The Sacramento Kings picked 23-year old shooting guard Orlando Johnson out of UC-Santa Barbara with the 36th overall pick (2nd round) of the 2012 NBA Draft. They then traded him to the Pacers for a wad of cold, hard cash. Johnson is 6′5″, 205 pounds. Johnson played in 31 games at UC-Santa Barbara last year and he averaged 34.4 minutes, 19.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Johnson played in 124 games in his four years in college and he averaged 31.3 minutes, 17.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Johnson will likely give the Pacers some offense off the bench as a rookie.

The Indiana Pacers picked 23-year old center Miles Plumlee out of Duke with the 26th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft. Plumlee stands 6′10″, 245 pounds and he plays a big man’s game. He played in 34 games for Duke last year and he averaged 20.5 minutes, 6.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. Plumlee played in 135 games in his three years at Duke and he averaged 15.8 minutes, 4.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He projects as a backup center in the NBA.

31-year old SG/SF Dahntay Jones has opted in for the 2012-13 season for the Pacers, valued at $2.9 million bucks. Jones played in 65 games (3 starts) for the Pacers last year and he averaged 16.2 minutes, 5.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. He shot pretty well from long range last year hitting 42.9% from behind the arc. Jones has played in 196 games (31 starts) in his first three years with the Pacers and he is averaging 18.0 minutes, 7.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He has now played in 511 games (138 starts) in his first 9 years in the NBA and he is averaging 16.8 minutes, 6.0 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. The Pacers were probably hoping that Jones would opt out, but this was a smart move for him.

The Indiana Pacers’ run in the playoffs likely added money to the pockets of restricted free agents Roy Hibbert and George Hill. The Pacers will likely try to match any offer for Hibbert, as talented young centers like him are hard to find. The Pacers probably want to bring George Hill back, but they likely won’t overpay for him with Darren Collison under contract. Third string point guard A.J. Price is the Pacers’ #3 point guard and they will likely let him walk. The Pacers also have three unrestricted free agents in SF/SF Leandro Barbosa, PF Louis Amundson and C Kyrlyo Fesenko. I could see the Pacers bringing back Barbosa and/or Amundson, if they can get them at the right price. I don’t see them bringing back Fesenko.

If the playoff series against the Miami Heat showed anything about the Pacers, it was that they had a lack of depth up front. The Pacers own the #26 overall pick in the NBA Draft at the end of this month and I see them going after the best big man available. With that in mind, I have the Pacers taking power forward Kevin Jones out of West Virginia with their first round pick in my mock draft, which can be found on bloglockers.com. This would be a rock solid pick for the Pacers as Jones would bring toughness to the frontcourt in 2012-13 and beyond.