The Indiana Pacers have recently been at the heart of the transaction circles, with the team flirting with acquiring prized big man Deandre Ayton in free agency. While the Phoenix Suns eventually put a governor on their plans by matching their offer sheet, the team may not be finished yet this offseason.
With the Ayton saga finally over, Indiana still has an elephant in the room to address in the following weeks: Myles Turner. While the longtime Pacer has seemingly been on the trade rumor mill since day one, the circumstances and the recent Ayton pursuit may have easily blurred his relationship with the franchise.
The Indiana Pacers are now in an awkward situation with Myles Turner
Aside from offering Ayton an offer sheet, the Indiana Pacers repeatedly attempted to engage Phoenix for sign-and-trade scenarios to keep the Suns incentivized. However, reports have since revealed that the latter was never interested in such, which culminated in them immediately matching the Pacers’ max offer.
However, one thing Indiana cannot retract is the connotation of their pursuit. Chasing Ayton was already a major statement of the franchise’s position with him, but even more, trotting him as the centerpiece in desired sign-and-trade pitches all but guarantees that the Pacers do not view him as part of the team’s core.
It also does not help that both parties failed to agree to terms on a contract extension so far. With the current utter lack of traction regarding such, the Pacers are almost guaranteed to enter next season with Turner still in the fold as a bona fide flight risk.
Hence, Indiana should aggressively carve out opportunities to deal Myles Turner sooner than later to avoid diminishing his value, as he could very well be a one-year rental. Still, with the demand for his services still expected to be quite robust, the Pacers should exhaust all of their options to extract some assets one way or the other.
If not, the team risks bringing itself to an awkward situation heading to the regular season where Turner has already been given various breakup signals, but through sheer presence alone, he remains a prominent member of the team’s rotation, demanding minutes that could be better off being tendered to younger players in the advent of a rebuild.
The Indiana Pacers-Myles Turner partnership has been one of the staunchest showings of resilient loyalty for quite some time now, but given everything that has transpired, both parties should accept that a breakup is not only inevitable, but perhaps essential.