by Wheat Hotchkiss
Even though their biggest move came a few weeks prior, the Indiana Pacers were still very active at Thursday’s trade deadline, making a flurry of transactions. In the end, one popular sharpshooter left Indiana and another popular sharpshooter is returning to the Blue and Gold.
Buddy Hield is headed to Philadelphia after two seasons with the Pacers and Doug McDermott is returning to the organization where he spent three seasons from 2018-21. The Pacers also acquired multiple second-round picks and cash considerations.
For Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan and the rest of the front office – led by Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard – Thursday’s moves were part of the delicate dance of trying to put the organization in the best position for long-term success while also trying to help the team in its current playoff push.
Hield had a significant impact since coming to Indiana from Sacramento on Feb. 8, 2022. He shot 40.2 percent from 3-point range during his time in Indiana, shattered Reggie Miller’s franchise record by making 288 3-pointers last season, and was already up to 505 3-pointers as a Pacer, one three shy of tying Billy Keller for fifth place in franchise history.
But Hield is set to be a free agent this summer and had seen his role slightly decrease this season as the Pacers have a crowded wing rotation that includes second-year guards Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard as well as fourth-year forward Aaron Nesmith, who is now playing exclusively on the wing after the acquisition of All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam.
Hield’s minutes had dropped from 31 per game in 2022-23 to 25.7 this season, his scoring was down from 16.8 points per game to 12.0 this year, and after starting 73 of 80 games a year ago, he had come off the bench for nearly half (24) of his 52 games this season. Two years to the day after he was originally acquired from the Kings, Hield was on the move once again.
“Buddy is a player that contributed to us valuably on the court (and) in the locker room, but we’re also in a situation where we’ve got to make some tough decisions,” Buchanan said.
So the Pacers decided to get something in return for Hield, while they could acquiring multiple second-round picks and the salaries of Marcus Morris Sr. and Furkan Korkmaz from Philadelphia.
“Draft capital is a really important thing to building a team,” Buchanan said. “We acquired a lot of that today that we think can be beneficial down the road to help build the team. We acquired a pick last year (during) the draft that helped us attain Pascal. Draft capital is very valuable currency.”
It was ultimately a long-term business decision to part ways with Hield, but at the same time, the Pacers’ front office wanted to find someone that could fill the void that he left on the roster. Enter McDermott, who Indiana was able to acquire from the Spurs in exchange for Morris’ expiring salary and a second-round pick.
McDermott appeared in 212 games in three seasons with Indiana, averaging 10.3 points per game while shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from 3-point range. Prior to coming to the Pacers in free agency, he also played for head coach Rick Carlisle for 26 games at the end of the 2017-18 season, where he shot a blistering 49.4 percent from beyond the arc.
At 6-6, McDermott has a little more size than Hield and is equally as efficient a shooter, albeit at a smaller volume (McDermott is a career 41.2-percent 3-point shooter on 3.5 attempts per game, Hield is at 40.1 percent on 9.5 attempts). Starting center Myles Turner and backup point guard T.J. McConnell played alongside McDermott in his previous stint in Indiana. All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton hasn’t played alongside McDermott, but does know him through McConnell, who brought Haliburton along with him when he had dinner with McDermott when the Pacers played in San Antonio.
The 32-year-old McDermott had a more limited role this season on a rebuilding Spurs team, averaging just 6.0 points and 15.2 minutes per game, his lowest averages since his rookie season in 2014-15. He has played a more specialized role as a spot-up shooter, with 80.4 percent of his shot attempts coming from beyond the 3-point arc this season, a massive increase from his career average of 48.7 percent.
McDermott should get more good looks in the Pacers’ potent offensive attack. Indiana leads the league in offensive rating, is second in pace, and features two All-Star playmakers in Haliburton (who leads the league in assists) and Siakam.
“He’s super excited to come play with this group,” Buchanan said. “The way we play, the way the ball moves, the pace we play at, the amount of perimeter shots Tyrese creates for other people as well as T.J. and Drew (Nembhard), I think he’s going to find himself very, very comfortable very quickly is my guess.”
Turner said he had texted with McDermott after the trade went down and that he was excited to be headed back to Indiana, where he will be part of a playoff push.
While McDermott should fit right in in the locker room in his return to Indiana, Hield’s departure does still leave a void. The Bahamian sharpshooter was extremely popular because of his outgoing personality and love of the game. Turner described Hield’s energy as “infectious,” while Carlisle said that Hield “left really an indelible impression on the people of our organization and our city and our fans.”
No one was closer to Hield than Haliburton, who had been teammates with him for his entire NBA career. Hield was already an established veteran in Sacramento when Haliburton was drafted by the Kings in 2020 and they were traded to Indiana together in 2022. Prior to Thursday night’s game against Golden State, Haliburton had never played an NBA game without Hield as his teammate. In fact, Haliburton had only played one of his 230 career games without sharing the court with Hield – an April 12, 2021 game with the Kings in New Orleans that Hield missed due to illness.
Haliburton admitted that “obviously it hurts” to lose Hield as a teammate and described it as “weird” not having him on the bench against the Warriors, but also was very aware of the possibility of Hield moving on.
“We knew that this could happen eventually,” Haliburton said. “We probably wouldn’t play together our whole careers.”
“(We’re) not blind to their relationship,” Buchanan said. “(They’re) very close guys, close friends, and play well together. We know that. Ty was aware of what we were planning to do. Ty wants to win. Ty is thinking long-term just like we are and realizes that there’s some tough decisions along the way.”
Acquiring McDermott and trading away Hield were the moves made at the trade deadline, but the front office’s biggest move came last month, when they acquired Siakam from Toronto in exchange for Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora, and three first-round picks. Adding Siakam, a two-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection filled a clear void for the Blue & Gold at power forward and provided a running mate for Haliburton.
So far, Siakam has lived up to his billing, averaging 21.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.8 assists while shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 44.1 percent from 3-point range over his first 12 games in Indiana. While he’s had limited time with Haliburton, particularly as Haliburton has been working his way back from a left hamstring strain, Buchanan has been pleased with the early returns.
The Pacers front office had been “long-time admirers of Pascal” according to Buchanan and had tried obtain the 6-9 forward multiple times in the past before finally landing him this season.
“So far, he’s been phenomenal for us,” Buchanan said.
“He’s been a very jovial, joyful guy who you can tell he loves basketball. He knew a lot about our team from the day we got him. He studies the league. He loves to play. He fits right in with our group.”
Siakam will also be a free agent this summer, but the Pacers have made it clear that they hope to re-sign him to a long-term deal that will keep him in Indianapolis with Haliburton for years to come.
“The goal when we attained him was for him to be a long-term piece for us,” Buchanan said. “That’s still the goal. He’s been a great fit so far. I think he’s happy so far. We’re happy with him. So it’s going to be a relationship-building (process). We’re only 11 or 12 games in, so he’s still getting to know us and we’re still getting to know him a little bit, but very optimistic about him being a big piece of our team moving forward.”
Since first acquiring Haliburton and Hield two years ago, the Pacers have dramatically reshaped their roster, with the ultimate goal of building a championship contending team around their star guard in Haliburton, who signed a five-year extension last summer that will keep him under contract until 2029.
Indiana’s moves this year have been another step in that direction. With three games to go before the All-Star break, the Pacers currently sit in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and appear poised to return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season. But as Buchanan made clear on Thursday, the process to building a championship team is still ongoing.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Buchanan said. “Pascal takes us to another level, but we still know we’ve got more work to do building this roster and developing some of our young players. But I do feel adding Pascal to this group has elevated us to maybe the next step. We’ve just got to find more pieces to add to this group.”
Originally posted on pacers.com