The Tricky Line The Indiana Pacers Have To Tightrope At The NBA Treade Deadline

What should the Indiana Pacers do at the upcoming trade deadline? That’s a difficult question, and the fact that there isn’t an easy answer is the result of intentional choices made by the Pacers in recent years.

For some time now, Indiana’s front office has prioritized flexibility. President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard often uses the term “optionality,” to describe it. He doesn’t want to be tied to any direction unless it’s clear which way his team should go. From 2018-2021, he wanted his franchise to go for it after nearly getting out of the first round in 2018. In the other seasons of his tenure running the Pacers, he has all about flexibility.

“Our whole deal is keep flexibility,” Pritchard said last week when speaking to local media after a press conference called to announce a contract extension for Myles Turner.

Pritchard, though, wouldn’t commit to a direction that said flexibility will take Indiana ahead of the February 9 trade deadline. “I think we’re going to be opportunistic. Probably more than ever,” he said. That’s smart business for a small market team in year one of a retooling project. “I’m just not sure which way that’s going to go. Trades are tough because it takes another team to say ‘yeah, we’re interested.”

The Pacers declared before the season that they had a new mindset when it comes to team building. They would no longer manage in the middle. Instead, they would take a big picture approach to building their team. Naturally, that style can lead to a higher ceiling. But that ceiling isn’t guaranteed, and it takes longer to reach.

That line of thinking made many believe that the Pacers would be in asset accumulation mode at this trade deadline. A team striving to reach a high ceiling long-term would theoretically trade veterans and ill-fitting players for younger pieces and draft picks.

But then the Pacers started off the season well. They were 23-18 at the halfway point, and they sit in 10th place in the Eastern Conference at 25-30 right now. They are struggling mightily of late due to an injury to Tyrese Haliburton, but they are still way ahead of schedule.

“I’m surprised at what I’m saying today compared to [what] I thought I was going to be saying today five months ago. Because I’m so bullish on our players, I’m so bullish on our coaches,” Pritchard said. He said that it’s important for him to take a step back when he looks at his team. “We’re here right now. It’s way faster than we anticipated,” the President added, dragging out the “a” syllable in “way” to add emphasis.

Even with the Pacers still wanting to think long-term, the success they had to start this campaign now has them tightroping between adding pieces that help sooner versus pieces that would help later. It’s possible to add pieces and still execute a long-term plan, but it is tricky. But it’s another option that the Pacers, who currently sit five-games under .500, have to consider at the trade deadline.

Essentially, Indiana has to find a way to make their team grow naturally and correctly within a long-term approach. A short-sighted trade could strip the team of valuable assets that may have been more important in the future, when more is known about the team’s core and its assets. It could also prevent the Pacers from maximizing their draft capital in 2023. It’s important for the blue and gold to see the bigger picture.

“We’ve got a lot of picks and assets. I want to see what’s out there. I don’t want to pre-determine what we’re going to do,” Pritchard said. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle agreed that things could go a number of ways.

“This is a dynamic business,” Carlisle said. “If you’re asking me if I anticipate anything happening [before the trade deadline], I always say it’s very doubtful.” The head coach added that things may have been different if the team had not agreed to a contract extension with Turner.

But they did, and doing so allows Pritchard to be more aggressive. In trades, that has been when Pritchard is at his best. He’s acquired many of Indiana’s best players in recent years via opportunistic trades — including Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, T.J. Warren, and Tyrese Haliburton.

Being aggressive while still operating on a longer timeline is not easy, but it can make sense. Grabbing a talented young player that has many years of contractual team control, for example, gives the Pacers a boost now and for the next few seasons. That could be appealing to the blue and gold in their current situation.

“I don’t want to say we’re going to quick grow this thing, because I don’t know,” Pritchard explained. There is a balance of contract length and value the Pacers have to consider with any player they add — All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is extension eligible this summer, and his contract is likely going to become a max or near-max deal shortly.

It could take draft picks to get that player, and the Pacers have four picks in the 2023 NBA Draft. Given that as of right now the blue and gold only have three players on expiring contracts, it would make sense if the franchise moved a draft pick or two.

“I don’t, at the end of the day, think we add four rookies,” Pritchard said, noting that his team already has a lot of young talent.

It also makes sense for the organization to move on from any players who aren’t in the team’s long-term vision. The Pacers, for example, have several reserve centers, and many of them don’t play in most games. Between Daniel Theis, Isaiah Jackson, Goga Bitadze, and Jalen Smith, Indiana just has too many bigs.

Moving one for any asset that is better-fitting would make sense for the Pacers, but determining which one(s) to move is not easy. It could depend on what the return is.

If the Pacers do think long term, they’ll have to decide which veterans are worth keeping. The answer might be all of them. Theis, Buddy Hield, T.J. McConnell, and James Johnson have all been excellent off-court pieces for Indiana, and three of them are currently in the team’s rotation. The Pacers front office will have to decide if moving any vets for younger players or pieces makes sense, but it’s plausible that all of those players stay in Indiana.

Truly, outside of shortsighted deals or extremely small upgrades, it’s hard to imagine a trade the Pacers could make that they couldn’t justify. Because they have so much flexibility and so many options, there aren’t many deals that wouldn’t be considered smart.

“[I’m] excited about our future,” Pritchard said. It’s hard not to be, given how well the rebuild he steers is going.

In order to keep that future looking exciting and promising, Pritchard and the rest of the Pacers’ decision makers will have to continue to be aggressive and maximize their opportunities. With a surprising ongoing season overlapping with long-term thinking, it will be a tough line for the front office to tightrope.