibaly) to the Wizards and select Jarace Walker with the No. 8 pick.

OK, that makes more sense for the Pacers in this draft with Walker being a big (6’7, 240-ish pounds) and active front court wing whose activity stood out when watching an overall athletic Houston Cougars team last season. Check out the Pacers latest pick in action:

The pick fits a major short-term AND long-term need for the Pacers, as a legit big wing who can play either forward position along with some small-ball center when needed. He won’t turn 20 years old until early September, so despite his grown man stature, Walker has plenty of room to grow his game at both ends of the floor.

Obviously, the offensive end is where more work will be needed, but for this Pacers team, drafting an athletic, big forward who can defend is a plus-plus move to push the Pacers in the right direction.

The selection of Walke doesn’t mean the Pacers are set at the big wing position. Free agency or additional trades may present options to add a veteran big wing like Harrison Barnes, Dorian Finney-Smith, PJ Washington, etc. Sure some of those or other options may be a bit costly, but the Pacers have tons of money to spend for next year and any deal for those types of players won’t blow up the salary cap in the long term.

For dropping down a spot, the Wizards will send the Pacers two 2028 second round picks. One from Phoenix and the other from the Wizards.

Now let’s just hope Coulibaly doesn’t turn into the next Giannis…