Indiana Pacers Trade George Hill for Jeff Teague

The Indiana Pacers continue to remake themselves this offseason by trading away George Hill, another key part of their Easter Conference finals teams, for Jeff Teague.

The Indiana Pacers have traded George Hill for Jeff Teague, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Rumors circled around the trade deadline that the Atlanta Hawks were looking to move on from their former All-Star point guard in order to make way for the younger, 22-year-old Dennis Schröder to take over the team and start a new era. The Pacers were one destination mentioned, with reports suggesting that George Hill might be a player involved in a potential swap.

And now it is official: The Hawks have moved on, and the Pacers have gotten a point guard who team president Larry Bird has shown interest in while parting ways with the Hometown Hero.

To sum up the deal, Teague goes to Indiana, Hill goes to Utah, and the Jazz’s #12 pick goes to Atlanta.

In swapping Hill for Teague, the Pacers get a more natural point guard who is better playmaker and a much better scorer. He is also someone who has given rise to a #PlayoffTeague hashtag for his ability to play well in big games in the postseason.

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Despite fewer minutes in the 2015-16 season, due to Schröder’s emergence, Teague is coming off his best scoring season ever in terms of points per 36 minutes with 19.6. He also posted a career-high 40.0% from 3-point range. In more troubling news, he just had his worst season of finishing at the rim, making a paltry 56.3% of this attempts in the restricted area.

In losing George Hill, the Pacers get worse on defense. Hill has been a stalwart at guarding his position since joining his hometown club in the summer of 2011. He was particularly fantastic in slowing down Kyle Lowry as the Pacers nearly upset the Toronto Raptors in the playoffs this year.

He is also a much more versatile player than Teague. Hill, by his own admission, is neither a point guard nor a shooting guard — he’s just a guard. He was able to set up the offense or be a great knockdown shooter in the corners when Paul George, Lance Stephenson, or Monta Ellis dominated the ball.

For a team that needs more offense, however, this is likely a good move. Teague can score and the Pacers do need that, even if a three-man perimeter of Teague, Monta Ellis, and Paul George — as it stands now — would seem to need an extra basketball to work optimally.

This is also helpful for a team that wants to keep getting better as Paul George and Myles Turner age. Teague is just 28, two years younger than Hill, so he can stick around longer as Turner grows into the near-All-Star that many expect him to be in a few more seasons.

Both Teague and Hill have near identical contracts, with one year around $8 million left on their deals. So Indiana is not trading someone locked up longterm for a rental.

Moreover, according to Wojnarowski, the Pacers are also trying to sign Teague to an extension immediately.

Indiana can have up to $34.4 million in cap room this summer, so locking in an extension now would be a crafty way to essentially not use up any of that room while also “signing a free agent” to a long-term deal.

Hill gave solid years to Indiana and was a key cog in a defensive-minded team that went to back-to-back Eastern Conference finals while giving the Miami Heat all they could handle.

But those days are long gone and Larry Bird wants more buckets.

Nobody can yet know if this trade will work out, but Jeff Teague is a bucket getter.