Indiana Pacers: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason

(Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Traded for T.J. Warren

“Traded for” is perhaps being too generous to the Phoenix Suns. When the newsbreakers of NBA Twitter announced this trade, they should’ve included a link to Jane’s Addiction singing Been Caught Stealing.

Not only did the Indiana Pacers get Warren for a bag of used basketballs and a tenderloin sandwich, the Suns even helpfully threw in a slew of second-round draft picks that the Pacers then turned around and packaged to the Milwaukee Bucks for Malcolm Brogdon—more on this in a bit.

It was a pure salary dump for the Suns. Warren is in the second year of a four-year, $47 million contract, a cap hit the Pacers can easily absorb even as Warren is a massive injury risk and has never played more than 66 games in a season.

Warren is a career 34.0 percent 3-point shooter, but hit 42.8 percent of his tries in 2018-19 and looks, if he can stay healthy, like Bojan Lite as he replaces Bogdanovic.

On the downside, Warren’s defense is atrocious—if you brought a 69-year-old Julius Erving out of retirement, Dr. J could drop 30 on Warren—but then again, Bogdanovic couldn’t guard anyone either, but the Pacers’ coaching and defensive system made him into a serviceable NBA defender.

Still, the Pacers got Warren for nothing but “cash considerations.” And they got the ammo to make additional roster moves. That’s a masterpiece even if Warren blows his ACL in preseason and doesn’t play a single game.

Grade: A