After the Pacers reportedly dropped out of the Nene sweepstakes after New Jersey offered $15 million a season, they turned their attention to New Orleans scoring PF David West, who is coming off ACL surgery. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), West is apparently (according to Yahoo Sports), close to signing a 3-year deal with the Boston Celtics in a sign a trade involving former Pacer Jermaine O’Neal and Sasha Pavlovic.
The deal is said to be around $24-25 million for 3 years, which was within what the Pacers were willing to offer, but it seems like most ageing players, West wants an opportunity to win a championship ASAP, something the Pacers obviously cannot offer this upcoming season. Boston recently lost Big Baby Davis to the Magic, so they were in need of a back-up PF, but it’s not exactly a role I envision West playing given his status and production. With Garnett as the incumbent and with Shaq retired and Jermaine shipped out, one wonders how the Celts are going to manage their roster. Still, it’s a good dilemma to have, because it means they have good players in place.
However, if the deal with the Celtics fall through, the Pacers are prepared to sweep in and nab West with a 2-year deal containing a higher yearly salary. The advantage for the Pacers is that they have the cap space to sign West outright, whereas the Celtics need a more complicated sign-and-trade which would probably involve a third party.
If both West and Nene are gone, that just leaves Carl Landry, whom I am still not convinced is the PF of the future the Pacers are looking for. In any case, the Pacers have been pursuing Landry.
Looks like the Pacers might have to be content with what they already have, though they will clearly need to add another big body up front before the start of the season.
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