Indiana Pacers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Pistons, Lawson, Budinger, Butler

March 5th, 2016 at 1:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Terrence Jones and Meyers Leonard would be attractive free agent options for the Pistons in their search for a backup power forward, according to David Mayo of MLive. Both will enter restricted free agency this summer, which means the Rockets and Blazers can match any offers they get. Mayo notes the teams may want compensation for letting Jones or Leonard go, which could tempt the Pistons to give up a first-round draft pick, something they were willing to do to get Donatas Motiejunas from Houston last month before that deal was voided. Mayo suggests keeping Anthony Tolliver might be the best strategy now that Tobias Harris is on board as the starting power forward. Tolliver is making $3MM in the final season of his contract and is averaging 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in nearly 20 minutes per night.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

The Pacers expect to finalize a deal with free agent point guard Ty Lawson on Sunday or Monday, tweets Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star. Lawson is still working out in Houston after the Rockets waived him Tuesday in a buyout agreement.
Chase Budinger‘s brief stay in Indiana was a “dud,” Buckner tweeted after the Pacers waived the seventh-year small forward today. She also laments last summer’s trade that sent Damjan Rudez to the Wolves in exchange for Budinger, saying the Pacers gave up a badly needed 3-point shooter (Twitter link). She credits Budinger for being “a pro” during his time in Indiana, though he never fully understood what the organization expected from him (Twitter link).
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg says shooting guard Jimmy Butler, who has been out of action since February 5th with a sprained knee, is “ready to go” for tonight’s game, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. Combo forward Nikola Mirotic, who had acute appendicitis and underwent surgery January 27th, is “close,” Hoiberg adds (Twitter link). Injured center Joakim Noah won’t play anytime soon, but he’ll rejoin the team for “leadership,” tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune.
The Pistons have shooting guard Jodie Meeks, who hasn’t played since suffering a right foot injury October 29th, listed as questionable for tonight’s game, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.

Pacers, Chase Budinger Agree To Buyout

March 5th, 2016 at 9:15am CST by Eddie Scarito

SATURDAY, 9:15am: Budinger has been waived, the Pacers announced this morning.

THURSDAY, 4:24pm: The Pacers and small forward Chase Budinger have reached an agreement on a buyout arrangement, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reports (Twitter link) and Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star confirms (Twitter links ). The agreement has been in place for a week and will be finalized on Friday, Buckner notes. Indiana needs to clear a roster spot for Ty Lawson, who is expected to sign with the team, Deveney adds. Because he will be waived after the March 1st deadline, Budinger will not be playoff eligible this season for any team that were to sign him.

Indiana was reportedly attempting to trade Budinger leading up to February’s trade deadline, but found no takers for the remainder of his $5,00,000 expiring contract. The Pacers acquired Budinger from the Timberwolves this past offseason when the plan was to move Paul George to power forward. But with Indiana utilizing George more often at his natural small forward spot as the season wore on, it cut into Budinger’s playing time significantly, as Buckner noted at the time.

Budinger has appeared in 48 games for the Pacers this season, including two starts. He is averaging 4.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 15.0 minutes per night to accompany a shooting line of .419/.299/.708. The 27-year-old’s career numbers are 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

Suns Frontrunners To Ink Chase Budinger

March 3rd, 2016 at 5:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Suns are the frontrunners to sign Chase Budinger once he clears waivers, Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star reports (Twitter link). Budinger has reportedly agreed to a buyout with the Pacers, though it isn’t expected to be finalized until after Friday’s contest against the Hornets is complete because of Indiana’s injury woes.

Phoenix has an open roster spot, so no additional move would be required to sign Budinger. The Suns could benefit from the player’s ability to stretch the floor with his outside shooting, though Budinger’s mark of 29.9% from deep on the season would be a career low if it stands. Because Budinger was waived after March 1st, he isn’t playoff eligible for another team, but with the Suns well out of the postseason hunt with a mark of 15-45, that wouldn’t be an issue for the veteran swingman if he were to sign with Phoenix.

Budinger, 27, has appeared in 48 games for the Pacers this season, including two starts. He is averaging 4.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 15.0 minutes per night to accompany a shooting line of .419/.299/.708. The small forward’s career numbers are 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

Pacers, Ty Lawson Deep In Talks

March 3rd, 2016 at 12:27pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:27pm: Lawson has gained traction in conversation with two other teams, but the talks with the Pacers are the most serious, league sources told Charania for a full story.

12:00pm: The Pacers and Ty Lawson are in “strong discussions” about a would-be signing, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Lawson is due to clear waivers from the Rockets at 4pm Central today following a buyout deal that beat Tuesday’s deadline for the point guard to remain playoff-eligible for other teams. Indiana has about $1.9MM left on its room exception, while the prorated minimum would give Lawson only about $300K.

The team has appeared to have interest in an upgrade at the point, reportedly offering George Hill to the Hawks for Jeff Teague before last month’s trade deadline. Hill is a combo guard, like backups Rodney Stuckey and Joe Young, so the addition of Lawson would give the team the pure point guard it lacks. Lawson averaged 9.6 assists against just 2.5 turnovers per game last season before bottoming out with Houston this year. He dished out just 3.4 assists per game with the Rockets, and his 5.8 points per contest are a career low as he faded to a bench role behind Patrick Beverley. It was largely a matter of lost confidence, people around the Rockets reportedly believe.

Indiana would have to waive someone to make room for Lawson, since the team is at the 15-man roster limit, and every Pacer is signed through at least the end of the season. The team is just a game and a half up on ninth-place Washington in the fight for the playoffs, but Indiana has emphasized long-term development on the end of its bench. Rakeem Christmas, last year’s 36th overall pick, has spent most of the season in the D-League and has still yet to appear in an NBA game, while second-year man Shayne Whittington has logged just 10 NBA minutes this season amid heavy D-League playing time. Christmas has a full guarantee of slightly more than $1MM for next season, but Whittington’s contract carries no guarantee beyond this season.

Atlantic Notes: Butler, Stoudemire, Udrih

March 2nd, 2016 at 6:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Celtics, who were reportedly looking to make a big splash at this year’s trade deadline, held discussions with the Bulls about acquiring star swingman Jimmy Butler, Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald writes. According to Bulpett’s source, the Celtics were willing to give up two first-round draft picks this year — the Nets‘ unprotected pick and Dallas’ first-rounder, which is top-seven protected, as part of a package for Butler. “This is not a case where Chicago was looking to trade Jimmy Butler,” a source involved in the talks told Bulpett. “That would be crazy. But if Boston calls, you have to look at those picks and some of the players they have and at least hear them out. Most times when teams call about your star, you can just dismiss it right away, but you have to think about it with [president of basketball operations Danny] Ainge and the Celtics right now. There’s a lot to go over there with possibilities.”

The Celtics are concerned that they will have too many young players on the roster if they retain all their acquired picks, so it is highly likely the team will be active leading up to the draft in its attempts to acquire a star-caliber player, Bulpett adds. “The term I’ve heard with Danny is that he’s looking for a ‘difference maker,’” a league source told the Herald scribe. “He’s definitely willing to pay you for the right guy, but he wants someone who can move them to the next level.” Ainge also checked in with the Pacers regarding Paul George prior to the deadline, Bulpett relays.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Amar’e Stoudemire denies that he was talking about former Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony the other night when he made some pointed comments about his former team, Al Iannazzone of Newsday relays. The big man called Anthony on Sunday to clear the air, Iannazzone notes. “I never mentioned his name once,” Stoudemire told reporters, in reference to his comments. “We’re close friends, family. Our wives are very close friends. He knows I wasn’t talking about him.” When asked about his chat with Stoudemire, Anthony said, “I don’t really want to waste any time on that. What’s understood don’t need to be spoken upon.”
Beno Udrih cleared waivers from the Heat today, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link), meaning the Sixers passed on the chance to add him and draw closer to the $63MM salary floor. The Sixers currently have $60,369,349 in guaranteed salary on the books for 2015/16, which is $2,630,651 below the minimum team payroll. Claiming Udrih’s $2,170,465 salary would have brought Philadelphia to within a couple of minimum-salary contracts of the mark, and it would have come at the actual cost of only a fraction of Udrih’s salary, since the Heat have already given him most of his paychecks for the year. The result of Udrih clearing waivers is potentially more damaging to the Heat, who’d reportedly eyed Marcus Thornton and others but can’t sign anyone until April 6th without again going into tax territory, notes salary cap expert Albert Nahmad (on Twitter). It’s more likely the Heat would wait to sign someone until April 7th so they could fill their second open roster spot on the final day of the regular season, tweets Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Marks, Dolan, Casey, Hinkie

February 25th, 2016 at 9:28am CST by Chuck Myron

New Nets GM Sean Marks took the job on the condition that he have the authority to make moves as he sees fit, writes USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt, who nonetheless wonders how much autonomy Marks will have to rebuild at a pace he sees appropriate. People around the league believe the Nets are anxious to go after a marquee free agent to hasten the team’s climb up the standings, Zillgitt notes. While we wait to find out if owner Mikhail Prokhorov displays more patience than he has to date, see more from the Atlantic Division:

Knicks owner James Dolan was agitated after Monday’s loss, a source told Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, and the frustration is evident throughout the organization, as Isola details. New York dropped another game Wednesday against the Pacers. “We’re all frustrated. We can’t accept this,” said interim head coach Kurt Rambis after Monday’s game. “For the organization, for our team, ourselves as individuals, the coaching staff. We can’t accept losing. I want players to be angry. I want players to be frustrated. That’s the right attitude to have.”
Toronto’s offseason defensive upgrades were “huge,” as coach Dwane Casey puts it, but they won’t matter if the Raptors can’t break through and win a playoff series, which the franchise hasn’t done in more than a decade, opines Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
Sixers GM Sam Hinkie might have lost power to new chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo this season, but Hinkie remains philosophically tied to the idea of his aggressive rebuilding campaign, observes Derek Bodner of Philadelphia magazine.

Central Notes: Turner, Frye, Van Gundy

February 22nd, 2016 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pacers have climbed to fifth place in the Eastern Conference and just how far they go this season rests heavily on how quickly and profoundly Myles Turner continues to develop, coach Frank Vogel told Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy, who took Stanley Johnson at No. 8, three spots before the Pacers drafted Turner, thinks Indiana’s rookie big man looks like a steal, Buckner notes.

“You would have to say fairly that he’s one of the most, if not the most, surprising players in the draft,” Van Gundy said. “I think everybody pretty much knew he was going to be a good player, but I think a lot of people thought it would take more time than this and he’s playing very well.”

Van Gundy had more to say about his own team, as we pass along amid news from the Central Division, where the Pistons aren’t the only ones liable to veto a trade:

The Cavaliers are being more cautious than usual as they put Channing Frye through a medical evaluation, cognizant of the heart condition that knocked him out for all of the 2012/13 season, multiple sources told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com, but the Cavs aren’t concerned, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (ESPN Now link). Cleveland has until Tuesday to finish examining Frye before the trade with the Magic is ratified. The swap is separate from the one in which the Cavs dealt away Anderson Varejao.
The Pistons aren’t a top free agency destination, and Van Gundy knows it, which is why he’s willing to pay a premium for talent via trade, as he told TNT’s David Aldridge for the NBA.com Morning Tip. “I think for us, quite honestly, you’ve got to know who you are and where you are,” Van Gundy said. “We knew when we came, or had a pretty good idea when we came, our chances were the draft, which you only get one or two a year, and trades were going to be better for us. Especially in a summer where basically everybody is going to have money. We’re not at the point yet — we haven’t won enough yet, established enough yet, quite honestly — where we’re going to be at the top of the [free agent] list. So we’re going to end up overpaying for lesser players, is where we thought we’d be. And we got a chance to get really good players in trades. It fit exactly what we thought was the best path for us and the best strategy for us.”
Van Gundy deflected credit for the team’s trades to GM Jeff Bower and others in the Pistons front office, suggesting that he essentially just rubber-stamps the deals that Bower and company put together, as Aldridge and MLive’s Aaron McMann detail.

Pacers Trying To Trade Chase Budinger

February 16th, 2016 at 2:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pacers and Chase Budinger‘s representatives are cooperating in an effort to find a new team for the Kevin Bradbury client, reports Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter links). A decent chance exists that it’ll require a third team to facilitate a trade for Budinger and his expiring contract, worth $5MM, Buckner also hears (Twitter link).

Indiana acquired Budinger from the Timberwolves this summer thinking he would come in handy at the wing with Paul George playing power forward, but as the team abandoned the idea of George at the four, it put the squeeze on Budinger, who’s averaging a career-low 15.5 minutes per game, Buckner explains (on Twitter).

The 27-year-old has appeared in 41 games this season, including two starts, and is averaging 4.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist to accompany a shooting line of .407/.295/.705.

Jazz Have External Trade Talk About Trey Burke

February 16th, 2016 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Jazz have held multiple discussions with other teams about trades involving Trey Burke, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. Still, the Jazz aren’t in line to acquire fellow point guard Jeff Teague from the Hawks, Jones tweets, despite an earlier report that they were thinking about pursuing him. Utah rejected an offer from the Hawks of Teague for Rodney Hood and a draft pick, according to Spencer Checketts of 1280 The Zone radio in Salt Lake City (Twitter link).

Jazz coach Quin Snyder has praised Burke for his defense, Jones notes, and the No. 9 overall pick is shooting a career best 42.3% from the floor and 34.7% from 3-point range. Still, his minutes are at a career-low 23.6 per game, down significantly from the 30.1 he saw last season, even though he seemed to be first in line to start when Dante Exum went down with a torn ACL in the summer. The Jazz have gone with rookie Raul Neto as the starter instead and often employed lineups with three wing players instead of a point guard.

Burke, the No. 9 pick from the 2013 draft, is making more than $2.658MM this season in year three of his four-year rookie scale contract. He’ll be up for an extension this summer.

Jones speculates that George Hill, whom the Pacers have reportedly dangled in talks with Atlanta about Teague, would be a strong fit for the Jazz, and that he’d be obtainable if Utah has interest (Twitter links). The Tribune scribe believes that an offer of Burke and the unprotected 2017 first-round pick the Warriors owe the Jazz would be reasonable in exchange for Hill. Still, it’s unclear whether any connection exists between the Jazz and Pacers on that front.

Central Notes: Bucks, Pistons, Pacers

February 14th, 2016 at 4:07pm CST by Will Joseph

The Bucks are experiencing a disappointing season, but coach Jason Kidd said there are no plans for any moves with the trade deadline only a few days away, Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel relays. Despite signing Greg Monroe this past summer, the Bucks are 22-32. The franchise remains focused on developing its young and promising core, however, Gardner adds.

“I don’t know if we have any action going on, so there shouldn’t be anybody worried about the rumors if it entails the Milwaukee Bucks,” Kidd said. “This is our team. As a professional athlete, the small print says there could be a trade at some point in your career. Sometimes expected, sometimes not. You have to be able to handle that. But right now, this is our team. There’s no one coming in and there’s no one leaving.”

Here’s more from around the Central Division:

Acquiring Ryan Anderson from the Pelicans at the deadline would make sense for the Pistons, but the power forward wouldn’t be enough of an upgrade to discard Ersan Ilyasova, which would likely be the result if Detroit wanted to re-sign Anderson in the summer, David Mayo of MLive writes. Adding Anderson, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, would help stabilize the one unsecured position for the Pistons, Mayo adds. It would likely take point guard Brandon Jennings, who is presumably headed out of Detroit via free agency, to land Anderson, Mayo writes. On the other hand, the idea that Jennings automatically is gone in free agency is premature because many teams have point guards locked up, as Mayo points out.
Ian Mahinmi, who is in the final year of his contract with the Pacers, has dealt with a variety of injuries this season, his first as a full-time starter with an increased workload, and he’s looking to prepare his body for the second half, Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star details.