Indiana Pacers: Why trading Paul George is the gift that keeps giving
By Joe Lyon
The Indiana Pacers seemed to be stuck in a place with no way to win. An oft-injured star that wanted out and an entire league that knew exactly that. That is where the Pacers found themselves when Paul George made his intentions clear that his long-term future was not in Indiana.
However, because the league was largely aware of this fact, it seemed impossible for the Pacers to get a large return.
Let’s track all of the things that the Paul George trade actually netted the Indiana Pacers.
The first piece of this story is what appeared to be a relatively humble return for Paul George initially:
Pacers send: Paul George
Pacers receive: Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis
Keep in mind that at the time this seemed like a lackluster return for a player of Paul George’s caliber. With the benefit of hindsight, we realize that this turned out great, but to date, both of these former lottery picks hadn’t really panned out as of yet. In Oladipo’s case, he had largely been disappointing. Next Oladipo was traded and the trade updated to become:
Pacers send: Paul George
Pacers receive: Domantas Sabonis, 2023 Houston 2nd, 2024 Cleveland/Utah 2nd, Caris Lavert
This trade is starting to look like a better deal. This seems to be getting closer to what many fans would have considered even value early on. Next, Caris Lavert was traded as the Indiana Pacers began to dismantle the team. This updated the trade to become:
Pacers send: Paul George
Pacers receive: Domantas Sabonis, Ricky Rubio, 2023 Houston 2nd, 2024 Cleveland/Utah 2nd, 2023 Cleveland 1st, 2022 Houston 2nd, 2027 Utah 2nd
This is starting to look like a haul. The Pacers to this point received a 2x all-star, one 1st round pick, and four 2nd round picks in return for Paul George. It should be noted that the 2022 Houston 2nd rounder turned into Andrew Nembhard, who currently is playing out of his mind. Of course, it might be because he is the best second round pick taken in decades.
The final piece of this puzzle is the trading of Domantas Sabonis to the Kings last season as the franchise decided to pivot from the current roster. This updates the trade to this point to the following:
Pacers send: Paul George
Pacers receive: Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, Tristan Thompson, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Nembhard, 2023 Cleveland 1st, 2023 Houston 2nd, 2024 Cleveland/Utah 2nd, 2027 Utah 2nd
What we will have to see is whether or not Buddy Hield is ultimately kept or is turned into another 1st round pick. But at the end of the day, Indiana Pacers management was able to parlay Paul George into a generational point guard, a top-5 deep threat in the league, a starting-level point guard in Nembhard, a first-round pick, and 3 second-round picks.
And Utah thought they got a lot for Rudy Gobert.