Indiana Pacers: Malcolm Brogdon is traded and Jalen Smith re-signs

The Indiana Pacers have traded Malcolm Brogdon to the Boston Celtics for a handful of players and a first-round pick in 2023. After months of speculation, the Pacers find a new home for Brogdon and officially hand over the keys to Tyrese Haliburton.

In other news, Jalen Smith re-signs with the team on a two-year deal, a steal for the Pacers.

Malcolm Brogdon and the Indiana Pacers have parted ways

This was one of the more predictable moves to take place and one that I thought would happen on draft night that never did formulate. The Pacers waited for the best offer, and the Celtics were the team to give them that.

The total return for Brogdon:

• Daniel Theis
• Aaron Nesmith
• Nik Stauskas
• Malik Fitts
•  Juwan Morgan
• 2023 first-round pick (top-12 protected)

The first-round pick will likely convey to be in the 20s with the Celtics being title contenders, it provides the Pacers with more options as they now have three first-round picks in 2023. One is their own, and the other is from the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is lottery protected.

"“Indiana is now projected with $31M in cap space. They could still operate over the cap and keep the $10.5M MLE and their many trade exceptions. They could also generate one big $22.6M trade exception for Brogdon by taking in these players into their existing trade exceptions”, Yozzi Gozlan of HoopsHype said."

Malcolm Brogdon spoke about the trade and the opportunities ahead with Jared Weiss of The Athletic. He had high praise for the Front Office.

"“The Pacers were really good at facilitating a deal and sending me somewhere I could win. I am very much appreciative of how the Pacers have handled everything.”"

This deal is great for the Pacers, whose goal is to get younger and build a new team centered around Tyrese Haliburton. Moving off of Brogdon frees up Tyrese and clears the guard room for another young player of Carlisle’s choosing.

Brogdon, who is soon to be 30 years old, never played a full season with the Pacers and didn’t play more than 56 games in a season during his three-year stint in Indiana. Brogdon was a borderline All-Star talent when he was healthy for the Pacers, but injuries have hurt this team (pun intended) for too many seasons.

Jalen Smith was in the news yesterday after re-signing with the Indiana Pacers on a two-year deal. The details of Jalen Smith’s contract signed a 2-year / $9,573,828 contract according to Spotrac.

Smith is a fantastic addition to what the Pacers are trying to build, and fortunately for Indiana, he wasn’t poached on the open market early in free agency. The Pacers likely promised him a substantial role and preached his fit within the young core of talent Indiana is building on.

Is this a sign of more dominos to fall?

The Pacers now have cap space to sign a max contract and have four to five centers on this roster: Myles Turner, Daniel Theis, Isaiah Jackson, Goga Bitadze, and Jalen Smith, if you count him. That is too many, so I think something will give in the coming days.

The Guard room is still pretty heavy for the Pacers, as they now have Buddy Hield, Chris Duarte, Haliburton, Washinton Jr., T.J. McConnell, and Andrew Nembhard. It would not be surprising to see one of those players on the move in some sort this offseason. To me, Buddy Hield is the most tradable piece and boosted his stock in the latter half of the 2021-22 NBA season with the Pacers.

The free agency continues as we patiently wait for any news surrounding the Pacers and what players will be coming into town or on their way out.