1:34pm: Green, Miles Plumlee, and a protected 2014 draft pick are the parts headed to Phoenix in the proposal, Wojnarowski tweets. USA Today's Sam Amick tweets that the pick is lottery protected. Marc Stein of ESPN.com notes that the deal is still a proposal at this point, so it looks like a formal agreement has not yet been reached (Twitter link).
SATURDAY, 12:56am: The "early word" is that the Pacers will send Gerald Green and draft considerations to Phoenix in exchange for Scola, Stein reports. The teams are still discussing the specifics of the picks headed Phoenix's way (Twitter links).
FRIDAY, 10:50pm: The Suns and Pacers are having "serious" talks about a trade that would ship Luis Scola to Indiana, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The teams are close to an agreement, Wojnarowski also tweets, but the deal won't involve Danny Granger, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).
The Pacers have been pursuing Scola for weeks, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link), though both front offices have been keeping the news quiet. The Pacers re-signed starting power forward David West this summer, and they also brought in Chris Copeland. Centers Roy Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi are on long-term deals, so there wouldn't seem to be an immediate fit for Scola, unless one of Indiana's big men is headed to Phoenix.
As Stein notes, the news originated in Scola's native Argentina, where Juan Sebastia, Scola's publicist, tweets tonight that Scola is headed to the Pacers, and that the deal will become official Saturday. Scola is set to make a little more than $4.5MM this season, with a non-guaranteed $4.868MM on the books for 2014/15. The Suns are under the cap, but the Pacers are over it, so Indiana would have to give up about $3MM in salary to make the deal work if Scola is the only player Phoenix is giving up.
The Pacers could make a straight-up acquisition of Scola work with either Mahinmi or Gerald Green, or they could aggregate the salaries of Lance Stephenson, Miles Plumlee and Orlando Johnson. West and Copeland are ineligible to be traded until the middle of next season because they signed new deals this summer.
The 33-year-old Scola has been remarkably durable in his six-year NBA career, missing just eight regular season games, all of them in 2010/11. His minutes declined somewhat last year in his first season with the Suns, who claimed him off amnesty waivers after the Rockets cut him in a cap-clearing move. He notched 12.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 26.6 minutes per game in 2012/13, with a 16.7 PER that's nearly identical to his career mark of 16.9.
See what the Pacers have to give up first, but I have always liked Scola and he will be a great back up to West. Pacers bench is starting to look very soild with the bench now being C.J. Watson, Danny Granger, S Hill, Copeland, Scola, Mahinmi. Pretty soild. I’m hoping its something like Gerald Green and a draft pick is whats headed to the Suns
Adding Scola, Watson, Cope and the return of Granger means there are going to be some pissed off Pacers this year! There is no PT for any of the recent picks if they aren’t moved and as of right now unless someone is traded they are 10 deep with most all of them needing the ball to be effective and limited shots.
FGA per game out from last year
7.1
for Green
5.0 for Hansbrough
3.9 for Augustin
2.6 for Young
FGA per game in form last year or last full year for Granger
15.2 for Granger
11.2 for Scola
6.8 f or Copeland
5.7 for Watson
That’s 18.6 shots per game from the 4 replaced rotation players and 39.2 FGA per game coming in. So some dudes are no doubt going to see some mega stat declines! P. George should get more shots than he takes at times and the same with Hibbert so unless another trade is coming they aren’t going to have enough shots for all these guys which is why their bench sucked so bad last year since NBA players have a hard time being consistent with a handful of shots a game unless all they do is dunk.
They’re going to run two games of half court to keep 10 guys happy and even then they have noting to give Johnson, S Hill and Plumlee if they aren’t moved in this deal as well.
Pissed off ? Yea pissed off to kick the Heat’s ass. This is a different NBA team then most teams. Yea we are actually a TEAM