It seemed like it was going to be a quiet day on the Marquette To NBA front as there was no chance of Ben Gold or Chase Ross getting selected in Wednesday night’s second round of the NBA Draft. However, Indiana Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan and Chicago Bulls general manager Stephen Mervis had different ideas. After Chicago selected Purdue guard Braden Smith with the 8th pick of the second round and the 38th pick overall, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania broke some news on a trade:
Former Marquette guard Kam Jones is headed to the Windy City.
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Indiana is trading Jones to the Bulls along with some yet to be revealed future pick swaps and cash in exchange for the draft rights to Smith.
Jones was the #38 pick one year ago, technically being selected by San Antonio before a trade that was finalized after the fact sent him to the Pacers, much like this trade will eventually be finalized because the NBA rules about the league schedule are weird and bad. Marquette’s #2 all time leading scorer appeared in 37 games for Indiana this past season as the Pacers went 19-63 with Tyrese Haliburton out for the year after suffering an Achilles tear in the 2025 NBA Finals. Jones started seven times along the way and ended up averaging 4.4 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 16.6 minutes per game. One thing that did not help Jones’ playing time was his 29.3% three-point shooting, and that was dragged down by shooting just 25% in Indiana’s final seven games of the season.
After being taken in the second round last year, Jones signed a three year contract with the Pacers that has a fourth season on a team option. In theory, that means that the Bulls are up for the idea of continuing Jones’ development for at least another two seasons. I would wager it means we will see him in Chicago black & red when Summer League pops up in July. Where things go from there as Tiago Splitter takes over as head coach and the Bulls move on from the front office pairing of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, we will have to wait and see…..
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