Less than a year removed from their conference finals appearance, the Indiana Pacers are knocking on the door of legitimate title contention. Led by Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, the Pacers are a deep team that should be firmly in the playoff picture for the foreseeable future. However, they still have some problems to address, and it all starts with the front office changing their mentality.
Recently, reports have surfaced suggesting that the Pacers do not want to pay Myles Turner $30 million per year once his contract is up this season. Naturally, this has led to some speculating that the Pacers could move on from their long-time center ahead of this year's NBA Trade Deadline to avoid the risk of losing him in the offseason for nothing. What the Pacers should do is a bit of a debate, but all things considered, even if it is considered an overpay, they must bring back Turner at all costs.
Regardless of what happens with Turner and the Pacers, this is a concerning development, and their unwillingness to spend may be what causes them to fall short of legitimate title contention.
Pacers must be willing to spend money to become title contenders
In a recent article for ESPN (subscription required), NBA Front Office Insider Bobby Marks broke down the Pacers' cap situation. As it stands, the Pacers have just two max contracts on the books (Haliburton and Siakam) and remain below the luxury tax and first apron. Marks does mention that with Turner's impending free agency (and Bennedict Mathurin's likely contract extension) this offseason, the Pacers could be a luxury tax team within the next couple of seasons. Because of this, trading Turner is a serious option for the Pacers.
Keeping your team's payroll as cheap as possible of course makes sense. However, for the Pacers, it is not worth losing Turner. Across the past two seasons, the Pacers have played their best basketball in a decade. They were four wins away from an NBA Finals appearance last season and are starting to truly find their groove. Making trades to trim salary before the deadline this year is a risk not worth taking.
At this point, it is unclear how serious the Pacers are about potentially trading Turner, but hopefully for them and the fans, it is not going to happen. Despite his seemingly high asking price, the Texas native is the perfect fit in Indiana's system, and it will be borderline impossible for the Pacers to find an upgrade anytime soon.
The Pacers have a talented team and a great staff. However, if they are not willing to spend the money to keep their team together, it may cost them a serious chance at a championship down the line.