In disappointing, but unsurprising news, the Indiana Pacers stood pat at the NBA trade deadline.
The Pacers aren’t a team that historically makes a lot of crazy moves (dealing Paul George being a huge exception), but no one seriously believes that they are a real threat to even make a top six playoff seed, let alone go on any sort of meaningful run. For a team that has so much underrated talent on its roster, that is not a very good place to be.
Contrary to the trade rumors that swirled around their entire roster just a few days back, the Pacers decided to spend this year’s deadline on the fringes. As for their talent, they really do have a lot of solid names on the roster. On paper, a starting lineup of Malcolm Brogdon, Caris LeVert, TJ Warren, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner is as potent and deep as any five in the league on both ends of the court. In all fairness to the Pacers, this five has also scarcely managed to spend any meaningful time together due to bad luck with injury and illness.
But regardless of what has happened this year, the Pacers have been straddling the line between “good” and “great” for almost two decades at this point, and with no Finals appearances to show for their efforts. With the aforementioned rumors, the team had a golden opportunity over the past week to commit to either a full rebuild or an honest push to the title, and they failed to do either. These are the trades that they could’ve should’ve made to commit in any direction.
Failure 1: Getting Juiced
WAS receives: Myles Turner, Caris LeVert
IND receives: Bradley Beal
For clarity: every intelligent GM and their grandmother made a call for Bradley Beal. But the fact that Indiana was never even linked to Washington’s finest is troubling. Washington, while in love with Beal, would have been idiotic not to even consider trading him for a borderline All-Star and the best big man they would have had since Wes Unseld.
Both are small prices to pay for a swingman of Bradley Beal’s caliber.
Beal is currently leading the NBA in scoring, and is doing so at a hilariously efficient pace, yet the Wizards are still stuck in development/basement hell. On the Pacers, however, Beal would be a walking nuke waiting to happen. His abilities as a playmaker would be maximized with threats like Sabonis and Warren on the inside and outside, and Brogdon is the low-maintenance, high-efficiency distributor that Beal has been begging for his entire career.
Failure 2: Detonating
ClutchPoints
BOS receives: Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon
DEN receives: Caris LeVert
IND receives: Romeo Langford, Kemba Walker, Gary Harris, RJ Hampton, DEN 2025 1st Rd Pick, BOS 2024 1st Rd Pick
If you’re going to detonate something, might as well enjoy the fireworks, right? Let’s break down what would absolutely be the most bananas move at this year’s trade deadline.
The Celtics have been linked to multiple high-profile big men over the past couple of years. Between Anthony Davis and this year’s recent interest in Aaron Gordon, Boston is clearly looking for their next great big. In comes Myles Turner, one of the most versatile two-way threats in the league. As a cherry on top, the Celtics get to dump Kemba Walker’s enormous contract onto someone else’s lap. All it would take would be their youth.
Denver, meanwhile, was apparently trying hard to get ahold of a two-way option at the deadline to take some pressure off of Jokic and Murray. While that desire resulted in Aaron Gordon, it can be argued that Levert would be a much more valuable option. LeVert is a proven distributor and a brilliant secondary perimeter threat behind Murray. He’d be a natural fit in Denver’s system. Moreover, the acquisition of Gordon gives us a valuable look into what Denver was willing to give up for him. The same return for a better offer than Gordon is a bargain.
To summarize: Indiana, who is already under the cap, lets go all of its highest paid pieces sans Domantas Sabonis in exchange for a veritable fountain of youth. Beautiful setting for a rebuild.
Failure 3: Getting Juiced, Round 2
CP
ORL receives: Myles Turner, Caris LeVert
IND receives: Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier
In retrospect, this is also a much better return for Orlando than what Chicago gave them in Vucevic’s actual departure at this year’s deadline.
Imagine Indiana’s pesky fourth-seeded team last year, and replace the oft-injured Myles Turner with an ironclad behemoth in Vucevic. Fournier comes in as a nice bonus as a better shooter than LeVert. He also demands the ball less, which would allow Indiana to focus offensive effort onto their now gigantic yet versatile duo in Vucevic and Sabonis. Furthermore, this deal actually allows the Pacers to have even more flexibility than they already do after this season, since Fournier is set to become a free agent this very offseason.
No doubt that Indiana would have given Orlando a call if they’d known that Vucevic was even available. The fact that they didn’t is an absolute travesty.
Now, don’t blame Indiana for their struggles this year. To their credit, the Pacers are only one season removed from being a top four seed in the Eastern Conference, and are poised to do so once more as soon as they are healthy. Their pieces are all young and hungry after flying under the radar for so long. Such is the blessing and curse of being on a small market team like Indiana.
But the fact that they were even entertaining offers on any one of their best pieces indicate that Indiana’s front office is starting to show signs of frustration with the team’s current roster. If that is truly the case, this year’s trade deadline was a golden opportunity for Indiana to make some sort of splash.
They didn’t, and that’s okay, but that is a decision they might come to regret as their stars continue to be good, rather than great.
