What to make of Indiana Pacers offseason so far | Myles Turner leaves, Jay Huff added, draft, more

What to make of Indiana Pacers offseason so far | Myles Turner leaves, Jay Huff added, draft, more

Where do the Pacers stand after a week of the off seasonason? What do we make of their moves? Derek Schultz, you’ve heard him at Query and Schultz and at the IBJ, is going to join me to break down the Pacers off season to date on today’s Locked On Pacers podcast. You are Locked On Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked Onet. your team every day.
What’s up everybody? Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend and maybe a long weekend and welcome in to another edition of the lockdown pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always. My name is Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and today happy Monday Jay Huff trade official Cam Jones trade official Pacers off seasonason stuff is happening. It’s a week in. What do we make of it? Kind of quiet. Not a lot of big stuff happening obviously besides Malice Turner leaving with Eric Schultz from the IBJ and Quirin Schultz is going to join me today to break it all down. We get into our thoughts on Turner’s departure including he has not signed with the Bucks yet officially. The spoiler answer on that is the Bucks currently don’t have the cap space. Uh but we I discuss a little bit of that. We also talk about Cam Jones, uh Tayen Peter, Jay Huff, and everything that the Pacers have done so far, where they could be headed, what this all means for a gap year, and so much more. Derrick’s the best. Hope you guys enjoy. Let’s just get right to it. Two pro yappers at it again for their every six-month meetup to talk about the Pacers. Derek Schultz, who you hear all the time on Quirin Schultz and reading the IBJ, is here to tell you about everything you need to know about this off seasonason because I have been talking too much to myself to my camera. The Pacers moratorum is over. Cam Jones is on their team. Miles Turner still hasn’t happened yet. I actually want to talk about that a little bit at some point later in the show. But Derek favorite, how are you? I’m doing great. You know, I was thinking of taking a gap year from locked on Pacers, but thank you for calling me instead uh just a couple of months later. So, that’s nice that I don’t have to sit out a year. That that hits that hits hard. That I might make that joke all season in some sort of varying capacities because I’ll have lots of time to do that sort of thing. Maybe I’ll like wear floaties for my August podcast, pretend I’m on vacation the whole time, something to that effect. We’re all going to take some time away from what might be a very strange season for the Indiana Pacers after stuff that happened in the finals, after stuff that’s happened to them this off seasonason. They do officially have Jay Huff. That trade went through. They do officially have Cam Jones. We talked to him at summer league practice on Sunday. That’s all interesting and exciting and like future forward thinking and all that and that’s great. But Miles Turner leaving is the biggest thing. And I’ve talked a million times about my opinions on this and we’ll see what this might get spun into. Before we talk about that though, I have two questions for you. Uh but the first one is the big one. What are your thoughts on this on this departure? What it means for the Pacers and how they should address their center position going forward? Yeah, I it just like anybody else, I was very surprised with how it all went down. and not surprised in the sense that Miles Turner took an offer that he thought was better for him, but I was surprised that basically the Bucks decided to take out another mortgage on their house for Miles Turner. You know, no offense to Miles Turner. He’s a really good player, but I thought what the Bucks did, if the Pacers had done that exact same thing, and even if they had a player as transcended as as Giannis is, no offense to Hallebertton, but Giannis is Giannis, right? Um, I still would think that that was a reckless and crazy move that they made. So, it’ll I’ll be fascinated to see how that plays out as far as Milwaukee is concerned. But I think in a way, Tony, um, you know, sometimes when you uh deal with something from a position of strength and you think to yourself, hey man, Brooklyn and Detroit are doing this. You got you got nothing else. You’re you’re coming here, right? Here’s the deal. this is this is what we’re offering you and you’re gonna take it. Sometimes you kind of get caught with your pants down and I think that’s what happened here. Um and that and that’s not to say that the Pacers didn’t handle it properly. I think they thought and we all thought that they were dealing from a position of strength but then when Milwaukee made the move that they did and they came swooping in um there was nothing that the Pacers could do about that. Um, I I do think and I I’ll be interested to hear, you know, kind of like as this plays out and comments in the future because I’m sure Turner will be act asked to reflect on his time in Indiana and all that. I do wonder if you Miles Turner and the Pacers had a very interesting to say the least relationship over the 10 years where they were on the outs, they were back in, they were on the outs, they were back in, they were on the out, you know what I mean? It was it was it was different. It wasn’t really a marriage. It was more like, you know, yeah, we’re still dating. We’re kind of hanging out. We’re seeing how things go. It’s like kind of like in your late 20s when you’re in those relationships and like neither of you really want to get married, but you still, hey, you like hanging out and you know, he’s hot, she’s hot, whatever else. Like you have a connection. Um, I just made the worst analogy ever in lockdown Pacers history, but but that’s how I’ve always felt about the Pacers where it’s it was it never felt like it was all the way in on either side. And I do wonder if there’s an aspect of this that we’re underrating that maybe Miles Turner just thought, you know what, like 10 years, man, we and we were close and I get to I get to walk out and and leave them better than I found them. It’s time for me to move on. It’s time for them to, you know, I I think there is that aspect that that plays into this as well. It’s a two-way street. It’s not just the Pacers not deciding to offer more money to Miles Turner. It’s also Turner taking another deal. So, I I think we focus so much on, oh my god, what are the Pacers doing? and and how do they mishandle this? And you’re not thinking to yourself, well, maybe Turner just kind of wanted to do this. Maybe maybe that was the who knows, maybe that was the plan all along that there was another offer that was going to come in and he was going to end up taking it. So, um yeah, I mean, surprise, shocked, and all of that. And I I do think that it’s a bigger void than people uh realize. Um but all of that said, I I don’t think that it’s some like unreoverable type deal for the Pacers, especially with this Halleurn injury. I think that really changes. I I’d be down way worse about it had Tyrese Halleurn been healthy right now and then you let Turner walk out the door for nothing going into 2526.
Yeah, the Halleurn injury is part of it and like if they won game seven, he’s not leaving, right? Like you just if you hit the finals, you go back. So, you just got to something that I said like late last week that I I don’t have a good way of putting it, but just the way that this has all been reported, the way there was no spots for him, you know, all the way that this came together, like it’s certainly possible that just he took the most money. But there’s I I just keep feeling like there’s something I’m missing in this whole thing. Like, would he have not come back to the Pacers and asked them for the same offer if he really wanted to be back? or if they if they didn’t mean it, then I have questions about that because even if I think Miles Turner stinks and I’m like, “This finals was so bad, he has to be off the team. It’s bad asset management to lose starters for nothing in return, especially when it’s clear that other teams value him on that contract that they’re willing to offer.” And so, I keep thinking there’s something I’m missing. And the something could be that the Pacers offers are lower than are being reported or shorter in years or had non-G guaranteed money. Or it could be what you just said, and I said this last week. It could be that the answer is Miles Turner maybe didn’t want to be back as much as was reported. Or the way free agency started with negotiations made him more willing to not want to be back. And he’s the only one who can answer that. We’ll talk to Kevin Pritchard uh on Monday. I don’t know what day of the week it is because of the long weekend. So maybe we’ll get some more answers there. But you know, I just I keep thinking like I’m missing something. Like they gave up a second and a swap for Juff. Just stand with me for a second. Like pretend the tax was some immovable barrier. Would you rather have Miles Turner and use those assets to get off of someone else or trade those things for Jay Huff and lose Miles Turner? You obviously would go with option A if you could have Miles Turner on your team. Like there’s all these just like little things that I’m like something I there’s just something I don’t know. And in the way these negotiations go, no one will ever tell you what that is. And that’s fine. They shouldn’t because it’s such sensitive information and like no one wants to be embarrassed or anything like that. I get it. But I’m just that I think you’re right that there maybe it’s that. I’m not saying it’s that. I don’t know that. I’m totally speculating. But I wonder what that was and how it got to this point. And the other answer could just be surprise. No one saw the Bucks having cap space at all. And we’ll get to that in a second. But the other part of this is that is fascinating. And the hard part of sports fandom for many people is like uh for me, I was not even 21 yet. Sterner got drafted by the Pacers. Like you and I were running through this like that dude’s through line obviously has a lot of stars with the Pacers. It obviously is also like Ty Lawson to Benedict Matherin like that it’s crazy what he has seen with one franchise and like that is unheard of in the modern era and I think that even beyond any sort of talent or asset loss like I like that part of sports like I think that part of what made the Warriors dynasty so fascinating to me is not only were they awesome and good but Warriors fans got to see Steph and Draymond and Clay just like grow up as adults on a championship team and I think that that would have been something for Miles. And I think that part of Look, Tyrese might be here for a while. Who knows? Like that part of the growth of this team is now lost. And that’s a little sad. Yeah, it’s sad and it’s frankly sort of surreal to think that, you know, you’re going to come in there in October and he’s he’s not he’s not going to be there. Uh because he’s just been such a constant in what’s been a constantly changing landscape for the Pacers. I mean, you and I were joking about this off the air, Tony. Pacers have remade themselves basically three times over in the 10 years that Miles Turner’s been here. He’s been the one constant. Um I I guess you can include this name if you want to, but he’s a kicker. So I’m hesitant to do so. The only athlete since I’ve been here in the 21st century in Indianapolis that I think went through kind of more changes and turmoil and whatever else um or as many would be like somebody like Adam Vinitary with the Colts. I can’t I certainly can’t think of a pacer that has because you know usually there were hard cut offs in in eras when it came to that but um you know 10 years and it might as well have been 80 for all all the things the Pacers went through along that time and um you know I always appreciated Miles came here at 19 and he was he was always just a really mature deep thinking guy um and took himself seriously and all of that like there was never you know while Obviously, there was a learning curve as a player. To me, there was never really a learning curve as a person. Like immediately, he was 19 going on 29. Like, it felt like he got it in a sense um when it came to being a professional and all that. Now, look, I I know that he stuck his foot in his mouth sometimes with things that he said over the years and things like that. And that goes back to what we talked about with him and the Pacers and they were, you know, it wasn’t always the the best marriage um on either side. Uh, but at the same time it’s it’s really hard to picture the Pacers without him because the last time they were without him, you’ve got to go all the way back to the like Roy Hibbert, David West, George Hill years, which feel like, you know, Luis Skola, you know what I mean? It feels like forever ago that that those teams were around and that that’s how long he’s been here. Um, and I do think, you know, obviously they’ll miss his skill on the floor. Um, the Pacers have, you know, made the best of the situation here. Jay Huff is a contract that you want, right? I mean, that’s that’s an easy contract to absorb. You know, I saw a tweet the other day. He’s 80% Miles Turner. That’s drastically overstating it, I think. But he brings something.
I wasn’t going to talk about that today. I’m sorry. I’m I’m cutting you off. What What is happening?
Like I think Jay Huff’s like decently good player. Like was there a different Miles Turner than the one that was on the team the last 10 years that like
it’s cope.
What is happening? It’s it’s it’s part and it’s part recency bias because look, he he was in the finals, right? He was bad. He was great against Cleveland. He was great against New York. You know what I mean? Like he they wouldn’t be in that position without him. Like I was as frustrated as anybody else that Turner was bad in the finals, but we can’t just flush the first six and a half, seven months of the season because he had a bad two weeks against Oklahoma City. Um or or the previous 10 years that we’ve just been talking about. So yeah, like you know, hey, James Weisman was drafted second like five years ago. Okay, great. Like, okay, you know, I I just think, you know, some fans, they just part of moving on like this has always been an Indiana thing. You don’t want to be here? Fine. Then the next girl is going to be even better. Whatever. She goes to a different school and I’m taking her to the dance. Like that that has always been an Indiana thing. And it’s just it, you know, anytime you wrong the fans here, it mean Jacobe Brassette, you know, no offense to Jacobe Brassette is a really nice guy. I mean, I remember people being like, he’s even better than Andrew Luck. What what what are we doing, guys? Like, you’re crazy. If you think if you ever thought that, you’re crazy. And so like I think you know obviously you know Jay Huff to Turner is a is more of a gap probably than even that but like that’s that’s what we do in this town when when you’re wronged and you’re hurt and you’re brokenhearted about it. This is the way to cope. You get defensive about it and then suddenly Jay Huff who is a guy that 80% of the fan base probably had never heard of until a week ago. Um now becomes the next thing. And then you know we hear about Wiseman’s potential and hey I’ve always really liked Isaiah Jackson. Oh. Oh yeah. Really? Okay. You know, I can do a a search on your tweets. I don’t see a single Ajax tweet anywhere in here, but okay, fine. And and that’s just kind of where the fans are with it.
And a lot of people will be upset about what you said, but like I do think there’s an element of, oh, these guys will be fine at starting center who have never been a starting center before, ever in the NBA.
And they’re coming off Achilles, both of them. You know, I just Yeah. Um,
I really like Isaiah Jackson. I do. I And and when he’s been on the player, when he’s been on the floor, he’s been a good player and we’ve seen growth from him and all that. So, look, I I don’t think that there is zero chance that Jackson or hell, even Wiseman, even though I I’m kind of out on Wiseman. Um or even Jay-Hawk can can be a competent level starting player in the NBA. I just think that with where we sit today, adding everything up, that’s not a bet that I would feel comfortable making. That’s that’s all I’m saying.
Rotation quality for sure. I’m gonna end this rant and use Thank you, Cam, for tweeting this earlier. One of the best Everybody, quick break here so we can talk about FanDuel. Summer sports, they’re in full swing. Whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, high stakes soccer action, whatever it is, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so want to make it a little bit more thrilling. With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. Many people have been using FanDuel to track their favorite matchups. The app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. It’s easy to use. It’s fast payouts. It makes even regular season games feel like mustwatch events. Whether you’re placing a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel makes it feel like you are a part of the action. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet just $5 and get 150 bucks in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. Okay, I’m going to rant. So per 36 stats have a use. Their use that people usually use them for is very bad. I’ve seen a lot of look at Jay Huff and Miles Turner’s per 36 side by side. Here’s every Pacers available option. Yeah. Okay. Here’s what Cam tweeted that I will now use. And everybody listen up. Hakee career per 36. 21.9 points 11.2 rebounds. He shot 51.2%. Enus Cancer career per 36 18.7 points 13.0 rebounds 54.8% from the field. these stats. Get it get it to per minute. Like I get what what the thought of that is. If you could do it for more minutes, you would. Your coach would let you do it. You can’t. That’s why you play so little. And then everyone’s like, “Well, look at their stats in games. They play this much.” Yeah, they’re playing more because they’re playing well that night. Like they don’t do that every night or they play. Don’t use stats like that. That that’s not how that works. That’s not the point. There is a there is a good reason to get everybody’s stats on like a per time limit basis. That is not it. Um Jay-Huff is going to be in the rotation next year. He’s a decent player. It somewhat crazy stuff. Miles Turner, David West, and EK Jo have the same career per 36 stats. What are we doing?
Oh my god. EK. Yeah, the crown jewel.
Cam and Miles have identical per 36. Like it’s like it’s crazy. Okay, I’m sorry.
Yeah, plus minus is that for me. I I think people really misuse plus minus. And yeah, I can understand your rant about per 36. So,
dude, it’s like obvious if a guy played well
and impacted his own plus minus or if he just happened to be on the floor when like good stuff happened like
Okay. Um, the other thing people have asked me about, so I will do this really quick, uh, cap nonsense. He has not mouse has not signed with the Bucks yet. I have the Bucks Twitter notifications on like a psychopath. So, uh, they did do the Pat Coneton trade and Brook Lopez did leave. He has already signed with the Clippers. So, there was a lot of like funky signing trade stuff people were asking about with like, oh, could this be an overthe cap trade? Probably not anymore because of that stuff. But what I mentioned last week that is still technically on the table is could the Pacers trade him just straight up into the cap space of the Bucks and get a trade exception for it. That’s still technically possible and legal. I think the Pacers would have to include something to encourage the Bucks to do that. It would help the Pacers quite a bit. It would also uh give the Bucks an asset. So, like that’s why it would happen. Uh, I think the Bucks would be doing the bigger favor because they’re also getting Miles Turner either way. We’ll see if that actually happens. Yes, that’s still possible. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t really mean anything to me because they still have to wave and stretch Dame and they haven’t done that and that’s going to be like a big thing. You got to do a little little show for that. You’re waving a a top 75 player of all time. Um, so good luck just doing that. However, that is where that is. I don’t know anything obviously. Uh, but that is my suspicion is that it will probably just be a signing, but a signing trade is still technically possible. Uh, and I think the Pacers have to include something to make that happen. All right, Derek, let’s talk about other things that have happened. We’ve made fun of Jay Huff’s stats, which is not fair because he’s good. There’s a reason they traded for him. I don’t think that’s a bad trade at that value. Uh, do you have any opinion of him beyond watching him and Cog win a national championship? What do you think he can add to the Pacers?
Yeah. Uh, I I know very little about him outside of, you know, him kind of somewhat, I guess, bursting onto the scene, if you want to say that. You know, when he got out of the GLeague and got some real NBA time, NBA time last season with Memphis because, you know, obviously before then he had kind of bounced around and I know that he had been a really productive player in the G-League, but I did watch a little bit more Memphis this year. don’t be mad at me, but um they have a another center on Memphis that I am personally invested in and so I was watching him. So, I watched a little more Grizzlies basketball
as far as this year. And um look, I I don’t think he’s 80% Miles Turner. Um
Thank you.
But he can, you know, he he he looks like a productive basketball player that’s ready for a bigger role. Um and you know, bigger role doesn’t necessarily mean starter. Bigger role, I think, means okay, like let’s see if this is sustainable. you know what you did for whatever it was 50 60 games in in Memphis and being a you know 9 10 per minute guy can you be a 15 16 17 minute per guy 20-minute guy um and just kind of go from there and I’m sure he’s looking at this opportunity as an opportunity of a lifetime right because you got to be thinking whether you’re him whether you’re Jax or anybody else hey this is wide open um I I can I can write down my the minutes that I want as long as I’m good then they’re going to play me because they don’t have a lot of other options there. So, I do think the Pacers made some um chicken salad out of chicken. You know what when it comes to this situation here by getting a guy not only a guy that can be productive like Huff, but at his contract um I think is is the other thing that that is big because um you know, the Pacers have to do some finagling there uh when it comes to the money and and so it seemed like a deal that was a no-brainer. Um, and I I do think, you know, last week we were having this conversation, Tony, I’m sure you got this as well, that they’re fine. They’re fine. They they’ve get they’ve got their bigs. They’re good. You know what I mean? It’s going to be Wiseman. It’s going to be uh Jackson. They’re they’re fine. Um, and I’m like, no, they’re they’re not fine. They they need to add somebody else. So, this at least takes care of that.
Yeah. You need like even if I like Isaiah Jackson, I think he’s good. I think they should try to keep him. He’s coming off a ghillies terror. I have no idea how good he’s going to be next year, right? Like, no one does. Um, I’ve seen him move. He looks fine. Like, you don’t know. Same with Wiseman, right? Like, is Tony Bradley and Thomas Bryant really a sick center rotation with Jay Huff? Like, no. Like, you have to you have to have something a bite of the apple at something. And yeah, I think that with Jay Huff, like the the swap is for making the Grizzlies give up a decent player and the pick itself is for like, oh, if this is a rotation player on that contract, like, holy cow, like that’s a steal. And so you don’t know, we don’t know that yet. But I think there are signs that he could be. And the other part that makes him a tradable guy specifically for the Pacers because like the Grizzlies immediately signed Jock Landale, which was very interesting to me like oh they preferred Jock Landale and also got other stuff or they preferred Jock Land and those assets instead of having Jay Huff like did could the Pacers have wanted Jack Landale instead? The thinking for the Pacers is Jay Huff fits way better with how the Pacers play, right? Guys that can make decisions with the ball, shoot it. I can’t even use the like sneaky athletic term. Jhub is actual athletic for like someone of his heights too. Like he actually a lot. Yeah. Like so the the fit and mobility stuff because they they’re their bigs typically need to be able to run and shoot a little bit. Like that’s what made Tony Bradley being so useful in the final surprising. He’s a good player but he’s not very pacersy in terms of that stuff. Thomas Bryant was obviously Miles was. Isaiah has the athleticism not the shooting. You know, that is where I think he can that why they were so willing to get him is that he fits well with that contract too. And so they can be comfortable whatever role he’s in being like great, go do whatever Juff thing is, we believe that this will fit fine. And so I I I think that’s a good gamble for them. And I get why the Grizzlies have their preference of Landale and why the Pacers had their preference of let’s trade away this stuff to get them.
Yeah, I think it’s best for both parties. Uh really and you needed to get somebody else in here besides the the ones that we mentioned there with Bradley and W. We’re not even on the team. That’s the other hard part. Like who knows if Bradley’s technically under contract. It’s not guaranteed that we have no idea who the rest of the Pacer center rotation is going to be. They could trade for other guys. They maybe should trade for other guys, but I don’t I don’t need to opine more in the center situation. We’ve all done that a million times. Uh, do you have any major thoughts on Talon Peter and or Cam Jones? Uh, Cam Jones I loved watching. Well, I I hated watching play, I guess, in certain games this past season. Uh, he really lit up Purdue. That game was a total nightmare up. It was it was their first non-conference loss in like four years. And Cam Jones was the big reason why. But the dude is just uh an absolute bulldog and he fits really I think what the Pacers normally have seemed to like over the years more often than not like the very highly productive college player. Um he was an outstanding player at at Marquette and a combo guard and could kind of do everything and anything that he was asked to do they’re like hey we need you to facilitate more. Bang he’s you know six seven assists a game and um you know he can he can kind of do all of that. I I am interested though that, you know, and maybe I don’t know, maybe they feel like Cam Jones especially can be a rotational player right away. I I I don’t know. Um these weren’t two guys, you know, they’re, you know, even Tayen Peter is old,
you know what I mean? As far as prospects, these aren’t guys that you’re like, “Yeah, let’s let’s take a look and like do a two-way or whatever and then take a look in like two or three years and like see where they’re at.” Um, you know, these guys seemingly are are lower ceiling, I guess, at least just based on their age. Um, so I thought that was a little bit interesting that that was the approach that they decided to take. But I don’t know, they they might be feeling like Cam Jones especially can factor in somehow to that point guard rotation because I I still would think that they’re thinking about wanting to add somebody else um to that mix kind of like what they just did with Huff and the center rotation. So, I thought for a second that them drafting two older guys was a sign that they were like, “We need cheap potential contributors now because we might be close to or in the text this year and now they might not be because Miles Turner’s not going to be on their team.” So, that was somewhat revealing. The thing with Cam Jones is like one watching him play I’m like immediately obvious why this is a draftable prospect. Like can do a lot of stuff. Shaka Smart does NBA stuff. Great. I get it. Like less transitional for him from past to present NBA. He also, if they want him to be the third string point guard, I guess. I wouldn’t think so right away. Maybe later in the season. Um, so they they will get to point guards, they should probably sign a vet there, but he played offball the first three years there. Like when they had Cole and other guys, so I think they’d be comfortable with him not necessarily being on the ball all the time right away.
I think early, especially in summer league, he should have the ball a lot, but like that’s a good development track to be on. He was drilling shots at summer league practice today. summer league practice, but I’ve seen guys miss shots in that setting. It’s their first time in NBA gym, whatever. He was like, “His shot looks a little funky. I can’t tell if it’s because there’s a little hit or because he’s a lefty and I just think every lefty shooter looks like they’re uncomfortable and I just need to mirror my screen.” But they went in and who cares what I think they look like. If they go in the basket, that’s great. It’s fun to chat with him. Uh, so I get the bet there and I agree with you older. That’s somewhat revealing. It was funny to talk to Johnny Fury because he’s fighting these emotions of like, “Ah, I’m not the rookie anymore. Oh, the guys I’m mentoring are three years older than me.” interesting. Like,
yeah, it’s got to be weird.
Yeah. So, he’s got to kind of fight through that. Like, he’s still 20. Tayen Peter is such like a I don’t know what contract he’ll be on or how this will work. Like, he might not ever be anything. It’s such a Pacersy pick. Not even because of the skills he has. They just late in these drafts from these undrafted times. Love the analytics pick, man. Alise Johnson, scoop up Terry Taylor, grab Tayen Peter, whatever you think of Enrique Freeman. He was older. Maybe he was kind of an analytics pick. he was really productive. Like they love that analytics pick with their late stuff. It fits in line with what they’ve had. They’ve had some success with those guys. Some question marks. You just never know. Like that’s what the gamble’s all about. Uh you tell me that true shooting percentage is on the table. I’m like, “Yeah, okay. I understand.” So I if you have any grand huge take on the 54th pick, like you’re lying. Like I watched a wonderful Liberty game in my life, but you know what? I get the gamble. So that makes a ton of sense to me. Uh okay, you mentioned point guard. That gets me to my last question. Do you I mean center feels incomplete. Beyond that, is there anything you feel like they still need or need to address this off season? Yeah, I I think what they’re going to do at at point guard. Um now, if they feel like Cam Jones can be that guy right away, I I wouldn’t think that they felt that, but he like you said, he’s versatile and he can pretty much fit any role that you have for them. Um you know, obviously some of the stuff from college going to have to translate to the pros and there’s going to be a learning curve there. Um, but I I would think that you would want somebody else um in that group and and maybe it’s a veteran gasp. Oh my god, no. A veteran. Wait, we can’t do that during a gap year. It’s got to be some, you know, 20-year-old or whatever. Um,
there is, but I can’t People are like, it has to be I’m like, couldn’t it be a 26, 27 year old who like can clearly obviously do stuff but could also get better. Like that does exist. That that is a real age.
It’s hard to have this dialogue because there is an element of the fan base, and I’m not saying this to be like a jerk or be condescending. They they just want the Pacers to go out there and have Fury throw Ali oops to James Weissman and that’s what they want all season and play Jarus Walker 38 minutes a night. You know what I mean? Like that’s what they want uh for next year and just completely punt. And of course like when you have Pascal Seakum and Aaron Nesmith and guys like that in your roster, you can’t go to them and be like, “Hey, guess what guys, it’s a gap year.” You know what I mean? Like that’s that’s not how sure the Pacers aren’t going to go all in and go into the tax or something and do something crazy to compensate for losing Miles Turner because they know that this isn’t going to be a title team next year deep down. Um so you have to approach it that way. But like there’s a middle ground there and some fans I think just want them to go all the way young and tank. Like guys I worst case scenario with what even what they have right now. Worst case scenario, this would be like a 38 to 40 win team, I think, in the in the East especially. And that’s just not that’s just not enough to tank. You know, that’s that’s been the tanking for the Indiana Pacers franchise, at least in my history around the team. So, the last 20 years, has never been the dumb Murphy teams weren’t bad enough to tank and that was bad basketball.
It happened once and they were already kind of good that year and they still won 35 games. Like, it just happened the year before. Very hard for them.
Yeah. very hard for them to do that. So, um I think you have to approach the conversation of, you know, like signing J or trading for Jay Huff and then getting a third point guard. Like some people are like, whoa, what what are they doing? Why would you get a veteran or anything like that? And it’s like guys, like you still have to feel the roster. You still have to go out there and play competitive basketball. And that’s what the Pacers are going to try to do next year. And that’s what they should do. That’s what they owe it to the guys that just strapped the team on their back to uh get them within 48 minutes of an NBA championship this past year. You know how you help Jarus Walker and Johnny Fury and all these guys get better? You have a guy who can actually set them up, right? Like if they’re playing with a joke of a point guard, it’s going to be harder for them to get better. I don’t know, maybe they think Kim Jones can be the third point guard if I were running things there, which I should never ever do. Uh I would also be looking at a veteran point guard of some variety. I don’t know exactly what kind of player, but like a table setting passing type makes the most sense to me. Also, I didn’t I talked about gap year already and I mostly focused on like the point you just said where it’s like they’re probably too good, especially because the East stinks. Let me add another layer to this. Aaron Nith is extension eligible right now today after this season. Pascal Seakum is extension eligible. Like they want to play well. Not only do they want to play like they have wild at reasons to go play well, they don’t want to just be like, “Yeah, I’ll go home and chill out.” Like, “Yeah, it’s great if we win 30 games.” It that’s not good for them. Seakum said it two years ago. He’s like, “Yeah, if we play well and we win, we get paid.” And he was right. Everybody got paid, including Miles, by a different team. Like, no, they’re not just going to roll over and die. It’s not the Pacers ethos, and it’s not what their team is built for. Obviously, they have different considerations given that their ceiling has collapsed for one season, but they they’re they can’t like they literally can’t tank. They’re too good. Uh the gap year stuff is just like such a touchy thing. I agree with point guard. I don’t know what they’re going to do at center. They have a lot of balls in the air that makes sense. I kind of feel like they still need to bring in somebody better than who they have as their options at the moment. But I guess I understand this rotating cast of characters, but their resources are going to be the same next year that they are right now. So that’s a that’s
I I will say this. I feel better about and I don’t think this is going on a limb. I feel better about what they have in the point guard rotation right now if they just stood Pat than what they would have had if you asked me a week ago about center. You know what I mean? I I think they absolutely had to add a center. And if if if they don’t add a point guard, if they don’t add a veteran, then I’m kind of like, okay, I guess that’s okay. But center, I think they absolutely needed to add somebody and they did.
Yes, I totally agree with that. Um, unless you have any other prevailing thoughts, I will let you be freed because we started 15 minutes late because Tony East has bad internet and it’s raining and I’m afraid it’s going to get worse. Uh, interesting on Newsmith with being uh, extension eligible because he just played on the biggest bargain deal in the NBA for the last couple of years. So I, you know what I mean? I would be thinking to myself, man, this is it for me. Um, I want to get the payday that, you know, I I should have had the last couple of years,
right? It’s like like, you know, he what you want him to roll over and be like, it’s okay. Like, dude, his stock’s like never going to be I don’t know. I just you can’t. It’s impossible. I It is possible. Like, I get that in theory. It’s like, okay, if Pascal Seakum’s foot is like slightly hurting him, you shut him down for four games. Like, okay, I get why you’d think about that, but it’s like it’s just not it doesn’t make sense to me. But, but also, like, what does make sense this season? It’s hard to answer
and and it does go back to the whole like well they can’t win a title next year so what’s like I just I the ring culture stuff guys like if if if your only joy for the season is can we win the championship or not then you’re just going to be miserable like all the time. Like if if the Pacers if the Pacers avoided the play in and got like the six seed that’d be great. like let’s get a first round match up against I don’t know like a a improving Orlando team and maybe the plucky Pacers could win a first round you know what I mean like
that that would be wonderful Orlando in April oh I don’t want to go to the warm Florida air in April dang it oh shoot I guess I have to go I guess I have to go
I just think it’s it’s no way to consume sports that way just because a title is out the window to just kind of throw everything out um it’s just I I I always found that to be kind of depressing. And look, I you know, final disclaimer, if you’re still here and you’re like mad about what we’ve said on the show. I love Pacers fans. This is a great fan base. It was amazing in game seven to see all the gold and to hear Pacers fans in a road atmosphere in a game seven that’s never happened before since I’ve been around the team.
Yeah. Since I’ve been around them, that’s never happened before. And I it sucks that they’ve gone through everything they’ve gone through. I thought, you know, the fan base really showed out and I think it changed how they’re viewed in the city. what this run was. But yeah, I like it it sucks that this is kind of what we’re dealing instead of basking in the glow of what was an amazing season. It just kind of immediately flipped to this and it’s um it’s too bad. The the Pacers deserve better and the fans deserve better than having to kind of dive into this right away.
I sat next to an OKC based photographer and at every game uh in the OKC series when I was in Oklahoma and before game seven, he’s like, “You cover the Pacers, right?” I was like, “Yes.” He goes, “There’s a lot of yellow.” I was like, “Yes, it is. you know, awesome. Like it was noticeable to people who were even at Thunder Games all the time. Uh so
good for the Pacers. Uh turns out, I agree with you that title or Bush should not be the mentality of every season, which is why all 82 games are fun and Miles Turner was good in a lot of those 82 games and should not be reduced to his seven worst games of the last season. Whatever. I digress. I’m over talking about that. Um Derek, thank you very much for the time and letting me opine on the same things you would like to opine about people whining or saying things that seem a little ludicrous. Where are people find you and your platforms saying these things?
So the little Schultz975 you can see on there on X Twitter. Uh IBJ every other week uh have a new column. A lot of times it’s Pacers but also you know Colts IU Purdue. Anything Indianapolis wise in the summer months we try to have some fun with it. We had John Nolan the new uh newish I should say. Fever radio playbyplay voice. Really talented guy. Syracuse guy. Uh just did a profile on him not that long ago. So we we mix in some fun stuff kind of in the offseason. when it comes to that. And then um Jake Query and I who does middays and I know Tony you go on his show a lot on the fan. Uh we still have our once a week dog and pony show. Cory and Schultz at like 12 people listen to but they’re the most dedicated awesome 12 people in Indianapolis. Uh cory and schulz.com Tuesday nights at 7:30 if you want to check that out.
Every Thursday me and Quiry and I come in and he’s talking about like Reesei Cups and how they were better in the 90s and then he says Tony East is here now to talk like what happened? How did this happen? H he’s the
I will never be able to explain. I love Jake. He’s a great guy. Wow. What a great radio host. But I I don’t know, man. I don’t know. But uh I’m filling in Thursday.
So if you’re on the docket Yeah, it’s you and me Thursday. All right.
Even better. I’ll be up bright and early in 10,000 degree Las Vegas. So I I look forward to not complaining about the heat when I’m out there. Everybody give Derek and his many many places you can consume his content a follow. We’ll be back tomorrow here talking about something either a fun interview with someone who knows let’s say one of the new Pacers drafties very well or new updates on free agency if they sign a player or make a move or do any sort of thing because the mortorium is over stuff could happen. Actually probably will be talking about Kevin Pritchard’s presser tomorrow because he is in fact talking on Tuesday, Monday. Holy cow, this three-day weekend is really throwing me off. Thank you all so much for listening. See you very soon.

Myles Turner is gone. Jay Huff and two draft picks are in. What should be made of the Indiana Pacers offseason so far? Host Tony East and Derek Schultz from the IBJ and Query & Schultz break it all down.

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