The Portland Trail Blazers are reportedly considering all offers for star guard Damian Lillard, so what would it take for the Pacers to get involved?
Let’s be real, Lillard isn’t coming to Indiana. He hasn’t mentioned Indianapolis as a possible destination and it’s unlikely the Pacers would acquire a player who isn’t interested in playing here.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at what it would take.
We’ll start with the position that Tyrese Haliburton is off the table. It means $80 million-plus in salary going to two players starting in 2024-25, but table that concern for a moment.
The Pacers need to, roughly, match Lillard’s $45.6 million salary, which means the deal almost has to include Buddy Hield ($19.3 million) and Myles Turner ($21 million). Daniel Theis ($9.1 million) and T.J. McConnell ($8.7 million) are possibilities, but it’s unlikely either would appeal to a rebuilding Portland team. Hield could have value as an asset to be flipped before the trade deadline.
At least one more player needs to go in the deal from the Pacers, and the most likely candidates are Bennedict Mathurin or Andrew Nembhard. Either works in the ESPN trade machine. Adding Lillard certainly makes Mathurin’s loss easier to absorb but this would be a major point of the negotiations.
Then the question is what else is Portland going to want? Indiana has all its first-round picks and the Trail Blazers are going to want four. Maybe its three and Mathurin, or four and Nembhard. Ben Sheppard and Jarace Walker have signed, making them untradeable. Pick swaps could be involved as well.
So Portland could get a potential young star (Mathurin), a veteran trade asset (Hield) and a center who would be an excellent fit for their rebuilding team (Turner), plus at least three first-round picks. Can Portland get a better offer?
Would the Pacers do it?
They’d have a Haliburton-Lillard backcourt with Bruce Brown, Nembhard (or Mathurin), McConnell and Sheppard in the backcourt. Nwora, Aaron Newsmith, Walker and Obi Toppin at forward, with Jalen Smith and Isaiah Jackson (plus Theis) at center.
Replacing Turner with a Smith-Jackson combo is a step down, but in a combined 35.3 minutes per game, they averaged 16.6 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. Turner averaged 18.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 29.4 minutes; Turner’s better but that’s serviceable. The forward spots aren’t great, but you’ve got an All-Star backcourt.
And the Pacers have enough cap flexibility to handle a Haliburton-Lillard backcourt going forward. Jackson, Brown and McConnell can all be cut loose to free up more than $30 million in cap space, if needed.
This isn’t going to happen, but it would be fun.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers: Damian Lillard isn’t getting traded to here but if he was …