Indiana Pacers Willing to Trade Paul George After All?

The NBA Trade Deadline is creating quite the firestorm for the Indiana Pacers. They have quickly transitioned from being buyers to possibly being… sellers?

The Indiana Pacers are currently sixth in the eastern conference with a 29-28 record. This season has largely been a disappointment considering the offseason moves the franchise made to satisfy their star player Paul George.

Now, it appears the Pacers are prepared to ship their star player out of Indianapolis if they get solid compensation in return.

The Vertical‘s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped this news nugget (or “Woj Bomb”) on Twitter about the Pacers gauging George’s market value.

In the past week, George has been noncommittal about his future with Pacers after the 2017-18 season (when he could opt out of his contract). He admitted he does want to stay in the Hoosier state. However, that desire came with one caveat: contending for a NBA title.

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According to the USA Today‘s Sam Amick, George expressed that exact desire to team owner Herb Simon. His top priority is to win a NBA title. While he wants it to be with Indiana, he is not afraid to move elsewhere in his title quest.

The Pacers thought they were moving in that direction when they acquired Jeff Teague and Thaddeus Young through trades. Unfortunately, those moves have not produced good enough results.

Now, the disappointing results have apparently caused the Pacers to question whether or not they can build a title contender in less than one and a half years. As a result, they are assessing George’s market value.

As of right now, George should command a king’s ransom in the trade market. He is averaging 22.3, 6.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He is arguably one of the 20 best players in the league right now.

If the Pacers decided to trade George, they better get a huge all back. George is worth multiple first round picks, at least one second round pick and a young former first round pick. If the Pacers are not getting these kinds of offers, they should revisit trades in the offseason.

Unfortunately, there are only a handful of teams that might be willing to trade for him. That hurts George’s market value. Right now, there are really only two teams that would allow Indiana to maximize George’s value:  the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics are two games back of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they probably do not have enough talent to beat the Cavs in the playoffs. Paul George could get them over the hump. Also, they have more than enough resources to make the trade.

Meanwhile, the Lakers seems like an odd trade that wants George because they are one of the worst teams in the NBA. However, the Lakers have always been addicted to star players. That fact is even more true now that they hired Magic Johnson as the President of basketball operations.

The one issue about this though is George is from Los Angeles. As Adrian Wojnarowski reported, George could choose to sign with the Lakers a free agent. Are the Lakers going to risk assets now if George might want to join them in the future?

Ultimately, the Pacers are not actively seeking a trade partner for George… yet. However, his pending free agency is approaching, and the last thing the Pacers want is to let him go without getting anything for him.

They have big man Myles Turner who is someone a franchise can build around. However, they want George to be a part of their franchise in the long-term too.

Next: Pacers: Latest Trade Targets Do Not Make Much Sense

It will certainly be interesting how the Pacers navigate the trade rumors as the NBA Deadline quickly approaches. The trade deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.