Sam - been waiting for this snippet for a minute! Huge Pacers fan, lots of open questions about the team that I don't will be solved until the season starts. I think Jalen Smith is gone (someone will take a flier on him as a stretch 5). Toppin I'm somewhat torn about - I think he's worth in the 7-10M range annually and he's very solid as a backup 4. As it stands currently, the Pacers don't have a lot of tradeable salaries aside from Nesmith. There may be some value in turning Toppin into a tradeable salary down the line (but anything over 10M is an overpay). Assuming we keep Toppin though, we still have an 11-man rotation and if that's the case then either Sheppard or Walker will be the odd man out. Rick Carlisle and the FO have been open about seeing Jarace as a 3 moving forward and I think that will be the best case for his development because I don't think he'll get the minutes he needs playing behind Siakam. Unfortunately it's a really bad move if we can't get him or Mathurin (both are the highest draft picks the Pacers have had in 30+ years) into the starting lineup. A consolidation trade seems inevitable. Lots of Pacers fans seem high on Mikal Bridges but the Nets haven't seemed willing to play ball at this point. If all it took was Mathurin+Walker to do it I'd be all for it, but the salaries don't match and I imagine the Nets would want pick capital or even Nembhard (who's making so little money on his rookie deal that it presents a problem during trades). Who knows what will happen - I expect it to be a rather quiet offseason other than inking Siakam to a longer-term deal. The more interesting moves will probably wait until the trade deadline.

We’re good on trading both Mathurin and Walker. Bridges is good though.

Bridges to Indiana is a near perfect fit. Pacers have too much depth to get minutes for everyone and its difficult to straddle the philosophies of win now while developing young talent. The idea that they could keep the playoff rotation in tact and add Bridges for Mathurin, Walker, and picks is intriguing as they could still have the best bench in the league and add the player they need to have a legitimate chance to dethrone Boston.

@michaelahurt

22 күн бұрын

But why would Brooklyn do that? They don't own their own picks so there's no point to being bad. If you trade for picks/young players you need a high likelihood of that player being a star. And Brooklyn knows Bridges is perfect next to a star. That's why they want to get one, not trade him.