It seems that the Indiana Pacers are slowly rebuilding for Tyrese Haliburton’s return next season. Over the summer, Myles Turner shocked Indiana fans when he opted to play for the Milwaukee Bucks instead after the Pacers’ 2025 NBA Finals run.
Turner’s absence from the lineup left a huge gap in the Pacers’ roster. It also didn’t help Indiana this season that Haliburton was sidelined due to a torn Achilles. As a result, the Pacers are the worst team in the Eastern Conference at the moment.
Tyrese Haliburton Set To Play With Ivica Zubac
However, the Pacers anticipated this outcome and have been carefully preparing for next season. They made a consequential move for their future Thursday when they traded Bennedict Mathurin to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for veteran center Ivica Zubac.
The purpose of this trade is to fill the gap that Turner left. During Turner’s time with the Pacers, he served as the team’s rim protector, averaging a career-high 3.4 blocks per game in the 2020-21 season. His departure undoubtedly left a huge void inside the paint.
The addition of Zubac should help bolster Indiana’s presence in the paint. While Zubac is not as versatile an offensive player as Turner, he makes up for it with his double-digit rebounds per game.
This season, the Croatian big man is averaging 14.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. Exchanging him for Mathurin wouldn’t hurt the team too much on offense since Zubac can be a dominant force with his inside scoring.
While it’s great to see that the Pacers’ front office is carefully planning ahead as they wait for their star player to return next year, Haliburton still acknowledged his former teammate and wrote a short and heartfelt message on Instagram.
Tyrese uploaded an image of himself shaking hands with Mathurin on his Instagram story. He then wrote:
“My brother. Go be great 00.”
Pacers leader Tyrese Haliburton wishes Mathurin and Jackson well after they were both traded out west to the Clippers pic.twitter.com/OBtTXFqYkD
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) February 5, 2026
Another Pacers player involved in the trade was Isaiah Jackson. Indiana then threw in a few draft picks to sweeten the deal. In addition to Zubac, the Clippers also traded Kobe Brown to Indiana.
It’ll be interesting to see how the summer unfolds for the Pacers. While they technically sent their 2026 first-round draft pick to the Clippers as part of the deal for Zubac, they could still get the pick back if it ends up falling within the 1-4 or 10-30 range.
If they somehow secure the top pick of the 2026 NBA Draft, they’ll have a clear path to BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who’s considered by some analysts to be the best player in this year’s class and would provide Haliburton with another talented teammate.
