Report: Pacers Active Before Trade Deadline, Looking to Move Chase Budinger

The Indiana Pacers are reportedly working the phones in the lead up to Thursday’s trade deadline, with Chase Budinger being one guy who might exit stage left.

The Indiana Pacers have been tied to Jeff Teague rumors so far in this trade deadline season, but little else has come out about their other plans. This is normal in the seemingly leak-less Pacers front office. When they do make a significant deal — trading Danny Granger, signing David West, getting Luis Scola — there is rarely much forewarning.

But Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star is reporting that the Pacers are staying active, even if we don’t know who they are seeking to acquire or trade away.

One name she’s hearing about, however, is out-of-the rotation Chase Budinger.

She notes that Larry Bird acquired the swingman last Summer as he was trying to remake the roster into a team that could play small, using versatile wings in various combinations. But with Paul George reportedly rebuffing attempts by the team to have him play the 4 and C.J. Miles’ body (and overall game) breaking down after he willingly accepted the power forward role, the team has gone back to its roots of always have two traditional big men on the floor.

This has left Chase with few minutes since the team has many wings ahead of him to begin with and Glenn Robinson III leapfrogged him in the rotation.

So it sounds like the Pacers are trying to move him now not because they can get anything of value in return, but so that a player who lost years of his career to injury can try to find a better home where he might get a chance to play this season.

For Pacers fans, I wouldn’t expect to get much back. But if Chase is receptive to leaving, that $5 million expiring deal could be a useful chip. It’s hard to project what it could be used for, but a package of George Hill/Chase or C.J. Miles Chase could intrigue some team looking to shed a longer-term deal in the $10-15 million range.

Or Chase/Jordan Hill offers $9 million in expiring salary.

Unfortunately, with the salary cap going up so far this summer (around $22 million), there aren’t as many teams as there usually are looking to shed payroll. Most teams (the Pacers included) already have more cap space than they can responsibly spend on the available talent. There may be a few teams that want to carve out another $5-$10 million to go for some big names, but expiring deals just aren’t what they normally are this season.