Kansas guard Johnny Furphy talks with media members at Delta Center on Friday, March 22, 2024 in Salt Lake City. Photo by Nick Krug

Former Kansas wing Johnny Furphy will have to shake a lot of hands when he first meets the Indiana Pacers’ staff.

The Pacers didn’t bring him in for a pre-draft workout, general manager Chad Buchanan told reporters after the draft concluded Thursday, in part because he was projected to go higher than he ultimately did, which was No. 35 overall, in the second round. Indiana, after all, did not have a first-round pick.

As a result, he didn’t exactly get the chance to make the acquaintance of Buchanan, team president Kevin Pritchard (who Buchanan said was excited about having another former Jayhawk in the building), or head coach Rick Carlisle.

“We had a lot of talks with his coaching staff, obviously coach (Bill) Self is a close friend of ours, and the entire (group of) KU people, people in Australia that knew him from earlier, but very limited access to him himself,” Buchanan said. “He’s not going to know who I am, or KP, probably knows who Rick is, but it’ll be an introductory meeting first time we get to see him.”

Furphy told ESPN Australia that it was “pretty crazy” to get the call from Carlisle that he was going to become a Pacer.

“He gave me a call, congratulated me, he’s very excited with kind of the way that I’ll be able to fit in with their play style, the exciting team dynamic,” Furphy said. “He said ‘We can’t wait to get to work.’ I’m going to be coached hard, which is good. But yeah, he just congratulated me, which is pretty insane.”

Indiana is coming off a year in which, led by in-season acquisition Pascal Siakam and young star guard Tyrese Haliburton, it managed to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade. As such, and as Buchanan noted, many players are firmly ensconced.

“The reality is our roster is in a situation where it’s going to be tough for a young guy to come in and play,” Buchanan said. “We have a lot of good young players already on the roster, we have a lot of established roles already, so we feel like we’re willing to be a little more patient with a young player like Johnny.”

Buchanan highlighted Furphy’s aggressive play style and movement without the ball as key attributes that caught the Pacers’ attention.

“I feel like he’s a guy who’s got a lot of room to grow,” Buchanan said. “Both his body, physically, his game, he’s obviously very young in age. But we liked a lot of things about him that felt like aligned with who we are as an organization, how we play, and obviously comes from a great program at Kansas.”

Furphy was technically selected by the Spurs, but the Pacers had actually moved up one spot via trade to acquire him, reportedly by sending San Antonio cash considerations. Buchanan said the trade-up came about as a result of hard-won lessons from previous drafts in which “the guy you have targeted gets picked right in front of you.”

As for how the Pacers learned about Furphy, Buchanan said they saw him play a lot, and Self had mentioned in a press release Thursday night that he had conversations with the Pacers the morning before they selected him.

“At a certain point, it doesn’t matter if you’ve met the kid or not,” Buchanan said. “You like the talent, you like what the coaches and staff and teammates that have played with him are telling you about him, and you feel comfortable with drafting him.”

Buchanan also mentioned that the Pacers had asked Self for a player comparison.

“He had Christian Braun, who plays for the Nuggets,” Buchanan said. “It’s kind of an easy comparison because he’s a KU guy, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily the right comp … He could kind of turn into a couple different types of guys if he’s the worker we think he is and fits into our system the way we think he (does).”

For Furphy, getting taken off the board was “a big relief” after “a long 24 hours,” he told ESPN Australia, and going to the Pacers specifically was a gift.

“The more I kind of talk about it and think about it, it sounds more and more perfect,” he said.