The Indiana Pacers were one of the more active teams in the NBA ahead of the trade deadline on Thursday afternoon. In their first deal of the deal, they traded sharpshooter Buddy Hield to the Philadelphia 76ers.
In exchange for Hield , the Pacers acquired Marcus Morris Sr., Furkan Korkmaz and three second-round picks. Losing Hield is a blow to their lineup, as the fast-paced Pacers benefitted greatly from his floor spacing alongside All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
In their second trade of the day, they made sure to replace that shooting production. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the Pacers are acquiring Doug McDermott from the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Morris and a second-round pick. Indiana is also including cash in the deal.
At the end of the day, the Pacers have essentially swapped Hield for McDermott, Korkmaz and two second-round picks. That isn’t a bad job by an Indiana front office that already made their splash, recently acquiring Pascal Siakam from the Toronto Raptors.
Getting back some draft capital, albeit only second-round picks, still makes this a solid NBA deadline day for the Pacers. They swapped out one 3-point sniper in Hield for another and picked up a few assets for their troubles. Hield is a 40.1 percent shooter in his career while McDermott has connected on 41.2 percent of his 3-point attempts in his career.
For the Spurs, they replace one veteran in McDermott with another in Morris. It will be interesting to see if he is held onto or if the Spurs opt to waive him. If waived, Morris would likely draw a good amount of interest from teams on the buyout market given his hard-nosed style of play and playoff experience.
Things have a funny way of working out, as San Antonio attempted to sign Morris back in 2019. He had a verbal agreement in place with them but opted to sign a one-year, $15 million deal with the New York Knicks once the NBA moratorium was lifted. It was something the Spurs were reportedly furious about and it will be interesting to see how things work out now that Morris is heading there in a trade.
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