Rarely have the Indiana Pacers been a team keen to make in-season trades, but looking into the buy-out market could be very beneficial come playoff time.
3. Jae Crowder/Andre Iguodala
Sorry for cheating a little on this first one, but both players come from the same team and will fill the same role.
Andre Iguodala has been the player every contender has been positioning for on the buy-out market since the moment he was dealt to Memphis. He is still an elite perimeter stopper, but at nearly 36, he is now forced to do it in a more limited capacity.
The man can still hold his own against the best perimeter scorers in the game while also possessing the strength to bang against most elite power forwards as well. The major questions with Iguodala are health and whether he will have any drop-off after not playing since the 2019 NBA Finals.
Jae Crowder is more of a known commodity at this point. He is also a high level defender, but without the championship experience. His 3-point shooting is also based more on respect than actual results. Crowder has not knocked down more than a third of his triples since being traded by Boston in the summer of 2017.
That being said, having another strong, proven defender off the bench that can be thrown on the likes of Pascal Siakam, Tobias Harris, or Khris Middleton could be vital in the playoffs. There is a reason basically every contender is looking to add one of these two players before the season’s end.