No team holds more picks in the 2023 NBA draft than the Pacers, who have had another full week of pre-draft workouts at the Ascension St. Vincent Center in Indianapolis.
The Pacers hosted Marcus Carr (Texas), Kendric Davis (Memphis), Zvonimir Ivisic (Croatia), Drew Peterson (USC), Julian Phillips (Tennessee), and Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky) for a group workout on Monday, then brought in D’Moi Hodge (Missouri), Colby Jones (Xavier), Omari Moore (San Jose State), Kevin Obanor (Texas Tech), Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Marquette), and Malachi Smith (Gonzaga) on Tuesday.
The most notable workout of the team’s week so far is happening on Thursday, with the Pacers scheduled to host Gradey Dick. The Kansas guard could be a player Indiana considers with its lottery pick at No. 7.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- With Immanuel Quickley becoming eligible next month for a rookie scale extension, Fred Katz of The Athletic polled 15 front office members around the NBA to get a sense of what a “fair” extension for the Knicks guard would look like. Of those 15 participants, 11 projected an annual salary between $16-20MM, with five specifically suggesting $72MM over four years.
- Discussing his newly completed coaching staff, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder told Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he wanted a strong player development group made up of “selfless” individuals who would help instill that philosophy in Atlanta’s players. “It’s like putting any team together that whether it’s, tactical experience, analytics experience, literally different cultures and genders and all the different things that go into making a unique, strong group,” Snyder said. “But ‘The Thin Red Line’ to me that runs through all of it was, just selfless people that are able to put the group in front of themselves and I really want our staff to model that because that’s what we’re asking of our team.”
- Eric Nehm of The Athletic breaks down the rumor identifying the Bucks as a possible Bradley Beal suitor, examining how Milwaukee could build a package to acquire Beal and weighing whether or not the star guard would actually make a better long-term building block than Jrue Holiday or Khris Middleton. As Nehm notes, while Beal is younger than Holiday or Middleton, he’s not as solid a defender as either of those current Bucks.
Quickly is one of my favorite players. I don’t think any expected him to because as good at defense as he is. Between him and Grimes, I don’t think the Knicks should really upgrade at the 2; they seem set and like they’d be better off focusing on replacing Barrett or Robinson (or Randle).
Quickley stunk in the playoffs. I would look to trade Randle, Fournier, Quickley and we may require to include Mitchell Robinson in any trade scenario that includes the aforementioned. Add a couple of picks and we can bring back a Bradley Beal and sign a center in free agency.
Is Beal/Barrett/Brunson/Toppin/Some Center (Vuc?) really a better team than what the Knicks already have? I could see Beal performing well on offense alongside Brunson but that backcourt defense doesn’t inspire confidence. Neither does the frontcourt; for all his flaws, Mitchell Robinson is a great defender, and Toppin isn’t any better than Randle. They have more firepower that way, but way worse defense. I guess someone like Brook Lopez would work, but can they sign him? Does Naz Reid fill the everyday Center role?
Absolutely the Knicks would have a better team! Obi is underrated and has proven he can put 20+ppg, 8+ rebounds and a faster transition team than iso Randle. Mitchell Robinson would probably have to be included in the trade even though he’s one of my favorite Knicks and preaches defense. Defenses would be preoccupied trying to guard both Beal and Brunson and with their transition game vastly improved Beal and Brunson wouldn’t be out scored by their opposition.
I don’t really agree. Toppin is a good offensive player who could probably replace Randle on that end, but his defense and rebounding are both worse, much worse for rebounding. Toppin has seven games in his career of 8+ rebounds. Zero this season. Randle averages 9.4 for his career, and even on a per 36 minute or per 100 possession basis, Randle is superior (10 to 6.5, 14 to 9 respectively). Obi’s not a much better shooter and doesn’t have Randle’s passing ability either. He’s better in transition, but worse in the half court, and you can’t always get transition buckets.
And I don’t agree with the Brunson/Beal backcourt being some kind of unstoppable weapon, to the point that they don’t need defense. The Wizards tried that with Westbrook and Beal. 3rd best PPG that season. Didn’t matter, because their defense allowed more points per game than they could score. And that’s with Russ being a better defender than Brunson and averaging four more assists per game, and Beal being younger and healthier than he would be here. Granted, the Wizards didn’t have a defensive anchor until they got Gafford, but neither would the Knicks after they traded Robinson for Beal.
I could see the argument if you got an elite defender at center or kept Robinson, *and* then upgraded on the wing *also*. But Beal in exchange for Quickley, Randle, and Robinson opens up too many holes imo. Beal’s not a superstar and he eats up a huge chunk of cap space and you can’t trade him unless he lets you.
Bucks need to trade Middleton, and Bradley Beal is not gonna be able to do what Holiday provides defensively.
It doesn’t seem very likely these teams get together for a trade. Beal is not a good fit, and he sucks up a lot of cap in the small market of Milwaukee
Quickley is not worth 16-20 mill. Unless he can start for you. We can’t pay that for a backup. Hart is more valuable imo. Quickley will be included in any trade Knicks make.
Lonzo is out for the year. Bulls need to pick up another PG. DeR is the guy we need.
Beal will cost too much. And Wiz will overvalue Beal with Knicks. Don’t need that.
Newsflash Big Al bums are making that type of bread today so that’s not over paying. And u keeping saying IQ will be in any big trade I beg to differ because the only untouchable is Jalen Brunson. I like DeMar DeRozan as well but we need a flat out walking bucket and the guy I want is Zach Levine who is more dynamic than Beal or your home boy DeMar DeRozan you have been waving your pom poms for. IQ had a bad post season but he was still in the conversation for six man of the year and believe me he could be one of the players we regret our beloved NY Knicks traded.