“We’re excited,” Pacers president Kevin Pritchard said on a Zoom call Tuesday night with local reporters. “We’re going to kick butt. We’re not messing around, now.”
You starting to feel better? You’ll get there and more after you read some of what Pritchard was saying Tuesday night, words of optimism and belief, even if some of those words are beyond my vocabulary. Seriously, in full-speed talking mode Pritchard uses words I’ve never even written, and he’s not showing off or anything. He’s just that smart, which is probably how he wins almost every trade he’s pulled off since replacing Larry Bird atop the Pacers’ front office in May 2017.
Paul George threw this franchise into chaos by leaking that he wanted out, but Pritchard turned that into lemonade by acquiring two All-Stars, Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Oladipo then threw the franchise into chaos by pouting his way out of town, and Pritchard turned that into Caris LeVert and a handful of other assets. Sabonis wanted a bigger role? Fine. Pritchard sent him to Sacramento for point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who will be an NBA All-Star soon.
Sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Well, that’s what we have to sell here in Indianapolis. That, and a promising young core of talent. That’s why Pritchard was late to the Zoom call on Tuesday night.Pritchard was supposed to be on this call with reporters at 8:30 p.m. That’s when the ESPN lottery show ended. That’s when he was coming. Only, he wasn’t here at 8:30.
“It happened tonight already, organically, running into a couple players . We got really good feedback from a couple players: ‘We’re coming to Indiana , let’s get this started.’”Pritchard suggested the Pacers might stay at No. 6, but could go in either direction – closer to No. 1 overall, or the other way – or even turn their pick and $25 million in cap space into a deal for an expiring contract and another good young player already in the NBA.
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