The Indiana Pacers found themselves in a very interesting position at the trade deadline.
A few weeks ago, the Pacers looked like sure-fire buyers, but after Victor Oladipo went down with a season-ending knee injury against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 23, Indiana's fate quickly changed.
Clearly no longer contenders without Oladipo, the Pacers looked like potential sellers rather than buyers, but general manager Kevin Pritchard held firm, opting to not make any moves.
As for whether or not he came close to making any trades? Pritchard said that he never really considered blowing the roster up:
“More inbound calls to us than outbound calls,” Pritchard said Friday when asked about the trade deadline, according to Mark Montieth of the Pacers' official team website. “Other executives thought there was a chance (we would) blow it up, but we cut that down very fast.”
Pritchard added that he believes in the current group of players at his disposal and thinks that the guys can still compete in the Eastern Conference:
“We want to compete,” he said. “We're in third place in the East right now. It would have been hard for me to walk into that locker room and say, ‘Guys, we're going to trade four players and look to the future.' That's not fair to these guys. From what they've put out this year and how proud we are of them … it kind of tells me this team wants to be together.”
The Pacers have won four games in a row, rebounding from a four-game losing streak.
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