Indiana Pacers: The Pros And Cons Of Trading Paul George This Summer
Con: Set The Franchise Back Half A Decade
There’s no sugarcoating it though: Throughout NBA history, especially recently, trading a top-10 player is usually pretty painful for the next couple of seasons. It’s almost impossible to get full value in a blockbuster trade, and many franchises take years to recover from that kind of loss.
The Orlando Magic have been in a constant state of free fall ever since trading Dwight Howard. Dealing away Kevin Love has the Minnesota Timberwolves on the path of yet another full-scale rebuild, and no matter how promising their future looks, it will take some time to end a 13-year playoff drought. It’ll probably take the Sacramento Kings another decade to get their act together after dealing away Boogie.
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The Denver Nuggets came the closest to “winning” a blockbuster trade after the Carmelo Anthony deal, but that amounted to three first round playoff exits and they haven’t been back to the postseason since 2013.
The point is, trading a franchise’s best player is the quickest path to joining the NBA’s annual Tankathon. Turner isn’t ready to lead a playoff contender, and guys like Teague, Ellis, Jefferson, Miles, Young and Lavoy Allen could ALL be on different teams by the start of the 2018-19 season.
That leaves the Pacers with a core of Turner, Glenn Robinson III, Joe Young, Georges Niang, a potential top-three draft pick and whatever else Boston sends over in a hypothetical trade. That’s not the worst foundation to build on for the future, but it’s definitely one that would take some time to develop.
After being the next Eastern Conference powerhouse just a few years ago, it’d be a sad day to see it all crumble into a rebuild without a single Finals appearance to show for it. It’d take even more time to right the ship after falling short of the mountaintop.