Six Players the Pacers Could Trade For to Get Front-Court Help

One of the most noticeable things about the Indiana Pacers’ transition this season to smaller and faster has been the transformation of the front court. Not only did the Pacers turn over most of their front court — swapping out Roy Hibbert, David West, and Luis Scola for Myles Turner and Jordan Hill — they decided to cut numbers in that area as well.

Traditional roster composition dictates that teams keep five big men on the active, 13-man roster, but following training camp, Indiana decided against that. In order to facilitate the team’s “space and pace” transition, the Pacers brass chose to keep just four bigs on the NBA roster: Ian Mahinmi, Lavoy Allen, Turner, and Hill.

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Given the switch, this seemed like a fine decision at the time, and as the season began, the rotation worked nicely. Then, Myles Turner fractured his thumb against the Orlando Magic a few weeks ago, and Indiana’s front court has been stretched increasingly thinner ever since.

With a new style and largely a new roster, the Pacers have struggled to adapt to everything at times, and traditional-style lineups that lean heavily on the front court have become something of a security blanket for Frank Vogel. That means the whole front court probably has been used more than initially expected, and while that was fine when Turner was healthy, his absence has exposed their lack of depth in the front court.

This was most evident during their recent West Coast road trip. In a back-to-back against the Blazers, they allowed Portland to grab the offensive rebound on 7-of-19 misses in the second half while blowing a halftime lead. Then during the team’s overtime loss in Utah, both Mahinmi and Allen had fouled out by the end of the fourth quarter trying to contain Derrick Favors, which left Hill as Indiana’s only big man for OT.

It’s not that the Indiana Pacers should be playing more big lineups; in fact, they almost certainly aspire to play the big lineups less and less. It’s more about the fact that there are more than 50 regular-season games remaining, and this team could use some help handling the beating of opposing bigs, considering Turner’s return from injury is still a few weeks away and his return to the rotation could take even longer.

The team’s current bigs have done a more-than-admirable job so far this season. Mahinmi has been even better than most hoped as a starter, putting forth the kind of meaningful game-to-game effort and activity that teams crave from their centers in today’s NBA. Mahinmi has been catching and finishing on offense better than ever before and even seems to have broken out of his free-throw slump, which is a big deal for his ability to remain on the floor at the offensive end. He’s still protecting the rim at a respectable rate as well.

Meanwhile, Hill and Allen have surpassed expectations off the bench. Both guys are limited, but both of them supply some much-needed rebounding for this team, especially on the offensive end. Neither is very fast, but they both run the floor well, and neither has been too bad as part of the team defense either, which is kind of a surprise for Hill. He has also given Indiana a polished scoring punch in the post and down low, something no one else on the active roster can.

The problem with looking for another big lies in procuring one, as the Pacers are maxed out in terms of their active roster at 15. Indiana has Rakeem Christmas and Shayne Whittington chilling in Fort Wayne, but no one seems interested in giving them a call-up, and until one of them is NBA-ready on defense, that doesn’t seem likely to change.

So, the Pacers must open a roster spot, which would probably means doing something with Solomon Hill. The question is what.

Who to Target

Solo has been rumored to be on the trading block, and while that’s all well and good, it will probably be hard to find a taker for a wing who can’t really shoot. Assuming they shopped him for a big man, it would be hard to find any kind of valuable big whose salary matched closely enough with Hill’s, which is just $1.5 million thanks to the rookie scale. So, they’d either have to cut him outright to open up the roster spot or trade him for another salary-matching player, then swap that player for a big. Neither of those seem likely.

So for the sake of this exercise, and for the sake of Jordan Hill’s lower back, let’s take a look to see if there are any potential front court options out there if the Indiana Pacers were to shop Solomon Hill. Assuming none of Indiana’s Eastern Conference foes vying for playoff spots would be willing to make a deal with the Pacers, the list of potential trade candidates would probably look something like this:

Willie Reed, Brooklyn Nets

25-year-old rookie who has had major D-league success during the last couple years before finally getting a look on the Nets’ active roster this year; had planned to play for Pacers’ summer-league squad, but addition of Myles Turner changed plans

Jeremy Evans, Dallas Mavericks

Former Slam Dunk Contest winner who possesses a tantalizing blend of athleticism and shooting but has never been able to put it together consistently, especially on defense; has gotten lost in Mavericks’ rotation

Josh Smith, Los Angeles Clippers

One of the league’s most infamous underachievers, but can still defend and catalyze offense from low-post when he wants to; has already fallen out of favor with Doc Rivers and his staff in LA

Ryan Kelly, Los Angeles Lakers

Purported floor-stretching big man who’s overrated in that area ( 33 percent shooter from three for his career) and can’t really do much else; a sieve on defense

Shabazz Muhammad, Minnesota Timberwolves

Probably the most interesting option on this list; more of a thick wing player than a true big, but has a 7-foot wingspan, can post up and (maybe) shoot the three; has been lost in the shuffle for Minnesota this year, but was enjoying a mild breakout season in 2014-15 before an injury ended his season halfway through

Mason Plumlee, Portland Trail Blazers

This Plumlee seems unlikely, given that he’s enjoying a mild degree of success out in Portland, but with their glut of bigs who knows?; perhaps his former-Pacer brother Miles in Milwaukee might be a more viable option, given the Bucks’ ineptitude and his alleged availability

Choosing a Path

There are a few other options out there, but again, if Solo is the outgoing piece, it’s hard to imagine another team giving up a guy they wanted to keep. It’s probably going to have to be a player who’s already on the block or not in the team’s plans, and the above list mostly fits that bill. A couple of those guys are certainly intriguing and could nice short-term additions for the Indiana Pacers this season, and a couple even had long-term potential as developmental additions to the roster.

Still, this team hasn’t made any kind of move since Turner’s injury, and they clearly feel good about the 15 guys they have and where they’re playing right now. Coupled with Solomon Hill’s low trade value, and it simply seems unlikely a move is in the cards. Even cutting Solo to sign a veteran big from the D-league like Jeff Ayers seems unlikely, given that Solo has effectively acted as this team’s emergency, defensive-oriented power forward in some small-ball lineups.

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No, given the Pacers’ ongoing switch, it seems more likely that this team’s decision-makers would prefer a proven commodity who knows the team over an emergency big man whose minutes would immediately decline upon Turner’s return to the lineup.

In that case, Indiana will simply wait for Turner to come back and re-take his backup center position for 15-20 minutes per night. That would give the Pacers their desired rotation of Mahinmi and Turner splitting the center minutes each game, and Hill and Allen can play either position depending on the night, giving Indiana necessary versatility and rebounding to fill out the front court. Turner is targeting a return in early January, so they might not have to wait long for things to return to normal.

Now, the Pacers just have to hope another injury doesn’t disrupt the finely tuned balance of its front court during the next 56 games, or they will potentially find themselves right back in this situation once again. So although adding an extra big doesn’t seem likely right now, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea if they can find the right arrangement.