The Indiana Pacers fell out of the 2026 NBA Draft lottery on Sunday, missing the top four and leaving their first-round pick tied to the conditions of an earlier trade. The result means the Pacers will not control their own selection unless the lottery falls their way in a way it no longer can.

T.J. McConnell represented Indiana in Chicago as the team watched a chance at a major offseason reset disappear. The Pacers finished 19-63 and had gone into the lottery with a 14% shot at the No. 1 overall pick and a 52% chance of landing in the top four, a card table worth of odds that suddenly turned into nothing at all.

The loss stings more because of what Indiana gave up at the 2026 NBA trade deadline to get Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pacers sent assets including Bennedict Mathurin and perhaps their 2026 first-round pick to Los Angeles, with the pick set to go to the Clippers if it landed fifth or sixth instead of top four. That made Sunday one of the most important nights of the Pacers' season even after the losses had piled up.

The lottery result also keeps Indiana's long-term picture tied to Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a torn Achilles' tendon in the opening minutes of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. What had looked like a silver lining after a 19-63 season now turns into another season of waiting, with the Pacers' draft position and their recovery plan still shaped by the same injury and the same trade decision.

Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan now have to work with fewer easy answers than the lottery odds once suggested. If the pick lands outside the top four, the Clippers take it, and Indiana's worst season in years ends without the high-end draft help that once looked within reach.