No Moves for Indiana Pacers at Trade Deadline

The rumors of Goran Dragic and Ty Lawson joining the Indiana Pacers never materialized and the team will stand pat with their current roster going into the rest of the season.

That may be a good thing too as last’s year’s 11th hour deal never set well with the locker room. Candace Buckner of the Indy Star reported that it was one of the many issues that played into The Struggle.

"Last year, Danny Granger expressed confidence about his status in staying the season with the Pacers, even days before the trade deadline. Then at the 11th hour, the Pacers dealt Granger to Philadelphia for Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen. The impact of the trade has been downplayed by the front office, but players, including West and Paul George, had pinned some of the issues revolving around the team’s late-season slide on Granger’s departure."

Perhaps the Pacers are looking at the return of Paul George as their late season addition, but hopefully it works better than last year’s additions.

This season it didn’t seem likely the Pacers were going to make any deadline moves, as both Indiana and potential trade partners appeared to be buyers more than sellers and did not want to give up major assets in any deals.

For the Pacers this makes sense going forward as they don’t have any real title chances this season with Paul George still on the mend.

Roy Hibbert and David West both have player options this offseason, and they will probably both opt in. Fans would hope that Larry Bird and the decision makers have gauged their interest in staying with the team, and if both left that would free up nearly $28 million in cap space.

Though that is unlikely and Indiana may not be a prime free agent destination, that much money would give the Pacers would have a number of options to work with. So perhaps Indiana is biding its time until then to find out what the summer holds rather than making any rash moves now in the heat of the deadline.

Either way the Pacers had little reason to make a splash in the market with their best player coming back from injury later this season. The rest of this season is the Paul George Rehab Experiment and will have Indiana’s franchise player ready to go for the 2015-16 season.

This likely won’t sit well with many fans.

There was an unprecedented flurry of trades around the association in the final minutes before the 3:00 pm deadline hit. Indiana was not a part of any of them. The Pacers name kept coming up, but disappeared just as quickly as reality set in.

And most of the teams competing with the Indiana Pacers for the 7th and 8th seeds in the playoffs made moves. The Heat got Goran Dragic, the Pistons got Reggie Jackson, and the Brooklyn Nets got Thad Young.

The Pacers got … nobody.

Even if Paul George comes back on March 17th, that’s only 17 games left for Indiana to make up any ground in the playoff race. Charlotte is the only team with any real potential to fall out of their top 8 spot, but the gaggle of team’s below them just got much more competitive at the deadline.

This may not be such a bad thing as Indiana might fall out of the picture and become a lottery team for the first time since 2010, the year they drafted Paul George with the 10th pick. Bird has said that the Pacers were still aiming for the playoffs, but the lack of trades may be a quiet way of throwing in the towel, or at least hedging Indiana’s bets.

Next: Paul George: My Ballhanding and Shooting Have Improved

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