Pacers trade rumors & speculation thread

[JMaster5K]

If you could wave a magic wand, what kind of player would you sign to a 10-day to fill the open roster spot?

As you said we could use magic,... I'd be a bit cheeky as say prime MJ?....... o0

[Scoot McGroot]

If you could wave a magic wand, what kind of player would you sign to a 10-day to fill the open roster spot?

10 day? I’d look for an uptempo PG that could backup TJ and allow us to rest Haliburton/Nembhard so we can let them heal.

Elfrid Payton from the Ants?

No idea. Whomever Carlisle, Buchanan/Pritchard/ etc thinks can competently help for 10-20 days. Maybe not Payton, though, as if he played 2 10 day contracts with the big league team, he would likely be ineligible to return to the Mad Ants, due to being paid too much by the big league affiliate.

[JMaster5K]

If you could wave a magic wand, what kind of player would you sign to a 10-day to fill the open roster spot?

10 day? I’d look for an uptempo PG that could backup TJ and allow us to rest Haliburton/Nembhard so we can let them heal.

Started to take a look & realized,... I don't even know who is eligible for a 10 day?... Pure G-leaguer's? two-ways?...

Maybe, as he's already signed one and it's ended,.. based on G-league stats, Shaq Harrison?...

[Wizop]

Started to take a look & realized,... I don't even know who is eligible for a 10 day?... Pure G-leaguer's? two-ways?...

I think we'd keep our powder dry to the deadline in case we needed the roster spot for a trade, but after that a minimum regular contract would be an option.

[basketballwacko2]

I didn’t want to start a thread for this tip so I am putting it here.

My son who’s a Pacer’s season ticket holder has a friend who told him about a Dick’s liquidation store located on hwy 135 just past county line road. I think it is where the old Steinmart was located by Bonefish grill.

This place has a sale going on for close out merchandise. Besides items being already on sale those same items are marked down an additional 75% off.

They went tonight and got a $125 authentic Buddy Hield City edition jersey from last year for $20. They also had $100 Nike shoes which my daughter got a pair for around $20.

Anyway if anyone has relatives in the Indy area or still live local you might check this sale out. Not sure anyone will want Buddy’s jersey but maybe other items are available that you might want. They don’t have any other jerseys but I guess they had a lot of this one jersey in many sizes.

Yeah I think Buddy is on the way out of town and I wouldn’t be surprised if Toppin, Smith, or Nembhard could be had for the right price.

It could be that the City Jersey is pretty horrible. The Pacers other uniforms the blue and the gold one are two great looking uni's and that home white is one of the best in the NBA.

[basketballwacko2]

Thanks Scoot. I thought we were among the teams with the most money to spend this summer and that it would include mostly the space from our expiring's. So I'm surprised to learn that losing 25 million in salary puts us 10 mil Over! NBA math is like Chinese arithmetic.
Could you recommend a piece of writing or two that outlines most of these vagaries for me please?

There could have been cap space before the trade for Siakam, you have to account for cap holds. If the Siakam trade was not made the Pacers could have renounced Buddy, Toppin, and Brown and created some space and any other guys who need to be resigned like Nwora could also have been renounced. But now that Siakam is there unless he signs with Philly on July 1st and that would remove his number from the cap sheet, you gotta have his hold in there $49,261,430, Toppin's cap hold is $20.4 million. Even open roster spots have cap holds something like $1.2 million each. So if you have 10 guys you have to have 14 there would be a cap hit for about $5 million for the open spots.

[Scoot McGroot]

If you could wave a magic wand, what kind of player would you sign to a 10-day to fill the open roster spot?

10 day? I’d look for an uptempo PG that could backup TJ and allow us to rest Haliburton/Nembhard so we can let them heal.

Started to take a look & realized,... I don't even know who is eligible for a 10 day?... Pure G-leaguer's? two-ways?...

Maybe, as he's already signed one and it's ended,.. based on G-league stats, Shaq Harrison?...

Any free agents would be eligible for a ten day. Players under contract as a two way somewhere would be ineligible as they’re currently under contract. If they were released and cleared waivers, they would then be eligible.

[Wizop]

Any free agents would be eligible for a ten day. Players under contract as a two way somewhere would be ineligible as they’re currently under contract. If they were released and cleared waivers, they would then be eligible.

what about players in the G-League either with the Ants or another team. would they have to clear waivers?

[Scoot McGroot]

Any free agents would be eligible for a ten day. Players under contract as a two way somewhere would be ineligible as they’re currently under contract. If they were released and cleared waivers, they would then be eligible.

what about players in the G-League either with the Ants or another team. would they have to clear waivers?

So long as they’re not on a two way contract, they’re considered free agents as far as the nba is concerned. All GLeague contracts (other than two ways, which are actually contracts with the nba team) have a clear and automatic “out” for any nba signing. There’s no waivers required.

[basketballwacko2]

If you're thinking about trading guys like Buddy and Toppin to get a SF you have to now consider the Pacers are close to the tax line. ESPN has them with about $4.6 million in room. You also have to keep in mind if you're sending more money to a team that you don't put them in the tax.

So if you go to the list of NBA players contracts looking for guys that would be in the same salary range as Buddy and Toppin combined within that $4.6 million margin of error there aren't many. Bogie at detroit is pretty close, Jonathan Isaac at Orlando, Jeremi Grant has 4 years remaining, then Hunter, Wiggins, and Kuzma have 3 yrs.

Washington would want a #1 or 2 for Kuzma considering his declining contract, not that I think he's worth 2 #1's but they seem to. I'd want a #1 with Wiggins for Buddy and Toppin, DeAndre Hunter is on the edge of being a bad contract, I wouldn't want Grant and the Blazers won't pay to move him.

I like Isaac and Bogie the best Detroit doesn't have much other than him to offer in a trade outside of their main core youngsters. They'd probably want 2 2nds or a #1 to send him out. Isaac is really a PF but I like him a lot when he's healthy.

I don't want Dillon Brooks or Duncan Robinson, and there just is not a lot of options for guys with 2-3 years and in the money range of Buddy plus Toppin.

Note: I was looking at the wrong number on the ESPN Trade Machine the -$4.6 million is the amount over the tax, the other number -$24.6 million is the amount under the luxury tax. So the team has plenty of room to take on some salary within the rules when over the cap.

[Scoot McGroot]

This year? Indy is $24.5m short of the luxury tax right now.

[8305]

Hield, Toppin, 2 2nds for Gordon Hayward?
On a team friendly deal Hayward could be useful moving forward.

I would think you wouldn’t need to include the 2nds. Other than that, I’m not 100% sure that Hayward can play uptempo enough to fit with Haliburton anymore? Maybe for enough minutes?

My other concern is his ongoing health issues, and it doesn’t necessarily keep the salary slot alive going forward unless he extends as part of the trade. And I’m not sure what type of salary/role he’d be looking expecting.

He’s been playing With Lemelo for the last three years. I’d think he’s more used to speed than Paxcal? My question is do we want to block potential development of Walker and Mathurin. But, that question applies to most any trade we might make.

[Scoot McGroot]

Hield, Toppin, 2 2nds for Gordon Hayward?
On a team friendly deal Hayward could be useful moving forward.

I would think you wouldn’t need to include the 2nds. Other than that, I’m not 100% sure that Hayward can play uptempo enough to fit with Haliburton anymore? Maybe for enough minutes?

My other concern is his ongoing health issues, and it doesn’t necessarily keep the salary slot alive going forward unless he extends as part of the trade. And I’m not sure what type of salary/role he’d be looking expecting.

He’s been playing With Lemelo for the last three years. I’d think he’s more used to speed than Paxcal? My question is do we want to block potential development of Walker and Mathurin. But, that question applies to most any trade we might make.

Sure, but Hayward has been slowing down year over year, and Charlotte has been staggering his minutes with Ball more and more. Add in that Ball has played slower when Hayward is in the court, and I think he’s more of a slow it down, change of pace ball handling wing?

[JMaster5K]

10 day? I’d look for an uptempo PG that could backup TJ and allow us to rest Haliburton/Nembhard so we can let them heal.

Started to take a look & realized,... I don't even know who is eligible for a 10 day?... Pure G-leaguer's? two-ways?...

Maybe, as he's already signed one and it's ended,.. based on G-league stats, Shaq Harrison?...

Any free agents would be eligible for a ten day. Players under contract as a two way somewhere would be ineligible as they’re currently under contract. If they were released and cleared waivers, they would then be eligible.

So long as they’re not on a two way contract, they’re considered free agents as far as the nba is concerned. All GLeague contracts (other than two ways, which are actually contracts with the nba team) have a clear and automatic “out” for any nba signing. There’s no waivers required.

Thank you Scoot! Very, very helpful. At least now I can look at the G-League stats & see who is available and who isn't. =}

[JMaster5K]

Hield, Toppin, 2 2nds for Gordon Hayward?
On a team friendly deal Hayward could be useful moving forward.

I would think you wouldn’t need to include the 2nds. Other than that, I’m not 100% sure that Hayward can play uptempo enough to fit with Haliburton anymore? Maybe for enough minutes?

My other concern is his ongoing health issues, and it doesn’t necessarily keep the salary slot alive going forward unless he extends as part of the trade. And I’m not sure what type of salary/role he’d be looking expecting.

He’s been playing With Lemelo for the last three years. I’d think he’s more used to speed than Paxcal? My question is do we want to block potential development of Walker and Mathurin. But, that question applies to most any trade we might make.

If you look at the pace numbers from Basketball-reference, the Pacers are number 2 in the league,.. Charlotte is number 22,.. Toronto is 14. To be fair,... Hayward isn't releasing or playing in front of the offense, nor pressing on defense even when matched with bigger forwards, for the Hornets.

If we were to bring in Hayward, it would likely be as a buyout candidate, another veteran bench presence to fill in when the younger players are out. I can't see us bringing him in as a starter,.. or even really a significant rotation player because of the reasons you highlighted. He'd be like a forward version of TJ, where there are even more guys in front of him that just Hali & Nemhard?

[basketballwacko2]

The talk about Hayward, I think there is a chance he gets traded, but there is an equal chance that he does not and will be bought out. I don't think I'd trade for him, with an open roster spot they could sign him after he's bought out.

[Wizop]

This year? Indy is $24.5m short of the luxury tax right now.

I've heard there is a reason not to just let Buddy expire as that would lose the ability to sign a free agent to a similar contract. I see Buddy leaving if he won't take a contract slightly above the MLE. I'd offer Smith a similar deal.

I have 10 players with 2024-25 contracts and Siakam, Hield, Obi, and JJ as free agents with Smith having a player option which he should exercise. we have one open roster spot today. is that right? are there new considerations to be considered if we're an over the cap team?

[Scoot McGroot]

This year? Indy is $24.5m short of the luxury tax right now.

I've heard there is a reason not to just let Buddy expire as that would lose the ability to sign a free agent to a similar contract. I see Buddy leaving if he won't take a contract slightly above the MLE. I'd offer Smith a similar deal.

I have 10 players with 2024-25 contracts and Siakam, Hield, Obi, and JJ as free agents with Smith having a player option which he should exercise. we have one open roster spot today. is that right? are there new considerations to be considered if we're an over the cap team?

Generally, the consideration is “not losing the salary slot” so you can have proper trade ballast, etc. if Buddy walks, then next year, your only contract between $11m and $35+m is Myles Turner at just under $20m. If you want to make a trade in that range, you’re either forced to deal Myles, or forced to stack multiple guys on smaller contracts. If you extend Buddy now on something team friendly, you could more easily salary match a deal for someone in that $20m range. Etc.

[Wizop]

If you extend Buddy now on something team friendly, you could more easily salary match a deal for someone in that $20m range. Etc.

Or you could make that trade now, but if you bring him back at a lower salary, you've lost that trade possibility.

[JMaster5K]

If you extend Buddy now on something team friendly, you could more easily salary match a deal for someone in that $20m range. Etc.

Or you could make that trade now, but if you bring him back at a lower salary, you've lost that trade possibility.

I'm guessing that depends on how much lower?... with the new CBA, if we signed Buddy at say 16M,... he could be used in any trade between 8.5M and 23.5M, depending on the other teams interest or non-interest in gaining or reducing their own cap. That was another reason to sign Brown to that 22M contract, the flexibility that value would give in going after larger contracts (all star player), or even used in a smaller, just above the MLE trade. =}

Not sure how Buddy would view it, but maybe the most 'flexible' value is somewhere between the MLE and that 22.5M number?....