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From Chad Ford's trade deadline article posted today.

I'm wondering why no one is mentioning the Indiana Pacers as a possible trade partner. They have two expiring contracts: Rasho Nesterovic and Marquis Daniels, whose salaries together equal $15 million. As a bonus, both of those players are actually playing really well this season.

Why wouldn't a playoff team looking to create some cap space make a run at those guys?

It's no secret that the Pacers want to find both an athletic big man and a team willing to take point guard Jamaal Tinsley off their hands. Pacers execs Larry Bird and David Morway have done a great job of recreating this roster on the fly. The team has about $10 million or so in wiggle room next year before it hits the luxury-tax threshold, so the Pacers can take on some salary. I wouldn't be surprised to see them become players Thursday.

It's nice to hear that we're in the mix to be a buyer in a market like this.

There's a thread on the trade board with us trading our two expirings mentioned here + Tinsley for Shaq. Only responses so far say we take on too much money, but I wonder if Shaq is worth it in terms of ticket sales. This would certainly be interesting and whenever Shaq switches teams he seems to get fired up for at least a year or so. I think we would make the playoffs with a deal like this.

Shaq would not want to come here.

Well, regardless of whether a deal like that is reasonable or not, I don't see why Shaq wouldnt' want to go to Indy. He's an oversized personality and he doesn't really need to be in a big market to get media attention. I can hear him now at the press conference talking about how excited he would be to play in the basketball heartland, and to spend time with Larry Bird, then comparing Danny Granger to a Godfather character. Who doesn't love press conference Shaq?

More from Ford in his chat today.

Cory (Indy): Chad have the Pacers looked into any deals with their expiring contracts or are they just focused on trading Tinsley?

SportsNation Chad Ford: Pacers have been unusually quiet. They've tried to trade Tinsley and I've heard there's interest (Larry Brown's a fan, for instance), but they have to take back another bad contract to do it. I'm surprised they haven't heard more offers for their two expiring contracts -- Rasho Nesterovic and Marquis Daniels.

I'd love to see us get Shaq... it would be a lot of fun to watch him and Danny playing together. Even though I'd love to see it, I don't think its that likely to happen.

granger05 wrote:Well, regardless of whether a deal like that is reasonable or not, I don't see why Shaq wouldnt' want to go to Indy. He's an oversized personality and he doesn't really need to be in a big market to get media attention. I can hear him now at the press conference talking about how excited he would be to play in the basketball heartland, and to spend time with Larry Bird, then comparing Danny Granger to a Godfather character. Who doesn't love press conference Shaq?

Shaq is a legend on the microphone.

granger05 wrote:Well, regardless of whether a deal like that is reasonable or not, I don't see why Shaq wouldnt' want to go to Indy. He's an oversized personality and he doesn't really need to be in a big market to get media attention. I can hear him now at the press conference talking about how excited he would be to play in the basketball heartland, and to spend time with Larry Bird, then comparing Danny Granger to a Godfather character. Who doesn't love press conference Shaq?

Haha, I think you are a glass half full kind of person, so I will be the half empty sourpuss. Shaq has repeatedly stated that he wants to play in warm weather climates, or big ticket markets. At this point, I think the only places Shaq would play at would be: LA, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, any of the Texas teams or the Knicks. If we were a legitimate title contender, then maaaayyyybe he wouldnt mind. As it stands now, with us well outside of the playoff hunt and looking mediocre with or without him, I cant imagine him wanting to come.

Well at least now I know that JJSG will agree with me. I don't think a deal like this ever happens, but I don't see Shaq as the type that complains publicly about his destination although he's certainly frequented warm weather cities in his career. His contract is huge and runs two more years. I bet he recognizes that he's not going to be playing for a real contender during that window. I bet that once he's a free agent he signs one more shorter deal with a team that has title hopes. He's sort of playing out the string till then.

We will make moves before the deadline, guaranteed, but we probably will not get anything awesome in return.

granger05 wrote:Well at least now I know that JJSG will agree with me. I don't think a deal like this ever happens, but I don't see Shaq as the type that complains publicly about his destination although he's certainly frequented warm weather cities in his career. His contract is huge and runs two more years. I bet he recognizes that he's not going to be playing for a real contender during that window. I bet that once he's a free agent he signs one more shorter deal with a team that has title hopes. He's sort of playing out the string till then.

I'm surprised he's managed to avoid the board as long as he has. What's the over/under on when he's back?

I thought Tyson Chandler could've fit well with us, but he has a pretty long contract. The other guys I have liked are Shaq and David Lee. Shaq wouldn't want to play here, but he would boost ticket sales. David Lee is expiring and the Knicks wouldn't want to take on salary past 2010, so we may have to take a bad contract. It probably wouldn't be worth it b/c he could get expensive to resign. We will probably never sign a big name free agent, so our best shot is to trade for an overpaid one!

Word is that Phoenix is done making moves getting the new coach. I don't believe that. I believe they may not trade Amare now, but they want to trade Shaq, especially if they speed things up even more. His 20 million in salary plus them being in the Luxury Tax is A LOT of money (as much as $40 Million ). We won't make any big moves I'm sure, as usual.

Unless some of these owners lost hundreds of millions and the Simons are still doing fine then maybe we could get a great player, who knows. I can always dream.

cdash wrote:

granger05 wrote:Well at least now I know that JJSG will agree with me. I don't think a deal like this ever happens, but I don't see Shaq as the type that complains publicly about his destination although he's certainly frequented warm weather cities in his career. His contract is huge and runs two more years. I bet he recognizes that he's not going to be playing for a real contender during that window. I bet that once he's a free agent he signs one more shorter deal with a team that has title hopes. He's sort of playing out the string till then.

I'm surprised he's managed to avoid the board as long as he has. What's the over/under on when he's back?

Am I sensing a new game?