Source: Justin Casterline / Getty
The Indiana Pacers were surprisingly active ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline, sending away Buddy Hield to the 76ers for Marcus Morris Sr. and Furkan Kormaz along with three second-round picks, before turning around and sending Morris and one of the second rounders to the Spurs to bring back Doug McDermott, who was with the Pacers from 2018-21. The Pacers also sent another of those second-round draft choices to the Warriors for Cory Joseph, whom they would later release along with Kormaz.
The activity was somewhat unexpected, as the Pacers had made a big move well before the trade deadline to acquire Pascal Siakam. Many thought Indiana would remain quiet following that deal; the Pacers clearly had other ideas.
During Thursday’s edition of The Ride With JMV, John spoke to Evan Sidery of Forbes Sports, who gave his reaction to the Buddy Hield trade.
“I see the reasoning here, because I doubt they’re going to resign McDermott, maybe just a rental, but Buddy Hield, you weren’t going to be able to keep him past this season. He was probably going to get 20-plus million dollars on the open market this summer, and with the luxury tax concerns there, I get the Pacers standpoint there…Getting Doug McDermott from the Spurs really kind of fills that whole void that Buddy is leaving, and on top of that you get a couple future second round picks, and maybe even really an early second round, or pseudo late first round pick in this deal, so I kind of really honestly like the moves they made today when you add the Doug McDermott trade on top of that.”
Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star also joined the show, and he took a more cautious approach to his assessment of the deal.
“I think again you sort of missed just how prolific this guy is. I mean we’re talking about someone who’s top 25 all time in makes. Again, got all kinds of flaws obviously, not the greatest defender, only gives you so much offensively outside of the three-point shooting, but the three-point numbers are really real. McDermott’s shooting a high percentage, but Buddy’s made twice as many this year…I get at least where it came from, but it was just funny to me that Haliburton and McConnell the last two days were making this case, and really kind of relishing the opportunity to tell us how good Buddy Hield is and how much he matters, and then their franchise makes this deal today.”
Alex Golden of Setting The Pace hopped on to give his reaction as well.
“Honestly, I haven’t really been one to really criticize much of the trades Pritchard and Buchanan have done, but to me I think the Pacers got a little bit worse.”
Alex would elaborate on why he thinks the way he does.
“I think it makes sense, right? Obviously they weren’t going to come to an agreement with Buddy Hield for a contract extension, so good chance that he does walk away in June or July, but at this point why not just let him walk then, instead of getting a decent couple 2nd round picks? Yeah, you don’t want to lose him for nothing technically…likely the 2nd round pick this year from Toronto will probably be around 35 or 40, that’s the pick you get back for Buddy Hield. What are you really doing with that pick? So to me, is it really worth messing up the chemistry that this team has and how good Buddy Hield fits in? I don’t think so, so I think they took a step back, but I don’t think it’s going to impact them incredibly a lot, but I still think that it was a deal that ended up putting them back a spot.”
Listen to JMV’s full conversations with Dustin, Evan, Alex and more down below and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6p on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!
