A new year brings a new season of trade potential for the Pacers leading up to the deadline. With the myriad of options Kevin Pritchard has to steer this rebuild ahead, how should the Pacers tread forward?
It’s winter time here in Indianapolis, a season that can be identified not only by the calendar but by the atmosphere whirling around the Circle City. Snow is on the ground, Colts fans are hopeful again, and Pacers fans are holding onto trade rumors like they’re the first fresh batch of Long’s donuts in the morning. Yes, it seems every year that the transition from December to January brings about a grocery list of trade machine experiments all the way up until the deadline, where the Pacers ultimately do nothing (or do very little).
So, about that Kemba trade.
When Tim Bontemps mused about the possibility of a Kemba Walker trade from the Hornets due to their current double whammy of having no money and sucking, Pacers Twitter got understandably excited. On first look, his idea of swapping Walker and Marvin Williams for Darren Collison, Al Jefferson, T.J. Leaf and Indiana’s 2018 1st rounder seems like a classic Pritch-slap.
Maybe it is. The Hornets would almost certainly reject that offer, though. The point of this article isn’t to discuss this trade in particular because my fingers would be raw by February if every writer’s off-handed trade prediction had to be analyzed to its core. But, for what it’s worth, losing 2 key developmental pieces just to acquire a guy who will either leave next summer or sign a max deal for his age 29-33 seasons doesn’t seem like the best move in a rebuild.
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The reason I present this particular trade to the table, despite its flaws, is the deal’s opportunistic nature. To be able to make smooth moves in a small market like Indiana, Pritchard has to analyze situations and anticipate where certain teams might be desperate or certain players might be undervalued. He pulled this off during the Paul George dilemma, taking Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, two players whose value had shot down markedly by contract (Oladipo) or performance next to Russell Westbrook (both).
Of course, 6 months later, with Oladipo and Sabonis playing the best basketball of their careers and George looking more and more like a one-year rental, what initially looked like a fleece now presents itself as a testament to Pritchard’s savvy.
But his next big step in this rebuild is trade deadline season and based on the news that Damien Wilkins was waived to save money and a roster spot, it appears as though Pritchard isn’t afraid to make some noise before summertime. He has a few options, and a few different assets to make such options happen.