Pacers focused on future
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kevin Pritchard's aggressive offseason was derailed by Paul George's decision.
So the team's new president of basketball operations went all in on Plan B. He needs it to pay off.
On Friday, Pritchard talked about using the two young players acquired in last week's deal with Oklahoma City as being key elements in a rebuilding project that will likely be the defining moment of his tenure.
“Paul was not staying beyond this year and we had no chance. I thought we were in a good place, but at the end of the day he wanted to be with another team,” Pritchard said in his first public comments since word leaked about the deal. “We have to move on. It's like a rebirth for the franchise.” Or a major rebuild. The conventional wisdom around the league is that the Pacers didn't get enough in return for a 27-year-old, four-time AllStar who is still in the prime of his career.
Once George's camp let the whole basketball world know he intended to sign with his hometown Los Angeles Lakers in free agency next summer, his value dropped and put Pritchard in a bind.
“Could you have gotten more?” Pritchard said when asked if George would have kept his plans private. “Absolutely.”
Of all those enticing trade rumors, Pritchard estimated only about 5 percent were actually true.
But rather than gamble on future draft picks and start completely start from scratch, the Pacers did the next best thing — bringing in 25-year-old guard Victor Oladipo and 21-year-old forward Domantas Sabonis.
Both are former lottery picks who Pritchard believes will become starters and will team with promising third-year center Myles Turner to give the Pacers a viable long-term nucleus.
The good news for Pacers fans is that in a watered-down Eastern Conference, with only four established playoff teams, everyone else, including Indiana, is in some form of rebuild mode.
“People want to know are we a playoff team?” coach Nate McMillan said. “Kevin's going to build this team, but I can tell you as a coach, we always play to win.”