NBA Trade Rumors: O.J. Mayo Will Make Indiana Pacers Top Spoiler Team in East

It is no secret that the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks form the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Should the Indiana Pacers acquire Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo, however, they will be the next team in the pecking order.

According to ESPN.com, the Pacers and Grizzlies continue to work on a deal that would bring Mayo to Indiana and send forward Josh McRoberts to Memphis. The potential trade is a rehash of negotiations that took place at last season's trade deadline, but ultimately fell through.

Should the Pacers figure out a way to execute the trade, it would come on the heels of signing former New Orleans Hornets forward David West to a two-year contract. All Indiana is missing now is a legitimate two-guard, which is exactly what Mayo is.

Even without Mayo the Pacers have an impressive assortment of weapons with the likes of West, Roy Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough in the post, Darren Collison running the point and their star player, Danny Granger, at small forward.

Mayo, thanks to his excellent outside shooting stroke, would be the perfect complement to the Indiana bigs. The Pacers have often been a fringe playoff contender in the shallow Eastern Conference over the past several years, but I believe the acquisition of Mayo would make them that much better.

In recent seasons the Eastern Conference team on the verge of contention has been the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have never advanced past the second round of the playoffs during that time, but they have certainly had some success.

I see Indiana inheriting that role and becoming a team to be reckoned with in the conference. The Pacers may not ultimately do a great deal of damage in the playoffs, but they will be far from an easy out and very capable of giving the big guns a run for their money, just as the Hawks have done so often.

Few teams in the NBA would be as well-balanced and complete as the Pacers should they acquire Mayo, so there is certainly reason to believe that they could upset a team like the Knicks or Celtics come playoff time.

Mayo is no Reggie Miller as he has some deficiencies in his game, particularly on the defensive end, but he would give the Pacers something they have lacked since Miller's retirement. Indiana simply hasn't had a shooting guard that opposing teams have had to respect, but Mayo is just that thanks to his impressive offensive ability.

It would be premature to call the Pacers an elite team or a contending team in the event of a Mayo trade, but they would take a big step in the right direction. The Pacers have plenty of good pieces, but Mayo is unquestionably the missing piece of what could be a highly successful puzzle.