This past week, NBA Insider Shams Charania dropped some intel on what the Pacers management has been up to the past few weeks.
“The three finalists for Hachimura, I’m told, were the Lakers as well as the Pacers and Suns.”
— The Rally (@TheRally) January 23, 2023
NBA Insider @ShamsCharania reports on the Wizards trading Rui Hachimura to the Lakers for Kendrick Nunn and three second-round picks. pic.twitter.com/4LgjCbqJgc
So it appears that the Pacers were hopeful to acquire Rui Hachimura, something that we have talked about previously on this site. This does give us some insight into what the Pacers are potentially thinking ahead of the trade deadline.
The Pacers may still hope to make a push this season and believe in the current core.
What fans can take away from the news that the Pacers were interested in acquiring Hachimura is that there is still some believe from the front office that the Pacers have many of the pieces they may need already to compete. If they believed that they didn’t have the pieces they needed they would likely be operating more as sellers before the deadline.
However, this belief would contrast with the newest reports from Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) who has reported that the Pacers may look to be sellers at the deadline. These reports would indicate that the Pacers are potentially thinking they need additional pieces to be competitive in the east.
Thus, it’s hard to tell what Pritchard and the team are hoping to do in the coming weeks. It may just be that they don’t have a particular preference for being buyers or sellers, but rather are trying to react to what is available across the league (something small-market teams are a bit more prone to do). If this is the case, then the front office themselves may not have clear picture of the weeks ahead.
What we do know is that this move is a vote of confidence in Haliburton, Mathurin, and Turner as a potential winning core for the Pacers to improve on.