Buddy Hield Rumors: Mavs Trade Has 'No Traction'; Pacers Don't Want Tim Hardaway Jr.

The Dallas Mavericks may want Buddy Hield, but it takes two teams to agree to a trade.

And the Indiana Pacers reportedly aren't interested for the time being.

During an appearance on 97.1 The Freak (h/t Grant Afseth of Sports Illustrated's FanNation), NBA insider Marc Stein said talks between the two teams have "no traction" in large part because the Pacers are not interested in adding Tim Hardaway Jr.'s contract in a deal.

Hield is entering the final season of his contract, and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported "contract extension negotiations stalled out" between him and the Pacers. As a result, the two sides "have started a dialogue to work on finding a potential trade with another team."

Charania listed the Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks as potential suitors but added that almost any contender would likely love to add someone who can shoot like the Oklahoma product.

With multiple teams potentially interested, the Pacers could end up landing significant draft capital in a trade.

As for Dallas, Afseth explained it is "limited in potential trade frameworks to sufficiently match the $18.4 million salary that Hield will earn in 2023-24." That means it might need to include Hardaway or Richaun Holmes in any trade, which is difficult to do if other teams are not interested in them.

That is unfortunate for the Mavericks because Hield is someone who would be an ideal fit alongside Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.

Given the defensive attention the two primary ball-handlers draw, Dallas cannot have enough shooting on the wings. Hield connected on 42.5 percent of his triples last season for the Pacers and may even hit at a better clip than that if he was playing with the spacing that Dončić and Irving create.

Alas, it doesn't seem like there is a Hield-to-Dallas trade in the works at this point of the offseason.