Your team was very active in the offseason having participated in several summer blockbuster moves that netted you 7 players. Don't ask me why Rasho Nesterovic is not in this picture. Maybe he had problems with his ....um Passport. Yeah. That's it. We'll blame it on airport security.
Despite those moves you still have three fairly undesireable contracts on your hands in the form of Jamaal Tinsley, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Troy Murphy.
As I see it the Pacers are most likely stuck with Tinsley. At best I could see them moving Jamaal in a deal that would include them taking back a bad contract from some other team that is possibly a year shorter, but no more. If that opportunity presented itself then I think the Pacers would jump at the chance to move him, now having T.J. Ford as their starter. But in what looks to be a fiscally conservative NBA for the 2008-2009 season, I don't see it happening unless a team gets desperate enough to offer up one of their own semi-bad contracts for the injury prone PG. And for that level of desperation to set in around the league would warrant an injury before the trade deadline to a team with playoff aspirations in my opinion.
Both Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Troy Murphy are fairly productive players but both overpaid. With that said, they may have some suitors at some point if a team is willing to take on a bit more salary to get either of them to fill a need. For instance the Memphis Grizzlies are in need of rebounding and a starter at the PF position. I could see them offering up something for Murphy to plug in as their starter with talks of the Knick deal that would have sent Zach Randolph to Memphis now having cooled. Especially if the Grizzlies could still move Marko Jaric or Darko Milicic in the process.
Murphy might be an ideal candidate for this type of move as he is a big man that puts up decent numbers and because of that has value in the leauge. Plus he's only 28 years old and his contract doesn't include huge increases.
A deal I like with Memphis:
Troy Murphy/Shawne Williams/Josh McRoberts/2010 2nd round pick to Memphis
Darko Milicic/Greg Buckner/Hakim Warrick to Indiana
This helps both teams. Memphis gets more rebounding out of their starting PF and Indiana sheds some payroll.
They also get two useful pieces in Warrick and Milicic to try and build with alongside T.J. Ford, Brandon Rush, Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert.
Even though...yes, Darko is pretty much damaged goods, he has value in that he only has one more year after this one on his contract, which should be appealing to Indiana.
They could be sitting pretty as early as 2010 from a cap perspective and Warrick might fair better next to a couple of big men with real size in Roy Hibbert and Jeff Foster.
As far as the Pacers future, I would feel better about it if they had kept Jerryd Bayless.
I think he has star potential in the NBA. On a Gilbert Arenas level.
On a team that desperately needs a talent upgrade, you take one of the most talented wing players in the draft and trade him for a guy in Brandon Rush who should be a very solid NBA player but does not have the ceiling that Jerryd Bayless has.
I hope they don't look back and regret that trade in 5 years.
Here's hoping Larry Bird got one right this time.
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