Indiana Pacers Rooting Against Houston Rockets Down The Stretch Of 2022-23 Season

There are a few NBA teams that are rooting for the Houston Rockets down the stretch of the 2022-23 NBA season. The San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons, for example, would like to see Houston win some games so that they could move up in the draft lottery standings.

One team that won’t be rooting for the Rockets in April is the Indiana Pacers. They, too, have draft implications riding Houston’s finish to the campaign.

When the Pacers traded All-Star guard Victor Oladipo to the Rockets in 2021, they received a second-round pick from Houston. But that pick has some funky protections as a part of previous deals made by the Rockets.

Indiana will get the Rockets second round pick this season if it lands in the top-two of the second round (31st or 32nd). If the pick is 33rd or worse, then it goes to the Boston Celtics, and the Pacers will instead receive the worse of the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat’s second-round picks. Essentially, they will either get a pick in the low-30s or mid-40s.

Of course, a higher pick is better. The Pacers drafted Andrew Nembhard with the 31st overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, and he has been excellent in his first season in the NBA. Picks high in the second round are hardly worse than the back of the first round, and they have decent trade value. Indiana traded the 31st pick (and other assets) in the 2021 NBA Draft to move up into the first round and draft Isaiah Jackson.

And so, the Pacers are rooting against the Rockets down the stretch of the season. Houston currently has the second-worst record in the NBA at 18-59, with the Pistons right behind them (16-60) and the Spurs right in front of them (19-57). The Rockets host Detroit tonight.

If the Rockets finish tied with another team in the standings, a randomized selection is done to determine the draft order. The team that wins said drawing ends up picking higher in the first round and lower in the second round, so the Pacers would theoreticlally want the Rockets to lose a tiebreaker if they end up tied for the third-worst record.

Indiana has already locked up first-round draft picks from the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, and they will have their own first-round pick in the top-1o too. But adding another strong draft pick would be useful for the Pacers’ asset base as they progress in their rebuild, so they are rooting against the Rockets down the stretch. If Houston never wins against this season, they are guaranteed to finish with a bottom-two record.

If the Houston pick conveys to Boston as the 33rd pick, the Pacers would get Miami’s second rounder as things stand right now. It is currently slated to be either 48th or 49th, significantly worse than 31st or 32nd.

After their battle with the Pistons, the Rockets play the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Charlotte Hornets, and Washington Wizards to close their season.