Does Jerami Grant to Pacers make sense? A trade framework

[Myth]

Pacers have clearly moved towards win now. Would they be willing to take on some money and give some sort of asset to land Grant? Grant has been an over 20ppg guy for years and could play great off Haliburton with his 3 point shooting, he is a decent defender, and would add size at SF and PF.

Basic salary structure:
Pacers receive:
Grant $29.8 / $32 / $34.2 / $36.4 (player option)

Blazers receive (chosen almost entirely for salary purposes without taking the core players):
Nesmith $11 / $11 / $11
McConnell $9.3

Pacers consolidate 2 role players into a semi-star/role player.

Blazers though don’t do this trade on salary savings alone, so what assets would make sense to complete this trade? A protected future first? A handful of 2nds plus a first swap many years out? Adding a now buried deep in the bench Jarace Walker to Portland (Blazers would probably need to add Duop for roster spot purposes)? This last one reduces Pacers’ salary hit slightly.

[Colbinii]

This makes no sense for the Pacers. Nesmith is 75% of Grant except he actually does the important 75% [Defends, Rebounds, Guards the toughest assignment] and is paid 11 Million flat for 3 seasons.

I don't consider Grant to have more value than Nesmith.

[Tim Lehrbach]

McConnell and Nesmith are valuable contributors, not salary matching.

[Godaddycurse]

Offense isnt pacers problem. Nesmith is a better defender at POA/wing than Grant is

[hugepatsfan]

I don't it's the best fit. Grant is more PF than he is SF, IMO. Not the best pairing with Siakam. McConnell also is one of the best backup PGs in the game, though that can be somewhat mitigated by Grant playing more than Nesmith and Mathurin coming back on the wings to allow more of Nembhard's minutes to be allocated PG.

If this is the full trade, then IND has to consider. It's not a perfect match, but it's a talent upgrade and they were just in the conf. finals last year. It's dangerous to sit on your hands and wait for the perfect deal to come along and pass up improvement in the short term. But if POR wants meaningful assets on top, I think IND passes.

[Mavrelous]

They invested Max, MLE and top 10 pick in good draft in big forwards, I have them as least likely to go after expensive big forward.

[JRoy]

Not sure this is a fit for IND.

[jbk1234]

This would make the Pacers worse defensively and the Pacers can ill afford to get worse defensively.

[Myth]

Ok, throw this one in the trash then.

[Helsbyte]

I can see a consolidation trade around the trade deadline happening, depending how the Pacers feel moving forward. Obi I believe could be used by then as well.

[tmorgan]

Jerami Grant is one of the hardest high-skill guys to fit onto a contender in the whole league.

1). He used to be a very good defender, and probably still can be for stretches, but he’s now in that Paul George mode of “I don’t really do defense now unless it matters”.

2) He’s made himself into a really good shooter, and can still slash now and again, but his offensive game has evolved to a smaller position — without the handle he needs to really be awesome at it. Not a terrible handle, but not a very good passer and a little weak for iso scoring.

3) Has never been an active rebounder (long, but a little thin), and now he’s rarely near the basket, so even less so.

This leaves you with a talented off-ball scorer with no position to play. He’s too thin and a terrible rebounder as a 4 (an awful match with Turner at the 5 in Indy), so you’re looking at mismatches at both ends. He’s getting a bit slow to guard the 3, and he provides very little secondary playmaking. Just a tough fit. He has $30 million player skills, but it’s a weird combo of stuff to fit into a good team.

[Wizop]

Pacers can not take on money. we're a minimum contract away from paying tax with an open roster spot to fill. money gets even tighter next summer when Turner's contract expires. the mostly like Pacer trade would send out two Pacers to bring in one player at half their combined contracts.

[Scoot McGroot]

This sort of deal not only puts Indy into the tax, while not improving the team overall, but also probably puts Indy over their hard cap at the first apron (remember, unlikely incentives count against the apron, even if not the cap/tax).

In general, indy just doesn’t have salary filler for deals like this. And, Indy really doesn’t need to focus on offense nearly as much as defense. An Aaron Nesmith on his contract is super valuable to Indy. Ultimately, if Jarace Walker is ready for minutes, Obi Toppin will be up for trade this season. At the latest, he’ll be up for trade next offseason for Indy’s possible tax issues with McConnell, Nembhard, and Turner up for new deals.

[BK_2020]

The Pacers probably want someone who can guard down to at least 2 and I don't think Jerami Grant can do that at this point in his career.