Wednesday night’s three-team deal involving the LA Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers offered more than just another late-summer transaction. It gave the Indiana Pacers a reminder that front offices can still find ways to manufacture a move, even when the path looks cramped.
The headline piece of the trade was Peyton Watson going to Cleveland, with the Nuggets getting a future Cavs first-rounder and a Sacramento Kings second-round pick, and the Clippers landing Max Strus. As part of the broader swap, the Washington Wizards are bringing in Tre Mann and a Clippers second-round pick for Cam Whitmore, who the Cavs will waive.
The fit for Cleveland isn’t seamless, and there’s every reason to think Watson could drift away from what he looked like next to Nikola Jokic. His January burst probably wasn’t the full version of the player either. Still, the bigger takeaway is hard to miss: Cleveland kept pushing, and the front office deserves credit for the ambition.
That matters because the Cavs have spent the years since trading for Donovan Mitchell constantly reshaping the roster around him and Evan Mobley. They’ve moved Caris Levert, Darius Garland, Ricky Rubio, Taurean Prince and others in their ongoing effort to keep changing the mix. In that span, they brought in James Harden and Max Strus before flipping Strus again in this latest deal.
For Indiana, the contrast is obvious. Expectations have never been higher for the Pacers, while the Cavaliers are operating with far less external optimism. Even so, Cleveland keeps working the margins and trying to make another version of this team fit.
The Pacers already made their major deadline move by bringing in Ivica Zubac, and that has looked better as the center market has dried up. But they still haven’t shown the same knack for creating a deal out of limited options.
A rough parallel would be moving TJ McConnell’s contract and one of the 2023 draftees just to clear room to sign Jalen Duren, though that kind of maneuver would only make sense for a team that doesn’t have a center. The point is less about that exact move and more about the fact that Cleveland keeps finding ways to keep the machine turning.
That’s where Indiana’s current situation gets tricky. The Pacers have most of their usable assets tied up in draft picks, with only three tradeable picks remaining and just their 2029 selection going to the Clippers.
Picks help, but they’re only part of the puzzle. The harder problem is that Indiana doesn’t have a lot of movable salary.
Cleveland, by comparison, was working with just the Dennis Schroder deal and Max Strus’ contract. The Cavs sent Schroder to Charlotte for Tre Mann and used Strus’ $16.6 million salary to open $22 million in space for Watson.
Indiana is sitting $2.24 million below the first apron, which leaves some room to get creative. If the Pacers want another wing initiator, one possible route would be moving Jarace Walker’s deal in a no-money-back trade to create about $11 million in space, enough to make a competitive offer for Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga wouldn’t be a perfect fit. But if he hits even a top 30th percentile outcome in that kind of deal, he would raise the ceiling of a Pacers team that is, for now, what it is.
In Other News...
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Pacers fans who have been waiting for a clearer local viewing option are finally getting one. Indiana announced a new streaming partnership with DAZN that will put 22 regular-season games and all four preseason games in one place, giving supporters a fresh way to follow the team without relying only on the old familiar channels.
The setup comes with a catch, though, because not every game is moving over. DAZN will launch a Pacers-branded channel in its app in early September, and the package will include several subscription choices, including discounted early bird season passes, but national TV games will still stay with the leagues existing broadcast partners. The deal is reported to run five years, and the 22 free games should soften the blow for fans who have been frustrated by the hunt for local coverage. [Read more 🡒]
Tyrese Haliburton Sees A New Pacers Weapon Fans Havent Really Seen
Tyrese Haliburton is already looking ahead to what the Indiana Pacers could look like next season, and one of the biggest reasons for his optimism is a familiar kind of weapon he has not really had in his time here. He spoke recently about his excitement to share the floor with center Ivica Zubac, whose size and ability around the rim could give Indiana a different kind of pairing in the pick-and-roll.
Zubac arrived in a trade last season, but injury limited him to only five games, so Pacers fans barely got a glimpse of what that fit might look like. Haliburton also offered an update on his own recovery from an Achilles injury, saying he is working his way back and eager to return, which only adds to the intrigue around how the offense might evolve once both players are in the mix. [Read more 🡒]