Ranking Pacers' Top Trade Targets After 2024 NBA Playoff Loss
The Indiana Pacers made progress this season.
They snapped a three-year NBA playoff drought, had their first All-Star starter since 2016 in Tyrese Haliburton, brokered a blockbuster trade for two-time All-Star Pascal Siakam, won a playoff series for the first time in a decade and then another and still found time to develop some young talent.
It was a fun, productive campaign in the Circle City, even if the vibes aren't all warm and fuzzy on the heels of the team's conference finals loss to the Boston Celtics. Once that wound heals, the Pacers can fully appreciate how much they accomplished this past season.
And once that appreciation wears off, they can start getting to work on accomplishing even more the next time around.
Could another trip to the trade market make that happen? It's possible, so let's spotlight the top three players worth targeting in a deal.
3. Andrew Wiggins, Golden State Warriors
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Assuming Siakam re-signs, the Pacers will have stars at point guard and power forward. And their center, Myles Turner, is one of the league's top providers of the unicorn blend of shot-blocking and three-point shooting.
The one thing potentially missing from the puzzle is an impact two-way wing. Now, the word potentially is important, because both Bennedict Mathurin and Jarace Walker have a chance to develop into exactly that. With that aforementioned trio all right within their primes, though, Indiana might not want to wait and see whether either prospect maxes out his potential.
A trade for Andrew Wiggins would effectively hedge their bets. Because he's coming off a disappointing season and still owed a colossal amount of cash, he shouldn't cost much in trade assets but would arrive with significant bounce-back potential. No, he hasn't been great (or sometimes even good) the past two seasons, but in the campaign prior to that, he was the best defender and sometimes the second-best player on the NBA champion.
If the Pacers can coax that kind of play out of him, they'd have a legitimate difference-maker on the wings. If they can't, they wouldn't be out much beyond financial flexibility, and they could still clear the runway for Mathurin or Walker as soon as they signal they're ready for take-off.
2. Alex Caruso, Chicago Bulls
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Indiana's offense is a sight to behold. Its defense, on the other hand, can be pretty hard to watch—and pretty easy to score against.
If the Pacers plan on climbing the Eastern Conference ladder even higher, they need to beef up their 24th-ranked defense, per NBA.com, and find something a lot closer to the two-way balance that championship contention demands.
If the Bulls, who have a win-now payroll and hopefully-we-crack-the-play-in talent, shift their focus toward the future, Alex Caruso could be the best defender available this offseason. That alone should land him a prominent place on the Pacers' priority list.
Throw in that he's malleable on offense and eminently affordable (by salary, not trade cost), and he wouldn't have a hard time finding his fit or ways to make his presence felt on a nightly basis.
1. Mikal Bridges, Brooklyn Nets
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The ideal pickup for the Pacers is an in-prime wing who can silence top scorers on the defensive end and perk up the offense with shot-making, some creation and an ability to thrive both on and off the ball. Oh, and an added bonus if said player isn't making top dollar.
Mikal Bridges checks every last box on that list and more that we didn't mention. Playing around scoring threats like Haliburton and Siakam should do wonders for Bridges' efficiency, never mind what it would mean for conserving some energy and allowing him to play lock-down defense every second he's on the floor.
As for that affordability, his contract is one of the best non-rookie deals you'll find. He is a borderline star who will cost less than $50 million ($48.2 million to be precise, per Spotrac), making him an absolute steal in the NBA economy.
The questions here are whether the Nets would give him up and whether the Pacers would have the best offer for him. Neither would be called likely, but they don't seem impossible, either. Brooklyn might soon decide it won't get good enough quickly enough to capitalize on Bridges' prime, so it could opt for the asset-collection route. As for Indiana's offer, the franchise doesn't have as many draft assets as some, but some combination of Walker, Mathurin, two first-round picks and up to four swaps would be the foundation of a pretty formidable trade package.
