Pacers trade Mathurin and Jackson to Clippers for Ivica Zubac and 3 draft picks

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Pacers finally got the center they needed. The Los Angeles Clippers got the draft picks they wanted — and two additional players to boot.

On Thursday, the Pacers dealt high-scoring swingman Bennedict Mathurin, center Isaiah Jackson and three draft picks to the Clippers for center Ivica Zubac. The Clippers announced the trade, saying they would receive a first-round draft pick this year, a 2029 first-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick.

"This trade is extremely difficult for many reasons, but in order to achieve our ultimate goals as an organization, we felt we had to take advantage of the opportunity,” said Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations.

Indiana gets one of the league's top defensive centers — and the post presence they've been seeking since longtime center Myles Turner surprised the Pacers by leaving for Central Division rival Milwaukee last summer in free agency.

One advantage is that Zubac, who turns 29 next month, is signed through the 2027-28 season, meaning he'll be around when two-time All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton returns from his torn Achilles tendon next season. Mathurin can become a restricted free agent this summer and it was unclear whether the Pacers could afford to re-sign their first-round draft pick from 2022.

Plus, Zubac was a second team all-defensive team selection last year and the Pacers now have nearly half of this season to see how he fits on a roster that won last season's Eastern Conference title and has most of its key players signed for multiple years.

“Zu is one of the best centers in the NBA, the longest-tenured player on the team and a pillar of everything we’ve done for the past seven years,” Frank said. “He is an elite rim protector and rebounder who made himself into an effective offensive threat, a tribute to his hard work. We will miss Zu as a player and a person.”

Zubac is averaging 14.4 points and 11.0 rebounds — numbers lower than last season's career highs — while shooting 61.3% from the field, making him an offensive upgrade over Jackson and Jay Huff, who struggled to replace Turner's productivity both offensively and defensively.

Zubac was the longest tenured active player on the Clippers. He missed Wednesday night's loss to Cleveland after his wife gave birth to the couple's first child.

In some ways, this deal is reminiscent of the move president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard made two years ago to get All-Star forward Pascal Siakam, which helped set up Indiana's successful postseason runs in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

But without Haliburton — and a series of debilitating injuries — the Pacers have struggled to the third worst record in the league, 13-38.

The Clippers, meanwhile, continue to stockpile draft picks as they overhaul their roster following the earlier deal that sent James Harden to Cleveland.

Mathurin recently returned from toe and thumb injuries that kept him out most of January, and he's been increasingly rounding into form. He's still averaging 17.8 points and 5.4 rebounds, mostly off the bench, this season and has improved significantly as a defender, too.

Jackson has started 14 times in 38 games played this season and is averaging 6.4 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 58.2% from the field. Like Mathurin, Jackson also was a first-round draft pick in 2021, No. 8 overall. And though Jackson had shown flashes of the player Indiana thought he could become, he lacked the consistency to win the starting job even after the loss of Turner.

But both could find more playing time in Los Angeles now, and that could help speed up the Clippers' overhaul.

In addition to Zubac, the Pacers also received Kobe Brown, a 6-foot-7 forward who is averaging 2.9 points and 1.6 rebounds in 34 games this season. He's appeared in 118 games across three seasons since being drafted by the Clippers.

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds and AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams (15) and Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac battle for a rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen (8) shoots over Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin (00) and Chicago Bulls forward Jalen Smith (25) reach for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin, left, looses the ball in front of Atlanta Hawks forward Mouhamed Gueye during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival the Las Vegas Sun for the first time in decades, amid an ongoing legal dispute over the nation's last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal said in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.

The two publications will be in court Friday and the Sun hopes a judge will order printing to immediately resume, attorney Leif Reid said in an email. It will be the first day in 76 years that the Sun hasn’t been printed, he said.

“This does irreparable harm to our community, as no one benefits when a local newspaper is prevented from being published,” he said.

The now-rare joint operating agreement required the Sun to be printed as a daily insert in the Review-Journal, while both companies remained editorially independent with separate newsrooms and websites.

A lower court had found the agreement was unenforceable because a 2005 update was never signed by the U.S. attorney general, and in February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the Sun.

The Review-Journal editorial called the Supreme Court decision a decisive victory, saying that halting publication of the Sun on Friday was “a result of 6½ years of litigation between the newspapers, precipitated by the Sun.”

Such agreements between rival publications have dwindled as part of a "long, slow goodbye of newspapers as we knew them,” said Ken Doctor, a news business analyst. The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News ended a 40-year agreement last year. USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, recently announced its plans to purchase the Detroit News.

In 1950, the Sun was founded in response to the Review-Journal’s refusal to negotiate with typesetters from the International Typographical Union. The union started its own newspaper and reached out to businessman Hank Greenspun for financial backing. The Greenspuns still own the paper.

The Review-Journal has been publishing since 1909, first as the Clark County Review. It is owned by the Adelson family, casino magnates and mega GOP donors, and remains the state’s largest newspaper.

The Review-Journal’s editorials lean more conservative, while the Sun’s lean liberal. The 1970 law signed by then President Richard Nixon, called the Newspaper Preservation Act, was designed to save newspapers costs while maintaining competition and editorial variety in cities as newspapers began to financially struggle.

The papers first entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989 when the Sun was struggling to stay afloat financially. The agreement made the Sun an afternoon newspaper during weekdays and a section within the Review-Journal on weekend mornings, while the Review-Journal handled production, distribution and advertising. The Review-Journal also collected all revenue and was required to pay the Sun monthly to cover the Sun’s news and editorial expenses.

In 2005 the agreement was amended to make the Sun an insert in the Review-Journal every morning.

Review-Journal owners sought to end the agreement in 2019, and in response the Sun’s owners filed a lawsuit alleging that ending the agreement violated anti-trust laws.

The 1970 law allowing such agreements was signed at a time when news options weren't as prevalent and there was more concern over news monopolies.

Las Vegas — and Nevada as a whole — today have more strong, independent news organizations compared to other places, said Stephen Bates, a journalism and media professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Sun also publishes online. But it has argued in court that losing its print product could make it harder to recruit staff, cause a loss in readers, and even force it to close.

Genelle Belmas, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who specializes in media law, said it would be disappointing if the last joint operating agreement in the country ends. During visits to Vegas, she's enjoyed being able to pick up the Review-Journal and see the Sun folded inside, offering two differing points of view in one place. Online news outlets make it easier for consumers to stay in their echo chambers, she said.

“Every local news outlet we lose — and that includes big towns, small towns, whatever — is a loss of perspective and a loss of a potential alternative view,” Belmas said.

FILE - This Dec. 17, 2015 file photo shows a sign outside the building housing the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher, File)