Indiana Pacers: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Fox Doucette
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.