RUMOR: Indiana Pacers Interested in Chase Budinger

Chase Budinger of the Minnesota Timberwolves is reportedly on the trade market, and the Indiana Pacers may want in.

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Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported that the Timberwolves are looking to trade Budinger. Who knows just how actively the team is shopping the sixtt-year wing, but they already dealt away Kevin Love this summer and are in loss-now mode. So this comes as no surprise.

Woj listed the Detroit Pistons as the most-interested team along with the Houston Rockets, the team that drafted the now-26-year-old Budinger in 2009.

"Among talks with several teams, the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets have shown an interest, league sources said.Houston is reluctant to take on the $5 million player option Budinger’s deal has in 2015-16, as are the Pistons, sources said. Nevertheless, the Pistons are taking a long look at Budinger and considering the possibility of making a deal. No trade is considered imminent for Budinger.Detroit lost shooting guard Jodie Meeks for two months because of a fractured back."

The Wolves have a glut of forwards, and Budinger could struggle to find minutes this season. Budinger also is guaranteed $5 million for the 2014-15 season.

According to Minneapolis reporter Darren Wolfson, the Indiana Pacers are also in the mix.

It must be noted that Wolfson followed up that tweet with another debunking the idea that Minnesota is “aggressively shopping” Budinger.

Chase Budinger is a versatile, if unspectacular, wing player. He has been an erratic shooter throughout his career, and his production has tailed off since he arrived in Minnesota two seasons ago.

He isn’t so different than Rodney Stuckey in the sense that a promising start to his career has given way to the realization that he is probably closer to a dime-a-dozen contributor.

He could turn around his multi-year downswing, however, and the Pacers could benefit greatly from a fixer-upper that turns into a solid asset. So while I doubt anything comes of this and I doubt Budinger ever becomes a valuable rotation player, the Pacers are right to be looking at these types of buy-low guys to find a reclamation project.