As the 2023 NBA trade deadline on February 9 gets closer and closer, the Indiana Pacers have some serious decisions to make. The team currently sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, tied in the loss column with the 10th-place Washington Wizards and 11th-place Chicago Bulls. That means the team is a bad weekend away from being out of the play-in tournament entirely. So, are the Pacers trade deadline sellers, or will they stand pat? How the franchise answers this question will determine the fates of center Myles Turner and guard Buddy Hield.
Depending on which way they decide to go, there is a nightmare trade deadline scenario out there for the Pacers. And it’s not about which plan they decide to execute. It’s about the organization going all in on one plan and quickly realizing they should have gone in the other direction.
The nightmare Pacers trade deadline scenario is keeping Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, and losing anyway
Ahead of the NBA trade deadline, Myles Turner and Buddy Hield have been two of the hottest names on the market. These players are ready-made for contenders with their skill sets and how they are playing this season.
Myles Turner is the model of a modern, rim-protecting center. He is 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, and has the athleticism to defend several positions. He is also a natural shot blocker. On offense, Turner can execute a pick-and-roll with the best of them, but what truly sets him apart is his shooting ability and range at his size.
One of the reasons the Pacers are doing as well as they are this season is that Turner is having a career year. His 17.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game as well as his 54.6% field goal percentage and 39.5% 3-point percentage are all career highs. And while his 2.4 blocks per game aren’t up there with his career-best of 3.4 in 2020-21, he’s still third in the league, just 0.3 blocks per game behind league leader Nic Claxton.
The only real problem with the 26-year-old center is that he is currently in the last season of his contract. And while the Pacers are working on a long-term Myles Turner extension, the two sides haven’t agreed on anything yet.
If there’s not a Pacers trade deadline deal for Turner, the team absolutely has to re-sign him. If they lose him for nothing, it would be an incredible blow.
As for Buddy Hield, he is a 3-point specialist in a league desperate for 3-point shooting. And in 2023, he’s doing it as well, if not better, than most of his career. The 30-year-old guard is shooting the lights out in 2023, hitting 3s at a 42.4% clip on 9.0 attempts per game. That’s not quite his career high in either category, but it is his best percentage while shooting more than 8.0 attempts per game.
Hield has his limitations defensively and in creating his own shot (or for others, for that matter), but his excellence in shooting the long ball makes him a valuable commodity at the 2023 NBA trade deadline.
The Pacers aren’t looking to give either of these players away, so they are asking for a lot in return for both. That makes sense.
Trading Myles Turner and Buddy Hield for a big haul of picks and young players — who better fit the franchise’s Bennedict Mathurin and Tyrese Haliburton-led timeline — would make a lot of sense for the franchise.
Not making a Pacers trade deadline move, trying to get a better foothold in the postseason (the team is just four games out of the No. 6 seed), re-signing Turner (still only 26), and trading Hield in the offseason, is a fine move, too.
The nightmare scenario is this. If the Pacers hold on to Turner and Hield, they (as players) and the team tails off, the Pacers miss the play-in, Turner leaves as a free agent this offseason, and Hield gets hurt or otherwise hurts his value through poor play.
In that situation, the Pacers would get nothing in terms of players or draft capital, and their future stars like Mathurin and Haliburton wouldn’t gain key postseason experience. Sure, it would result in a slightly better lottery pick in 2023, but that difference could be negligible with the Myles Turner loss.
Whether sellers, holders, or even buyers, the Pacers are in a good spot at the 2023 NBA trade deadline. However, if they decide to stay with the players they have, they better maximize the opportunity (and get a Turner deal done), or the dream could become a nightmare.
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