Indiana Pacers mock trade review: Reviewing a deal with the Utah Jazz
Recently, Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report penned a piece designed to lay out five NBA trades that make sense to happen early in the ongoing season. All of them involve either NBA stars or top teams.
The Indiana Pacers are involved in one hypothetical deal in the column as Swartz created a potential deal between the blue and gold and the Utah Jazz, who are currently fourth in the Western Conference. Both teams have exceeded expectations so far.
In the mock deal, the Pacers send center Myles Turner to the Jazz in exchange for Talen Horton-Tucker, Walker Kessler, Rudy Gay, and a lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick.
In terms of a return for Turner, this checks some interesting boxes for Indiana. Kessler and Horton-Tucker are both under contract for multiple seasons and are both just 21-years old, and young players with team control have been appealing to the Pacers front office in past trades. The 2023 first-round pick is a strong asset, too. Those three pieces are valuable enough to make this a deal, if it were even real, that the blue and gold could consider if they were looking to move Turner, but it may not quite enough.
That said, it isn't a legal move. The Pacers would have to include two more players in the deal (or waive them in a corresponding transaction) to make this trade allowable, and that would swing the deal.
Gay is also a negative value on his current contract, so this trade might not be worth it to the Pacers in total. Losing Turner, who is playing excellent basketball right now but is on an expiring contract, for two interesting young pieces, a draft pick that they only might get, and a bad contract is probably not what Indiana would be looking to do, especially with how well the big man has started this season.
Lighter pick protections, or leaving out Gay altogether and instead including the salary of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, would be the easiest ways to shift this trade to give the Pacers slightly more value. But Utah may be hesitant to give up so many young assets early in a rebuild. At this time, with both teams early in team-building projects, they feel like unlikely trade partners. But in a vacuum, there are ways the two franchises could construct a deal that makes sense.
- Oshae Brissett puts together his best game of the season to help the Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors: 'He's doing it at a high level'. CLICK HERE.
- Bennedict Mathurin continues his impressive rookie season with an 18-point quarter, 30-point game vs Denver Nuggets. CLICK HERE.
- Younger Indiana Pacers players are benefitting from T.J. McConnell's leadership. CLICK HERE.
- Report: Los Angeles Clippers interested in Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner. CLICK HERE.
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