Happy birthday Kevin Pritchard: his five best moves with the Pacers

Securing Malcolm Brogdon in a sign-and-trade

The 2019 summer looked bleak for the Indiana Pacers. Oladipo is out until at least Christmas, and based on the rumor mill leading up to free agency, Indiana’s top viable option was Ricky Rubio. Not a recipe for success.

Then the most interesting three minutes in Pacers offseason history happened.

Shams announced that Rubio was off the market on a deal to the Phoenix Suns. Phew. Exactly one minute later, Woj let us all know that Bogdanovic was going to Utah. Crap. But then:

And the rest is history (well, pretty recent history, but still). In an offseason where the Pacers looked doomed to not secure any top free agents, as well as losing important guys like Bogdanovic and Thaddeus Young, Pritchard secured one of the best point guards in the NBA.

Last year, as one of the key pieces on a Milwaukee Bucks team that finished first in the Eastern Conference, Brogdon put up a solid 15.6/4.5/3.2 statline and became the ninth player in the history of the NBA to put up a 50/40/90 season.

I could go on, but I’d recommend reading Jordan Brandenburg’s resume on Brogdon, and Ethan Krieger’s piece on how Brogdon fits with the Pacers. He’s the second-highest paid Pacer in history (which isn’t saying too much considering the stellar contracts of Oladipo and Turner), and one of the best “free-agent” acquisitions the team has ever made.

It cost a bit more than his contract, as Pritchard sent over some picks to ensure that Brogdon wouldn’t test the restricted free-agent market, but that’s what the aforementioned No. 32 for three seconds was for, right? You have to take great players when you can, and when Pritchard got the opportunity, he took it,

And now the Pacers have perhaps the strongest two-way backcourt in the NBA.