2018 NBA Draft

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2018 Draft: Pacers Select Aaron Holiday, Alize Johnson

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Pacers fans have heard this story before. It's the one about a young boy who has a talented older sister who serves as a tutor, mentor, and ego-bruiser on the basketball court, thus serving as an inspiration toward an NBA career.

Reggie Miller can tell that story. So can Paul George. And now comes Aaron Holiday, the first-round draft pick who was introduced to the local media on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Holiday, the 23rd overall pick in Thursday's NBA draft, follows older brothers Justin and Jrue into the NBA, which is where most of the media focus will be. Once Aaron makes his debut with the Pacers next fall, the family will become one of the few to have three brothers who have played in the league.

PHOTO GALLERY: Behind the Scenes as Holiday Arrives in Indiana »

More than played, really. Justin, 29, was undrafted out of Washington but is coming off the best of his five seasons in the NBA, having averaged 12.2 points while starting all 72 games in which he played for Chicago. Jrue, 28, was a first-round pick of Philadelphia and is coming off the best of his nine seasons in the league, having averaged 19 points for New Orleans.

Don't forget Lauren's influence, though. She was the Division 4A Player of the Year coming out of high school in 2012 and took a scholarship offer from UCLA. A series of head injuries ended her career after 12 games in two seasons, but at 24 she's the closest in age to 21-year-old Aaron.

She and Aaron didn't go one-on-one as often as Reggie did with Cheryl and Paul did with Teiosha, but they guarded one another in the two-on-two battles on the adjustable eight-foot goal in the driveway at the family home with Justin and Jrue.

When they did go up against one another, either in a one-on-one game or as part of a larger game when Aaron was in grade school, he paid the price of being the younger and smaller player.

That's what his father, Shawn, best remembers from the driveway games.

"What I recall is his sister taking it to him," he said Friday. "She was the one who made him tough. The boys were a little older, but she was one who would give it to him in the front yard."

2018 DRAFT CENTRAL: Complete Coverage at Pacers.com/Draft »

Lauren, now an assistant basketball coach and head track and cross country coach at the siblings' high school, Campbell Hall outside of Los Angeles, downplays her dominance, but does acknowledge a role in Aaron's development.

"Because he was younger, he had a fascination with dunking," Lauren said. "I remember one time...he's made it now, so why not air his business?...one time I dunked on him and his pride was hurt because he's super-competitive. He went to check the ball and threw it at me.

"After that day it got harder and harder to beat him. Something kicked in after that."

"Those games were hard and tough," he said Friday. "It taught me a lot of toughness. (I wasn't able to) win many games, but I still wanted to play. It was fun. I hated losing, but it's a good teaching moment for sure."

An even greater asset for Aaron and his siblings was the approach of his parents. Mother Toya was a standout player at Arizona State and coached Lauren in high school. Father Shawn played at Arizona State for two years and then at Cal-State Los Angeles.

He participated in an NBA Summer League at Loyola-Marymount, but failed to get a tryout with a team. He moved on with life, joining the workforce in a variety of capacities, and began raising children with Toya.

They weren't frustrated athletes living through their children, however. They put on a clinic of athletic parenting, offering opportunities and making it fun without pushing too hard.

"You can't pressure your kids into doing things," he said. "It's tough when you try to live through them because eventually they'll break down and they won't want to do anything. We just allowed them to do what they wanted to do.

"We were more the type if we'd go work out and you're not doing what we tell you, we'll go home. You can do it tomorrow. That hurt worse than yelling at them."

Holiday brings plenty of connections and coincidences to the Pacers. Aside from having two brothers in the NBA, he joins former UCLA teammates TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu on the Pacers' roster, and he'll back up another former UCLA point guard, Darren Collison.

He also shares a link with another player the Pacers took with the 23rd pick. That would be another point guard, Travis Best, in 1995. Best backed up veterans Mark Jackson and Haywoode Workman as a rookie and then moved into the rotation the following season. Holiday likely will back up Collison and Cory Joseph, with a great opportunity to move into the rotation after next season.

Best, by the way, had an older sister who helped advance his career. Darlene, eight years older, was a standout high school player in their hometown of Springfield, Mass, who passed on college basketball opportunities to prepare for a business career.

And now comes Holiday, maintaining club policy.

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Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.

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Holiday Joins Pacers Tradition of Sister Influence

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Behind-the-Scenes: Aaron Holiday Arrives in Indiana

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After the Pacers snagged UCLA's Aaron Holiday and Missouri State's Alize Johnson in the NBA Draft on Thursday night, fans, media, and players reacted to the picks.

For Holiday, the general consensus on Twitter was that the sharpshooting guard was a steal with the 23rd pick, as many mock drafts had him off the board before the Pacers would get a chance to select him.

With the 50th overall pick, the selection of Johnson was lauded because of Johnson's uncommon rebounding ability for his size.

Check out some of the reactions below to the Pacers' draft night.

how-fans-and-media-reacted-to-the-pacers-draft

How Fans and Media Reacted to the Pacers' Draft

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The Indiana Pacers introduced point guard Aaron Holiday, the 23rd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, in a press conference today on Friday afternoon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

"I'm very excited to be here," Holiday said. "I just wanted to thank (the Pacers) for drafting me. It means a lot to be wanted and I'm just ready to get to work."

"We kept seeing that there was an option to get this really special kid who's a point guard who's tough, who's committed to his teammates," Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said about the decision to draft Holiday.

"It's a very, very good team," Holiday said of the Pacers. "They pushed the Cavs to a seven-game series (and) they had a very good chance of winning (Game 7). (There's) a lot of young talent on this team and I'm really excited about being a part of it.

You can watch the entire press conference in the video player above.

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Watch Aaron Holiday's Introductory Press Conference

The comparison might seem obvious, even lazy, but it's valid.

Aaron Holiday, the point guard selected by the Pacers with the 23rd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft on Thursday, bears a lot of similarities to Darren Collison, the Pacers' incumbent starter. Not just because they both attended UCLA, and not because they're about the same size. They also happen to have a similar skill set and degree of athleticism.

Which could make Collison the perfect mentor for the rookie next season.

"We see a lot of similarities," Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said following the draft, in which the Pacers also took Missouri State forward Alize Johnson in the second round. "We see speed, we see elite shooting. We were shocked that he was there."

Holiday, the younger brother of two established NBA point guards — Jrue was a near-elite player with New Orleans last season and Justin had his best season yet with Chicago — was widely projected to go between six or seven spots higher in the draft. He is regarded as a "safe" pick, a player who should at least become a capable backup.

Despite the expectation Holiday would go higher than 23rd, the instant analysis from media outlets was mixed. ESPN declared the Pacers to be one of their six "big winners" in the draft. CBS Sports awarded them an "A-." Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, and SB Nation gave "B" grades, and The Sporting News, USA Today, and The Ringer handed out "C's."

The Pacers weren't able to bring in Holiday for a workout before the draft, but interviewed him extensively at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. They left convinced he would fit their culture for his humble nature, work ethic, and toughness.

UCLA's coach, Steve Alford, spoke to those qualities in a distributed comment.

"He's such a driven young man with a burning desire to get better at both ends," Alford said. "It's hard for me to put into words what Aaron meant to our team. He was simply remarkable."

He'll also have to meet the demands of an NBA point guard, however. He isn't an exceptional athlete and is undersized at 6-foot-1, but has an unusually long wingspan at 6-foot-7.

Shooting is not a concern. Holiday hit better than 40 percent of his 3-pointers all three of his seasons at UCLA, including 43 percent last season, and 83 percent of his foul shots. He hit better than 45 percent of his 3-pointers off the catch last season, which could make him compatible with Victor Oladipo, who often handles the ball in the Pacers' offense.

PHOTO GALLERY: Pacers Select Aaron Holiday »

He's also an aggressive defender who averaged 1.2 steals. His  length could enable him to defend taller players effectively despite his lack of height.

Aaron Holiday (center) will join older brothers Jrue (left) and Justin (right) in the NBA. (Credit: NBAE/Getty Images)

"He's a bulldog defender," Pritchard said. "He's as tough as they get. When we talk about players, the first thing we talk about is, is he tough. And he's that."

Holiday, clearly tired after enduring all the post-selection demands at the NBA Draft site in Brooklyn, wasn't expansive in his conference call with reporters, but clearly has followed the Pacers last season.

"You guys are very, very talented," he said. "Pretty young, actually.  I know you guys took LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games and the calls just didn't really go your way at the end. I know you guys are on the rise and I feel like I can come in and help you guys."

He'll find familiar faces in Indianapolis. He will join former UCLA teammates TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu, who were drafted by the Pacers last season. He also said he's met Collison, who last played at UCLA in the 2008-09 season, "a couple of times." And, Jrue's wife, Lauren, a former member of the U.S. national soccer team, is from Indianapolis.

Pritchard said he considers Holiday a potential starter down the road. If nothing else, he'll have veteran tutors next season. Without specifically saying it, Pritchard indicated Collison will be brought back for the second year of his contract — he only had a minimal guarantee for next season — and Cory Joseph already has turned in the paperwork to claim the option on the final year of his contract.

"He goes into the season behind Cory and Darren, but I see him competing for minutes," Pritchard said. "I would be shocked if he didn't play some this year.

Collison and Joseph will become free agents after next season, giving the Pacers a wide array of options at point guard, and giving Holiday an opportunity to step into a greater role.

"We felt we needed a point guard in the pipeline who could at least fill a backup role in the future. He has some characteristics of a starter."

Regardless of his future role, Holiday projects as someone who can carve out a long NBA career in Pritchard's opinion.

"He is going to be an NBA player," Pritchard said. "There are some guys you just sit and talk...he's going to be an NBA player."

Pritchard said he explored some trades to move up in both rounds of the draft. He had the asset of cap space, which would have enabled him to take on a big contract, but didn't find the right opportunity.

"There were a couple possibilities, but they just became too cost-prohibitive," Pritchard said.

"We had a guy targeted. We really wanted a (certain) player."

Johnson, a 6-9 forward, was described by Pritchard as a "bulldog" rebounder. He averaged 11.6 in 31.2 minutes per game at Missouri State last season, along with 15 points. A 5-9 point guard when he began high school, he has exceptional ballhandling skills for his size. He's not a perimeter scoring threat, having hit 28 percent of his 3-point shots last season.

PHOTO GALLERY: Pacers Select Alize Johnson »

"I wanted have a guy Nate could throw out into a game and go guard somebody in February," Pritchard said. "That just says, 'I don't care about anything. Just put me on the floor in February when everybody's going to be tired and I'm going to do something.' There are some guys who are just around the ball."

Pritchard said he's unsure of Thaddeus Young's intention regarding free agency. Young could return to the Pacers under the final year of his current deal, become a free agent, or sign a new contract with the Pacers.

"I've had a few conversations with his agent," Pritchard said. "At the end of the day it's his decision. We'd like to have him back."

Young has until June 29 to decide whether to opt in or out of his contract. At that point Pritchard will know his needs for next season, and how much money he'll have under the salary cap to spend on free agents or to put into uneven trades for players with larger contracts.

2018 NBA Draft

2018 Draft: Pacers Select Aaron Holiday, Alize Johnson

Holiday Joins Pacers Tradition of Sister Influence

Behind-the-Scenes: Aaron Holiday Arrives in Indiana

How Fans and Media Reacted to the Pacers' Draft

Watch Aaron Holiday's Introductory Press Conference

Holiday Should Look Familiar to Pacers

Pacers Select Alize Johnson

Pacers Select Aaron Holiday