‘He'll definitely be missed’: Pacers say Buddy Hield trade improves team long-term

INDIANAPOLIS -- Chad Buchanan took the podium at an awkward time to sell a vision that the Pacers front office had made the team better for the long term.

The Pacers' transactions from Thursday's trade deadline didn't process until their game with Golden State near tipoff, so the general manager couldn't speak to the media until after the game. While it helped the media that Buchanan didn't postpone the availability until Friday, he took the microphone soon after the Pacers lost 131-109 to the Warriors with Stephen Curry going off for 42 points.

Minutes before Buchanan entered the Collins/Fuson press conference room, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said the loss came because of "their hard play and our lack of hard play. It's as simple as that. It was ugly. I think we lost every quarter. Very disappointing."

The absence of the player Buchanan and president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard traded on Thursday felt tangible in the game and locker room afterward. The Pacers moved veteran guard Buddy Hield in a trade with the 76ers on Thursday morning. Through the course of the day, it became a three-way deal that also involved the Spurs. At the end of the day, the Pacers brought Spurs wing Doug McDermott back to Indianapolis for a second stint with the franchise, and they also got two second-round NBA Draft picks, one in 2024 and one in '29.

They also added, then waived, guard Furkan Korkmaz from the 76ers. They would later traded a conditional 2025 second-round draft pick for Warriors guard Cory Joseph, who they waived, and reportedly $5.8 million.

One couldn't argue that Hield's presence would have changed the outcome of Thursday night's game by himself. He certainly wouldn't have defended Curry, and with the way Hield has shot the ball this year – down to 38.4% from 3-point range from 42.5% last year – there's no guarantee that he could create a 22-point swing.

But the Pacers seemed lifeless, and even on nights when Hield provides nothing else, he brings an infectious spirit. As veteran point guard T.J. McConnell said earlier this week, Hield "never has a bad day" and his gratefulness just to be in the NBA permeates the locker room. On Thursday, it clearly wasn't there.

"People just think about on the court," center Myles Turner said. "People don't think about chemistry and energy and what he brings to our locker room, to our team. ... His energy's infectious. It's something we're definitely going to be missing. We gotta find a way to make it up somehow, someway. He'll definitely be missed."

Buchanan said the front office was very much aware of that when they made the deal, but also knew that Hield's four-year, $92 million contract was set to run out at the end of this season. After negotiations for an extension broke down in the summer, they had little reason to believe that they would be able to keep him beyond this season, so Thursday marked their last chance to procure assets for him instead of just letting him walk.

The 76ers (30-20), who have just one more win than the Pacers (29-24) and sit 2 1/2 games up from them in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, desperately needed offensive weapons with MVP Joel Embiid out at least four weeks following surgery to repair his meniscus.

Buchanan said the Pacers saw it as a deal they had to make.

"Buddy is a player that contributed valuably to us on the court and in the locker room," Buchanan said. "But we're also in a situation where we gotta make some tough decisions. Building this team requires some tough decisions and this was one of them."

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Buchanan said the decision wasn't easy because the Pacers had to weigh their short-term potential against the long term. In sixth place in the Eastern Conference with established All-Stars on the roster in point guard Tyrese Haliburton and recently acquired forward Pascal Siakam, they are ahead of schedule and a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020 seems realistic. Buchanan acknowledged moving Hield might not help the Pacers do that, but said they believe it could make them better down the line.

"Our team has done a great job of putting us in position to be a contender for a playoff spot," Buchanan said. "Today was one of those decisions that maybe feels like it wasn't helping the team now, but we're trying to look long term and I can't emphasize that enough with this group."

The move obviously doesn't do that much for the Pacers long term. They're only getting one current player in McDermott, who at 32 is a year older than Hield and who also has an expiring contract. They are also only netting one second-round pick out of the deal, bringing in the 2024 and '20'29 picks but losing a conditional '20'25 pick. Still, the 2024 pick has a chance to be more valuable because it initially belonged to the Raptors and could end up in the range of No. 37 overall.

"Any time you acquire draft capital, that puts you in position to make moves down the road to improve your team," Buchanan said. "I think you saw a lot of moves today that involved a lot of second-round picks. There were players obviously involved, but draft capital is a really important thing to building a team and we acquired a lot of that today that we think could be beneficial down the road to help build the team. We acquired a pick last year at the draft that helped us obtain Pascal. Draft capital is very valuable currency in the transaction business in our league."

Buchanan said they pursued McDermott when they realized they weren't going to be able to keep Hield. He's not as prolific of a shooter as Hield, and he's started to see his playing time decrease in San Antonio. He's averaging just 15.2 minutes per game and 6.0 points per game this season. Both of those figures are the lowest since his rookie year. He has 76 3-pointers this season, which puts him only about halfway to Hield's 137 in what appears to be a down year for the No. 22 3-point shoot in NBA history. McDermott's addition doesn't fully address the hole Hield leaves, but it at least partially does.

"We knew when there was a possibility we were losing the caliber of shooter we were losing in Buddy, your first instinct is, 'Can you replace it?'" Buchanan said. "There were candidates we looked at for that. Some were available, some were not. Doug is a guy who Rick has coached before, we've obviously had him here as a Pacer before, but he's never played with our group. He's super-excited to come play with this group, the way we play, the way the ball moves, the pace we play at."

As awkward as the Hield deal was to explain -- especially immediately after an ugly loss -- the trade that brought the Siakam in January established the Pacers as one of the biggest overall winners in the trade season. Siakam, a two-time All-NBA power forward, was arguably the best player to change teams since at least the deal that sent James Harden from the 76ers to the Clippers in October.

In 12 games with the Pacers, Siakam is averaging 21.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game while shooting 57.1% from the floor and 44.1% from 3-point range, so he's been everything they hoped he would be.

Siakam is also on an expiring contract, but he has expressed a willingness to at least consider re-signing with the Pacers after initially indicating that he would not stay with any team that traded for him. Buchanan hadn't spoken about that deal prior to Thursday, but said he wants Siakam back. It won't be cheap, as he's making $37.8 million next year, but especially with Hield moving on, the Pacers have ample salary cap space.

"You trade for someone because you want them to be here long-term," Buchanan said. "We're limited on some of the things we can do with that. The goal when we attained him was to have him be a long-term piece for us. That's still the goal. He's been a great fit so far. I think he's happy so far."

There are still adjustments to be made for this year to what has been lost and and what has been gained, but the Pacers believe their moves have put them on track to building a sustainable postseason team.

"We're not just growing a team for this year," Carlisle said. "We have a longer-range vision. Moves that have been made since the beginning of last year have been made with the goal of becoming a championship-contending team. So the work goes on."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers GM Chad Buchanan: Team thinking long-term with deadline deals