Indiana
GM Chad Buchanan on why Pacers traded for Ivica Zubac
There are nights when the magic of the Pacers’ Finals run last summer seems so far in the rearview mirror.
Nights like Wednesday at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, when Indiana gave the night off to nearly all of the players who made that run possible, allowing them to get an extra night to rest injuries on the way into the All-Star break.
But Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan’s second-quarter appearance on the FanDuel Sports Network served as a reminder that Indiana’s front office remains in championship mode, even as the Pacers find themselves in the middle of a lottery fight due to an injury-riddled season.
Buchanan’s appearance underlined the urgency Indiana feels to capitalize on the promise of the past two seasons as Eastern Conference contenders, a status that drove last week’s blockbuster trade for former Clippers center Ivica Zubac.
Indiana sees Zubac as a core piece for a contender
The Pacers gave up a lot to get Zubac: Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson and three draft picks, including the potential to lose their 2026 first-rounder to the Clippers if that pick falls between picks 5-9.
“For us, the starting center position was our biggest hole, and you’re going to have to give up something to fill it,” Buchanan said. “We did give up a lot. Sometimes, in this business, you have to take a risk, and we’re taking a risk adding a new player, but we’re very confident he’s going to be a great fit with us.”
Indiana lost long-time center Myles Turner to the Bucks in free agency last offseason, leaving the Pacers’ championship core with a significant hole in the middle.
A bruising big man who will alter the center’s role in the Pacers system because of his skill set, Zubac brings positioning, defense and a knack for finishing at the rim.
Most importantly, he fills what Indiana saw as a glaring hole if it wants to be back in the Eastern Conference mix next season.
“We’re excited about Ivica,” Buchanan said. “Losing what we lost with Myles, we felt like that position was something we wanted to address to give this team the best chance to compete at the level we saw them compete at last year.”
Zubac will not make his Pacers debut “for a while” due to a lingering ankle issue.
But Indiana would like to see him on the floor at some point, even though the trade leaves the Pacers with plenty of incentive to stay firmly seated at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
“You’re going to see some chemistry built,” Buchanan said. “Once Big Zu is healthy and back playing, we want to see him get out there with his new teammates in our system.”
Tyrese Haliburton still sets the tone
The biggest reason for Indiana’s swoon this season is that its best player remains on the bench.
Buchanan pointed out Wednesday that the fact Haliburton is on the bench at all is something that should be noted. While taking special care to point out that the Pacers still operate the way they did while pursuing a championship last season, the Indiana general manager credited Haliburton for setting the tone.
“In the NBA, when someone has a season-ending injury, you don’t see them,” Buchanan said. “Tyrese Haliburton’s sitting on the bench every second for us, he’s on every road trip, he’s at every practice. That is what a leader does. His personality, his leadership defines who this team is.”
Pacers feel an urgency to get back to the Finals
The Zubac deal was driven by a desire to maximize the team’s championship window.
While Haliburton is still only 25 years old, Buchanan emphasized that Indiana is aware that the picture in the NBA can change quickly.
“When we looked at our team, when you look back to last year, the run we made, how special this group has shown it can be when you have the full team together. … We owe this group every chance to compete,” Buchanan said. “Because the window, as you know, is not always open for long in the NBA.”
Haliburton’s heartbreaking Achilles injury in Game 7 left the Pacers fighting an uphill battle this season.
But the Pacers are still a team that has its eyes on the ultimate prize, even though injuries have forced Indiana to play through a rough season before chasing it again in earnest.
The core of Indiana’s roster is still there, seated in a line at the Barclays Center on Wednesday night.
“If we would have done nothing, just sat back and watched other teams chase a championship, that’s no fun,” Buchanan said. “We want to be in that race. We want to be in that chase, and this team deserves it.”
Dustin Dopirak covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
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Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
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