Ayton to IND?

[Scoot McGroot]

Read on Twitter

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Gosh. Made it as easy as possible for Phoenix to match.

Which seems to support the position of the Blazers guy you ran off.

….Dan Burke? Nate Bjorkgren wasn’t a Blazer guy? Who else did we run off?

Did you mean the poster? Nah. Pritchard convinced the owner to extend an offer sheet. That alone is a MASSIVE action that took a ton of work. Every franchise is different, and some guys are different in different franchises.

Best of luck out west, y’all.

[Scoot McGroot]

The part in bold

It's the main reason why I keep thinking that the focus should be to re-sign Turner even if he hits free agency

Because it looks like there aren't that many better options than him

I have to think you are right.

The part about minimum spending - I read somewhere that if Pacers don't hit the minimum spending then at the end of the season the difference is split between all players on roster

That's kind of a nice way to give our players a little bonus, I feel

I've read the same explanation. And it would be a nice small perk for enduring the losing we all expect.

Simon will not let this team come in under the salary floor. That would mean he’s paying guys extra, that he doesn’t have to, for nothing of his own personal or teams benefit. Billionaires gonna billionaire.

This is why Indy should sell their cap space this season. You’re spending the money anyway, so get a first round pick for it.

[Pacers Forever]

The part in bold

It's the main reason why I keep thinking that the focus should be to re-sign Turner even if he hits free agency

Because it looks like there aren't that many better options than him

I have to think you are right.

The part about minimum spending - I read somewhere that if Pacers don't hit the minimum spending then at the end of the season the difference is split between all players on roster

That's kind of a nice way to give our players a little bonus, I feel

I've read the same explanation. And it would be a nice small perk for enduring the losing we all expect.

Simon will not let this team come in under the salary floor. That would mean he’s paying guys extra, that he doesn’t have to, for nothing of his own personal or teams benefit. Billionaires gonna billionaire.

This is why Indy should sell their cap space this season. You’re spending the money anyway, so get a first round pick for it.

I like the suggestion by someone to split the salary up and try to get a couple of first round picks from different teams.

[Scoot McGroot]

I have to think you are right.



I've read the same explanation. And it would be a nice small perk for enduring the losing we all expect.

Simon will not let this team come in under the salary floor. That would mean he’s paying guys extra, that he doesn’t have to, for nothing of his own personal or teams benefit. Billionaires gonna billionaire.

This is why Indy should sell their cap space this season. You’re spending the money anyway, so get a first round pick for it.

I like the suggestion by someone to split the salary up and try to get a couple of first round picks from different teams.

Oh, agreed. There’s worlds of options. Just for examples and hypotheticals, Like, if we were to deal Buddy/Turner for Westbrook, that would only burn up $7ish million in immediate cap space this year, add around $19m in cap space next year, and maybe we could get both he 2027 and 2029 1sts from LA? Maybe we could even snag a right to swap firsts in 2026 out of max out the return, too? That could be a huge draft capital infusion in the future to draft down the line, or use in future trades, and we could still have roughly $22m in cap space this year to keep eating other contracts. Usually, eating a contract of $15-20m in salary could net a first, so, in theory, we could turn $30m into 3+ picks, and have a little extra cap space next summer to do the same or make a salary imbalanced trade, etc.


All kinds of flexibility.

[Tom White]

Like, if we were to deal Buddy/Turner for Westbrook

One of my problems with this is what it does to our center rotation. Of course, you could say we were without Turner for a good amount of last season, so what is the difference?

I suppose a stop-gap would be to sign a cheap veteran backup for this year to fill the void. Like a Cody Zeller or such, Not the most attractive idea, although he would probably like coming home for a year. That would leave us starting Goga or hoping Jackson could do it and not get broken in half by some of the bigger opponents.

[Scoot McGroot]

Like, if we were to deal Buddy/Turner for Westbrook

One of my problems with this is what it does to our center rotation. Of course, you could say we were without Turner for a good amount of last season, so what is the difference?

I suppose a stop-gap would be to sign a cheap veteran backup for this year to fill the void. Like a Cody Zeller or such, Not the most attractive idea, although he would probably like coming home for a year. That would leave us starting Goga or hoping Jackson could do it and not get broken in half by some of the bigger opponents.

We’d still have Theis, Jalen Smith, Jackson, and Goga at the 5. Sure, Jalen is starting at the 4, but he’s probably a true 5. Either way, I doubt Myles signs an extension, and I doubt the Pacers would let him get to unrestricted free agency without dealing him first, if they can. And if this year is still a rebuild, then I’d like to see Goga before free agency, and I’d like to see Jackson and Jalen at the 5, too. And Theis is fine as a stopgap vet there.

But either way, I pm just talking hypothetically. We don’t have to do just Myles for Westbrook and eat $30m in one go. We can make a bunch of other moves to help, fill that space, get picks now and in the future, and use the opened playing time to develop and identify our prospects. And if we’re going to not be very good, and the team is young, it makes sense to me.