Indiana Pacers: In praise of Kevin Pritchard

Kevin Pritchard was put in a very difficult situation when he took over as general manager of the Indiana Pacers last May. What he has accomplished under arduous circumstances has been impressive.

The Indiana Pacers and new general manager Kevin Pritchard knew they had a tough job ahead of them when Pritchard was promoted this past May, but things were about to get a whole lot tougher.

Instead of continuing to build the team around All-Star Paul George, Pritchard and the Pacers were informed that George was not interested in re-signing with the club, thus completely changing the team’s offseason strategy.

Due to the way Paul George’s desires were made known, Indiana had very little trade leverage, putting Kevin Pritchard in a near-impossible situation with regard to his ability to receive commensurate trade value in return for George.

After a great deal of trade speculation, Pritchard made a move that was universally panned at the time: he sent George to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

NBA observers could not believe that was all the Pacers could get for Paul George, a player many put in the superstar category at this point in his career. Indiana and their new general manager became the butt of jokes due to the Thunder’s “theft” of their only All-Star.

Another area where the Pacers don’t have leverage is in signing free agents, but Pritchard did what he could. One day after the Paul George trade, Indiana signed Darren Collison to be their new starting point guard.

Needing a starting small forward and a quality shooter, Pritchard inked Bojan Bogdanovic to take George’s former spot in the lineup, but the team’s work was not yet finished.

When it became apparent that C.J. Miles was going to sign with the Toronto Raptors, Kevin Pritchard tried to ease the loss by convincing the Raps to accept the sign-and-trade that brought Cory Joseph to Indiana.