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.
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None of the Pacers’ offseason moves was met with much enthusiasm; virtually everyone felt they were fleeced in the deal for Paul George, and the subsequent trades and signings were met with a yawn by most fans.
The consensus opinion as the summer ended was that Indiana was now entering into a complete rebuild, and a lot of bumps, bruises and losing were ahead for the franchise.
The 2017-18 NBA season is currently at its quarter-point, so a certain degree of evaluation can be done as to the state of the Indiana Pacers after 10 new players were added to the team during the offseason.
In terms of the major deal with OKC, derision has now turned to applause. Victor Oladipo is having a tremendous season thus far, averaging 22.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest.
Domantas Sabonis has also been a pleasant surprise, contributing 12.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while also being among the league leaders in shooting percentage.
Darren Collison is also playing very well, posting 12.7 points and 6.8 assists per night. He is among the NBA leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio as well.
After a slow start offensively, Bojan Bogdanovic is playing some excellent basketball for Indiana. “Bogey” is the club’s second-leading scorer at 14.9 points per game, and he’s doing it efficiently.
Add in the very solid play of Cory Joseph, who the Pacers essentially picked up for free, and you’ve got a surprising result — perhaps even a shocking one — based on how these moves were initially viewed.
It’s too early to anoint Kevin Pritchard a genius, but even at this early stage he deserves a ton of credit for keeping this Indiana team afloat. He navigated the franchise through one of the most difficult periods in its history, and he took a lot of criticism along the way.
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At least for the time being, the last laugh seems to be his.