The Pacers went back to the UCLA pipeline in June when they drafted point guard Aaron Holiday 23rd overall. It was the third consecutive draft pick, spanning two drafts, that they used on a player from the Bruins’ program.

First, it was T.J. Leaf and then Ike Anigbogu in 2017. Although most pundits expected Aaron to be gone by the time the Pacers were on the clock, team executives and scouts were confident in their draft preparation so they were ready to pull the trigger if he continued to drop.

From a conference room in their new $50 million practice facility, the St. Vincent Center, the Pacers phoned in their pick.

“He was the guy that we had on the top of our board,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said on draft night.

So who exactly is Aaron Holiday and what can the team expect from him during his rookie season? Let’s explore.

Draft Night

June 21, 2018 didn’t go as planned for Aaron. During the draft process, he expected to go anywhere from picks 12-17. The competitor in him didn’t want to drop any further because Jrue, his 2nd eldest brother, was once the 17th pick.

A change in the pre-draft process altered the schedule for teams. First, many agencies hosted home-court workouts for their players in the Las Vegas and Los Angeles area. Then, during the first week in June, the NBA hosted a Global Camp in Treviso, Italy for the top 40 players overseas.

That condensed the Pacers’ pre-draft workout schedule to 13 days. They still brought in 29 draft hopefuls, but that’s a dozen less players than usual. Holiday worked out for 13 teams, but the Pacers weren’t on his list. They were, however, able to sit down with him for about 30 minutes at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. They knew his game well, having watched him at UCLA over the last three years. And they had his medical info, which checked out.

“We could never come together on a date,” agent Charles Briscoe explained. “It was a little bit of trying to get a date and trying to get them to come up to his range. We wanted to minimize his workouts, but then they called so much so we wanted to actually get them in. We almost got in, like two days before the draft.

“The entire time, the Pacers every week they called me two or three times trying to get Aaron in. They expressed their interest. From the day he entered the draft, they called several times.”

Inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, home of the 2018 NBA Draft, Aaron had to wait to hear his name called. Fortunately he was in good company, accompanied by his parents and three siblings.

“We kept putting names up on the board of who we thought was going to get to 23, and I can’t remember in many where we thought Aaron was gonna be there,” said Kevin Pritchard, the Pacers President of Basketball Operations. “And as the draft unfolded, we looked at maybe moving up, but we kept seeing that there was an option to get this really special kid, a point guard who’s tough, who’s committed to his teammates, who’s a complete Pacer and we actually talked a little bit about what he’s about. And it’s exactly what we’re about.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver walked to the podium for the 23rd selection, owned by the Pacers, and finally announced Aaron’s name. He was the final player taken in the green room.

“I think everybody in the world probably thought we were going to Phoenix [at 16],” Briscoe said. “We actually thought we were going to Phoenix until (draft night) when the draft was around pick 10, we actually got a call from the Brooklyn Nets. They actually had a trade on the table so we thought we were about to go at pick 12. For whatever reason, they couldn’t complete the deal and the Clippers ended up trading with Charlotte instead.”

By the time local reporters spoke with Aaron via conference call on draft night, it was after 1:17 am ET. He was understandably worn out and exhausted from the draft process, but eager to return the favor to Indiana.

“I’m very excited to be here,” he said the next day to begin his introductory press conference. “I just want to thank you guys for drafting me. It means a lot to be wanted and I’m just ready to get to work to be honest.”

Briscoe: “They showed the most interest out of everybody, and they won.”

The Holiday family will welcome a third brother into the NBA! #NBADraft #ThisIsWhyWePlay pic.twitter.com/ohF7Yh7iF1 — NBA (@NBA) June 21, 2018

Indiana Bruins

Together at UCLA during the 2016-17 season, T.J. Leaf, Ike Anigbogu, and Holiday are teammates once again. The Indiana Bruins, UCLA East … whatever you want to call them. Pacers executives and scouts have a great relationship with Bruins head coach Steve Alford — Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1983 and captain of the 1987 IU National Championship team — and his staff.

Moreover, Pacers starting point guard Darren Collison played for the Bruins from 2005-09. The similarities between Holiday and Collison are striking. First, they’re both from California. Collison grew up in Rancho Cucamonga and Holiday’s family has a Chatsworth home in the San Fernando Valley. Both attended UCLA and were taken in the early 20s.

Second, there’s the look. They both stand about 6-foot-1, wear an arm sleeve on their left arm, and shoot better than 42 percent from beyond the arc. Both are calm and in control, never the loudest voice in the room, but will often speak up. As a point guard, they are an extension of the coach on the floor.

Holiday, who didn’t have any feel that he would wind up in Indy, hears the comparisons and recognizes the similarities.

“He played with Jrue so I was able to see him a lot. I think we have similarities. He can play defense at a high level and I try to pride myself on that aspect as well. Offensively, he runs a team very well.”

Collison wears No. 2. Holiday will be No. 3.

“Yeah, I was literally thinking the same thing,” Myles Turner said in Las Vegas. “Same school, same height, same everything. They both have the competitive dog nature. That’s what I look at.”

While compiling their draft research and notes, team executives spoke with Leaf and Anigbogu, both of whom spent a season playing alongside Holiday at UCLA.

“We’d be crazy not to,” said Pacers General Manager Chad Buchanan. “Usually younger players will stick up for them because they were their teammates. We didn’t ask them so much about his basketball.

“We wanted to know what was he like as a guy, did you like him on the team? What was he like in the locker room? What was he like off the court, on the bus, on the plane, when things were going bad? That’s why we want to get feedback from our players. It’s our jobs to evaluate the talent, not their jobs. But they can give us feedback on what type of person they are because character is huge for us and knowing what our locker room is like, we want to make sure we’re adding to it.”

David Grace first recruited Aaron, then coached him for three seasons at UCLA.

“He’s a coach’s dream,” shared Grace, now an assistant at Cal. “He’s going to do everything the coaching staff asks of him. … He’s just a joy to be around and a joy to coach.”

UCLA had their share of drama over the last two seasons, dealing with the Ball family while Lonzo was a freshman in 2016-17. Lonzo, the second overall pick in 2017, came in and immediately started all 36 games on a team that went 31-5 and fell to Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen.

Holiday came off the bench that season after starting his entire freshman year and adapted to playing off the ball rather than being the player running the show.

“I’m glad you brought that up. Aaron is a true professional,” Grace explained. “He gets that from his brothers and his parents. He’s an outstanding young man. He was not happy with the decision but it never showed. Aaron and Lonzo are actually very good friends so that says a lot about both of those young men.”

(The Ball family talks about having all three boys in the NBA at the same time. The Holiday family actually did it.)

This past season, when Holiday resumed the starting position, three of his teammates were caught shoplifting while in China. Holiday, who made a point to always arrive early, helped the locker room handle it all, according to Grace.

“He was a great leader for us.”

2017 Indiana Mr. Basketball Kris Wilkes out of North Central High School was a freshman last season at UCLA. He was also Aaron’s roommate on road trips, and suggested that I ask Aaron why he was always gone from their room.

‘He’s kind of a laid-back kid, but when you get him on the court he’s a competitor,” Grace said. “He loves the gym. He’s a gym rat. So that’s where he probably was going, either that or going to spend time with his family. They are close-knit family and they spend a lot of time together.”

All In the Family

You’re probably well aware that Aaron has great genes. He’s the baby of the family, the youngest of four kids to Shawn and Toya, both of whom played basketball at Arizona State University. Toya was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year as a sophomore in 1982.

Justin, 29, is the oldest. He’s the only Holiday child not to attend UCLA. He went to Washington instead. Despite going undrafted in 2011, Justin is under contract with the Chicago Bulls, his fifth team in six seasons.. Then came Jrue (28), the New Orleans Pelicans’ All-Defensive First Team point guard. He departed UCLA after his freshman season and was taken 17th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Several years later, it was Lauren’s turn to enroll at UCLA after participating in basketball, track and field, volleyball, and even a year of softball in high school. She suffered more than a half-dozen head injuries, which forced her to retire from hoops in 2014 after just 12 appearances over two years. The closest in age to 21-year-old Aaron, Lauren has served as an inspiration and motivation to the Pacers’ first-round pick.

“She’s probably, like everybody in my family says, the best athlete [in the family],” Aaron said. “She was really, really good when she was playing basketball. For someone to go through what she went through and still be pretty much happy every day and help me throughout my entire life, I’m really thankful for her.”

When Holiday was introduced to Pacers fans on that June 22nd press conference, Lauren was right there in row one.

“They’re all very competitive, all very family oriented,” Briscoe explains.

Like any competitive sports family, the games extended to the driveway. Aaron started going against them about the time he was in middle school. Justin, meanwhile, was 22 and about to start a professional career.

“It taught me a lot of toughness, just not being able to win many games, but I still wanted to play so I could get out there,” he said. “It was fun, but I hated losing. It was a good teaching moment for sure.”

With two older brothers in the league, Aaron can learn from their experiences, both the highs and the lows. It typically takes young players several years in the league to learn how the NBA is a business. Maybe it’s after being traded or going through free agency for the first time. That gives Aaron a leg up on his peers. That said, he recognizes that his play on the court will only benefit from first-hand experience.

“Being exposed to it helps with stuff off the court, but on the court I still got to go through certain things,” he said. “Like just being out going through situations that I haven’t experienced through college and high school. It obviously helps having brothers to talk to you and tell you what to do, but I still got to experience it for myself.”

Speed of the game is often the number one thing rookies must become accustomed to, along with an extended schedule. A season could stretch to 100 games, including the preseason and a playoff run, three times the number of games on a college schedule. It’s the little things in live game action, such as running an effective pick-and-roll, opponents poking the ball away from behind on drives, or how defenders collapse on the ball.

Also, you cannot mention Holiday’s family in Indianapolis without discussing his sister-in-law, Lauren (Cheney), wife of Jrue. She’s best known for winning two U.S. Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012, but she got her start in Indy. She starred at Ben Davis High School before playing at UCLA, where she met Jrue.

She certainly will have connections and tips to pass along to Aaron.

Reps in Summer League

Summer League is the first time for rookies to play their game against NBA talent. Just a few weeks after the draft, the entire NBA was in Las Vegas. And for the first time in league history, all 30 teams participated in the 12-day event. The Pacers, who traditionally entered the Orlando Summer League, had never competed in Las Vegas. They were the final hold out.

While there, Holiday did what he should have done — he led the team on the floor and on the box score. He averaged 14.5 points, 6.8 assists, and 5.0 rebounds per game over four games. His debut in blue and gold was memorable with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and five rebounds.

“I’m impressed with him, but I’m not surprised,” Turner said. “The stuff that he’s doing out there, he’s always been a standout guy to me, even at his size. I like the way he competes.”

Steve Gansey, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants coach who headed up the Pacers’ Summer League team in Vegas, immediately noticed Holiday’s confidence and scoring ability when he stepped on the floor for the first time. Holiday took command of the team and made the right play on offense.

“His ability to stretch the floor and attack the basket is going to be a big-time strength for him in this league,” Gansey said.

More than his scoring ability, Holiday’s court awareness and desire to attack stood out. He constantly looked for openings in the defense and then would make them pay. If several defenders slid over, he would then dart a pass to an open teammate. Most of all, his ability to finish at the rim and against contact impressed. We’ll see how that translates against stiffer competition.

“He’s got a strong body. His body is real square,” Gansey said. “When he gets to the basket and when he just shoots on the outside, he absorbs contact pretty well. I was very happy for him getting to the foul line.

Holiday can make up for his size by remaining a pesky defender and knowing opponents’ tendencies.

“He’s a bulldog defender, he’s as tough as they get,” Pritchard said. “He can turn guys in the backcourt. That’s a real underrated skill.”

Despite his offensive showing in Game 1, he was disappointed in his defensive play. He shared how he felt like he got blown by too often, “got messed up on pick-and-roll calls” and needed to go over the screen.

“One of the things that Aaron has to continue to learn is pick-and-roll defense, especially in the NBA game,” Gansey said after Holiday’s debut. “Really jamming pick-and-rolls, not giving any angles, working on his footwork. I thought he did a really good job of jamming in those pick-and-rolls like we showed him on film beforehand.”

Opportunity Awaits

With the 23rd overall pick, you must draft the best player available rather than need. It worked out that the Pacers, in need of a future point guard, were able to add one to their depth chart.

Collison is a veteran starter who turns 31 years old on Thursday. He’s coming off his best season as a pro, but will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. So will reserve guard Cory Joseph, who turned 27 on Monday.

Holiday’s game is a combination of those two players. As a junior at UCLA, he shot 45 percent from the field and led the Pac-12 in scoring (20.3 points per game) — becoming the first UCLA player to do so since Hall of Famer Reggie Miller did it during the 1985-86 season.

“He will embrace anything that is thrown at him and do it in a professional way,” coach Grace said.

Joseph is better known for his defense. That’s his strength over Collison. Holiday, meanwhile, led the Bruins in assists (192), steals (42), and was a Pac-12 All-Defensive Team selection.

“He goes into the season behind Cory and Darren, but I see him competing for minutes,” Pritchard said on draft night. “One thing you know about that third point guard position is during the season you get a chance to play. I would be shocked if he didn’t play some this year.”

The Pacers have a strong foundation to build on from last year. It’s a likable group with exceptional chemistry and plenty to prove, which they did. Nobody pegged them to win 40 games; they went out and won 48. Their core six players return and they added a veteran scorer (Tyreke Evans) and shooter (Doug McDermott) in free agency.

It all begins for Holiday and the rest of the Pacers in just over a month. Training camp opens on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at the St. Vincent Center.

(Top photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)