JULY 6: The trade is official, according to an announcement from the Pacers. It became a three-team trade, with Indiana sending the rights to No. 32 pick KZ Okpala to Miami in exchange for three second-rounders.
JUNE 20: The Pacers and Suns have reached a trade agreement that will send T.J. Warren to Indiana, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski (Twitter links), the Pacers will also acquire the No. 32 overall pick from Phoenix and will take on Warren using cap room, sending cash to the Suns to complete the deal.
The trade looks like a straight salary dump for the Suns, who will move Warren with three years and $35.25MM left on his contract. Phoenix wanted to unload Warren – who will earn $10.81MM in 2019/20 — in order to open up more cap space, per Wojnarowski.
The Suns had a logjam at the small forward position and didn’t project to have much – if any – cap room this offseason, so the trade addresses both issues, though it will cost them a pretty good draft pick and a pretty good player with little return.
Injuries limited Warren to just 43 games in 2018/19, but he was a very effective scorer when he did play, averaging 18.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.2 SPG with a .486/.428/.815 shooting line.
Assuming Phoenix keeps the cap hold for restricted free agent Kelly Oubre on its books, the team now projects to have about $21MM in cap room once the trade is finalized in July, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That space will give the club more flexibility to go after a starting-caliber point guard on the open market, but still won’t be enough for a maximum-salary offer.
As for the Pacers, many of their key rotation players are headed for free agency this summer, so they’ll have plenty of cap room to take on Warren. Acquiring him will also reduce some of the uncertainty surrounding those free agents — the team could have a little added leverage in negotiations with the likes of Bojan Bogdanovic or Thaddeus Young with Warren now under control.
According to Marks, the Pacers will still have nearly $31MM in cap room available once the acquisition of Warren is finalized, though that projection doesn’t account for Bogdanovic’s cap hold.
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Indiana now controls three picks in tonight’s draft, adding the No. 32 selection to Nos. 18 and 50. The Suns are left with just the No. 6 overall pick.
Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com first reported earlier today that the Pacers were among the teams with interest in Warren.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I’m surprised Warren has negative value
@connor #metoo
pacers got a good deal no way the player they would have drafted would have been as good as warren.
Pacers got a pick along with him.
Great move for the Pacers. Suns might use 32 to help move up to get Garland or White
No… 32 goes TO the pacers.
This is the shocking thing about the trade.
Right? Warren was an asset, not a liability. Get something for him, don’t give away what is practically a first. The guy didn’t cost THAT much.
So the Pacers get a player who can average 18 per game (when healthy) and a high 2nd round pick for nothing? I am ok with that.
TJ Warren is a nice player. I get it, but…. I don’t get it. At some point, you gotta have some players. You can’t always just be dumping salary. 10 mill per for him doesn’t sound unreasonable.
Well if they can get Russell to be their PG in addition to drafting maybe a De’Andre Hunter, that’s a drastic upgrade. Hunter could end up being better then Warren and I personally think he will be.
I think Hunter is going to be the best player in this draft. So I agree with that. But… At least GET something for the guy. He’s an asset, not a liability.
Strike that… I think Barrett is gonna be. Hunter 2nd.
I would of loved to have him on the mavs. They need a good defensive player at SF
Such a Suns move
Excellent trade for Indy. Warren averaged 18 ppg last year and makes 10 million…not much of an overpay. The 32nd pick is icing on top- and that’s some pretty good icing. Great spot to draft a first round talent that just fell for some reason.
They could also use the pick to help move up a bit without giving up Aaron Holiday.
Warren is a scoring machine, a good attitude, has one of the best contracts of the league, locked for 3 more years, and the Sun don’t get nothing in return? And give up a pick?!!! My God this is probably the worse trade I have ever seen, tops the Muscala/Zubac by a mile!
Seriously? It’s hard to be a Suns fan when they’re dumping talented players on a reasonable salary for nothing. Now we’ll watch them draft a wing tonight, resign Oubre and have the same logjam problem as before
The Suns play Warren at PF because they have no other decent PF. Then they trade Warren to help get a PG?? SMH
If the Suns don’t get D-Lo, Sarver should sell the team for authorizing this trade.
Further proof that the Suns should be sold. Really dumb move.
TJ Warren is a scoring 4. He definitely fits Indiana, assuming he continues the improvement on his 3 point shot. I really felt like he should have been a scorer off the bench for Phoenix, but they insisted on using him as a starting wing, which I feel hurt the development of certain players. Phoenix has had terrible coaching the last couple of years, and I think that has put negative value on a lot of their players
What is going on in Phoenix…this should go down as almost the dumbest trade in NBA history…it really is right up there…