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From Yahoo! Sports via Hoopshype:

Once the Indiana Pacers come to terms with free-agent forward David West, Budinger is expected to be a priority to bolster their bench, sources said. Yahoo! Sports

I personally love this move. Chase would be a great fit for our bench.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... nch01.html

This makes sense.

I've liked Budinger since he came into the league and a wing who can stretch the floor is a clear need.

I would love for him to have G Green's roster spot and contract. Their going to have to find a way to get rid of Greens contract. I like the idea of Budinger and Stephenson coming in the game together. Seems like a trade involving a wing may be imminent considering they are looking at wings. A trade with Granger during the season (after he shows himself to be healthy) could be coming.

We need to purge our list of wings if we are to acquire Budinger because there is just no minutes for everybody, with a hopefully healthy Granger and rookie Solomon Hill.

I like Budinger but I see him as another Gerald Green who settles for perimeter shots too much. I would prefer a low post threat, guys like Jermaine O' Neal or Elton Brand who can sign cheap one or two year contracts. Or a big point guard who can penetrate, like Udrih.

I'd love Budinger on our team. Deep threat to space the floor, but surely it means we would part ways with one of our other wings (trade, amnesty etc....) and that not counting the fact we'll let Sam Young go.

I hope this is real. Would love to see Chase out on a fast break in the blue and gold!

The big question here and also with Allen, how much and for how long?

Can you front load something or over pay for one year?

Allen and Collison on reasonable deals would be fine with me. DC isn't a great starting PG, but he would be a very solid add off the bench if willing.

I think we have to allow Tyler to walk, and replace his minutes with Miles. We will also see smaller line-ups at times this year if Granger is healthy..he and Hill should split minutes at the 4.

Hill-Collison
Stephenson-Allen-Johnson
George-Granger-Hill
West-Plumlee
Hibbert-Mahimi

The question is...how can we make this happen without handicapping ourselves against the cap with Paul being the primary focus in his upcoming contract needs....

8305 wrote:The big question here and also with Allen, how much and for how long?

Can you front load something or over pay for one year?

Allen would require the full MLE from us. Starts at roughly $5m in the first year. It could decline from there, but at that point, Allen would start leaving a LOT of money on the table to sign with us.


Essentially, Indy can use the MLE ($5m in the first year) or the Bi-Annual Exception (obviously, you can only use it once every two years) of about $2-2.5m in the first year. You can break up the MLE to use on multiple players, if you like. I believe the same holds true for the BAE, but am not 100% sure of that.

Indy4Life wrote:Allen and Collison on reasonable deals would be fine with me. DC isn't a great starting PG, but he would be a very solid add off the bench if willing.

The concept of Collison in Indy has been poo-pooed by a lot of the local media and writers. Apparently, Collison was a bad chemistry guy in the locker room and tried to create divisions in the locker room.

I wonder if they've looked at Carlos DelFino at all? He'd be a nice piece of the bench - good shooter, decent defense.
Does anyone else feel like there has to be one more PG coming?

MNPacersfan wrote:I wonder if they've looked at Carlos DelFino at all? He'd be a nice piece of the bench - good shooter, decent defense.
Does anyone else feel like there has to be one more PG coming?

Good question. I like Delfino as well. I'd say that we look to be adding one shooter (Delfino, Budinger, Belinelli, Copeland), we've added a PG (Watson), and we still look to need a 3rd PG, whether it be someone from our summer league, undrafted, BHans, or someone else. At that point, we would have 14 players, and if Copeland isn't signed as the shooter, then we would likely need another big man, putting us at 15, and a full roster.

One other thing this signifies is a HUGE hindrance to any possible Granger deal, as at that point, it would have to be a straight up swap for us as we wouldn't have any open roster spots.

We really need to find a swap of Green for a PG or a PF, if at all possible.

Budinger agrees to a 3yr, $16 million deal with Minnesota.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... ith-Wolves

Yikes. If that's what he's going to get, I think we dodged a major bullet there. Nothing personal against him, but I would've been on the fence about a deal for half the years and half the money.

Delfino and Copeland splitting the MLE look pretty good right now.

Is Beleneli still on the market?

8305 wrote:Is Beleneli still on the market?

Yeah, from what I understand.