Indiana Pacers May Need To Trade Myles Turner Or Victor Oladipo To Improve Roster

The Indiana Pacers did a lot right this season, finishing 4th in the Eastern Conference with a 45-28 regular season and the 6th-best defense in the league in terms of efficiency. But none of that mattered after being swept in the first round of the playoffs at the Orlando bubble, falling to the Miami Heat 99-87 on Monday night.

Not having All-Star center Domantas Sabonis, out with plantar fasciitis, during the series hurt and the Pacers didn’t have enough on either end to contend with the Heat. But Indiana did a really good job during the regular season bringing Malcolm Brogdon in to take the point guard reins while Victor Oladipo missed the first half of the regular season recovering from a ruptured quad in his right knee last year. The team’s regular season was good enough to earn head coach Nate McMillan a contract extension.

T.J. Warren, acquired from Phoenix last offseason for cash, was a revelation at the bubble after a strong regular season. Myles Turner did an okay job in the frontcourt next to Sabonis, but the Pacers had phenomenal shooting depth in brothers Aaron and Justin Holiday and Doug McDermott. They shot at a high percentage, but the Pacers attempted the fewest threes per game in the league, making the second-fewest.

Indiana was great from inside the arc, but finished 19th during the regular season in offensive efficiency. That’s not good enough to be taken seriously as a contender in today’s NBA. People have discussed Sabonis’ and Turner’s fit in the frontcourt, and perhaps the Pacers try to trade Turner in the offseason and go smaller with Warren at power forward next to Sabonis. In 1084 regular season minutes, Sabonis and Turner were +38 total in 54 games, basically net neutral per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. Is that a duo that really needs to be kept together? Turner has three years and $54 million left on his contract, not as much as the four-year, $75 million extension that kicks in for Sabonis next year.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Kevin Pritchard and the Pacers front office deals with the Brogdon and Oladipo backcourt. The two-man Oladipo-Brogdon duo was -3.1 points per 100 possessions in the Heat series after being -4.2 per 100 in 339 regular season minutes, per NBA.com.

While Brogdon has three years and $65 million left on his deal, Oladipo will be on the last year of his contract in 2020-2021. Do they let their nominal franchise player go into the final year of his deal? Try and re-sign him to a team-friendly extension? Does Indiana try to trade Oladipo and avoid risking losing him for nothing in a year?

Is money a factor for this Pacers team, with David Simon as a majority stakeholder? His Simon Property Group is the largest shopping mall operator in the U.S., which was obviously hit especially hard during the coronavirus pandemic. SPG
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’s share value was $135.28 per share on Feb. 25 and begins Aug. 25 at $68.50. Two weeks ago, Simon released its report for the quarter that ended June 30. Net income fell from $495.3 million, $1.60 per share, to $254.2 million, or 83 cents a share.

In February, Forbes valued the Pacers at $1.525 billion, a 9% increase from the year before and an operating income of $55 million. But does that matter if Simon’s business is in a downturn? Will Indiana’s offseason spending be impacted, especially with nearly $126 million in guaranteed salaries next season, per HoopsHype?

Indiana definitely needs to improve offensively next season and won’t have much, if any, financial wiggle room to get better on that end in free agency. And that’s exactly why the Pacers are definitely going to be a team to watch out for on the trade market this coming offseason.