Indiana Pacers/Trail Blazers trade #1: Pacers set themselves up for the future
If you’re Indiana, you like Covington and Nurkic as expiring contracts, and the symmetry to the Pacers salary numbers in this deal – they’ll clear $25 million in cap room at the end of the season and another $25 million next year with Turner and Holiday’s contracts off their ledger.
The pick gives Indiana something for letting Turner go a year and change before he would have likely done so on his own, and Brown a promising young asset.
As much as I, as interim pretend Blazers General Manager, would hate to lose Brown’s enthusiasm, athleticism, and potential, he is still a couple of seasons away from being a useful rotation player, and the Blazers need help right away — help that Turner and Holiday can provide.
Turner, the 6’11 Texas product, is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. That alone should have Blazer fans drooling, considering Portland’s league-worst 112.9 defensive rating.
The 6’6 Holiday can guard three positions better than any Blazer not named Nassir Little, and would fit in perfectly in Portland’s bench rotation. This trade would mean a quantum leap in Portland’s defensive abilities and flexibility, and they could make that leap without giving up any of their top five players.
Yes, I said Nurkic and Covington aren’t among the Blazers top five players. I’ll leave the long-form argument on that to another column, but Little and Simons have outperformed them to the point where until their injuries they were on the court in the closing minutes over the two lazy veterans.