Indiana Pacers trade deadline primer
By Tony East
Point Guard Trades
The point guard situation in Indiana right now makes a trade at this position possible for a few reasons.
Brian Windhorst reported in December that “League executives believe Indiana might look to move one of its point guards. Darren Collison and Cory Joseph roughly split the position and are both in the final years of their deals. The team is high on rookie Aaron Holiday and could want to clear out room for him.”
In theory, this makes a lot of sense. Darren Collison has been fine this season but has been worse than he was in 2017-18. He turns 32 before the start of the 2019-20 season. At the end of the season, his contract will expire. All those signs point to DC not being back with the Pacers next year.
Meanwhile, Cory Joseph is playing some of the best basketball of his career, albeit off the bench. He is playing well alongside Olaidpo, better than anyone else on the Pacers in fact. That matters. He’s also only 27 years old, he’s entering the prime years of his career.
Those paragraphs are both loaded with tone on purpose: it makes more sense to trade Darren Collison if you are going to trade a point guard. Of the two expiring contracts at the point guard position:
-He’s older
-He is the less effective of the two alongside the Pacers best player
-The Pacers only have early bird rights with Collison versus full bird rights with Joseph, so it is tougher to bring back DC
-He is less likely to be brought back long term
The evidence is damming. I doubt the Pacers would look to go out and add talent at point guard considering they already have some solid ones, so the only moves that make any sense trade-wise at point guard are flipping Collison to get Holiday minutes.
The trouble here, and with many trades coming up you will see, is that we don’t know how willing the Pacers are to take on long-term money. If they don’t mind eating up some of next summers cap room, they could use Collison’s expiring contract as exactly that – an expiring contract. That could be enticing to a team that wants to free up some room next summer.
But if the Indiana Pacers don’t want to take on long-term money, they would need to flip DC for another expiring contract, which is harder. Here are some ideas, though.
Collison and Terrence Ross make about the same amount of money, salary is no issue here. Ross’ deal is expiring too, which is nice for the Pacers.
The Magic are right at the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, so they may not be sellers. But if they are in the business of acquiring assets, flipping Ross for a point guard that can help make things easier for their young guys are a late second rounder makes some sense.
For Indiana, they grab wing depth in the form of Ross, who could soak up minutes on the wing and play alongside Doug McDermott on the second unit.
(NOTE: every time the Pacers second-round pick is included in a fake trade, it will be top-44 protected. They owe a second rounder to Brooklyn if it falls inside the top 44)
I wouldn’t do this, but I get why the Pacers would. They would get a former #1 pick for an expiring contract they have no plans of keeping. That’s, at worst, a low-risk move with upside.
We debated this exact trade in a post that you can read here. This deal basically comes down to if you believe in Fultz recovering. If you do, you’d make this trade. It’s that simple. The Sixers, meanwhile, need shooting and depth, which Collison could supply both of. A potential win-win deal.
I’m not sure how much the Kings believe in their current backup point guards (Frank Mason and Yogi Ferrell), but the Kings are actually good! They are over .500 and could want to make a push for the postseason for the first time in forever. If they could add DC to stabilize their point guard rotation, perhaps they would do it.
Meanwhile, the Pacers get Kosta Koufos (who they would immediately waive – he’s in the trade for salary reasons) and Skal Labissiere. Skal is the target here, I think he has potential as a stretch 4 who can do some other things well. Getting a potential asset for DC could be a beneficial move for Indiana if they want to move him.
Who knows if the team even wants to trade DC. He is playing better of late. The current point guards help the team win. There is probably only a 5% chance of a trade at this position, but it is certainly possible.