NBA Draft 2018: Pacers take Aaron Holiday at No. 23
The Indiana Pacers select a potential point guard of the future in Aaron Holiday, with the No. 23 pick.
With the No. 23 pick in the NBA draft, the Indiana Pacers selected Aaron Holiday, out of UCLA.
The selection of Holiday here eliminated the final player from the green room, indicating at some level that he fell down a little bit. Finding his way to Indiana should work well for him — either Indiana keeps and guarantees the contract of Darren Collison, and Collison, who, as a mildly undersized, athletic score-first lead guard, will have a lot to teach Holiday, or they will elect not to keep his partially guaranteed $10 million deal, and Holiday will have a more direct path to minutes in schemes that are already designed around a player with his size and strengths.
Holiday was a standout at UCLA and was arguably the best player in the PAC-12 this year, despite that conference containing number one overall pick DeAndre Ayton. His ability to run the pick-and-roll at the NBA level should already put him as a good fit next to Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, and his ability to shoot should give him the off-ball ability that will allow Victor Oladipo to take the additional time on-ball that moved him up into the all-NBA discussion this year. As a result, Holiday should ease in well next to the best young assets on the Pacers, and allow them to get younger at a position where they currently have a patchwork of veterans that are probably best suited to be backups in Darren Collison and Corey Joseph.
He doesn’t solve their need for larger wing depth, especially if Thaddeus Young elects to opt out of his contract as he appears to be considering, but the Pacers have cap space to resolve that, and Holiday should be an excellent player for them all the same.