Amazing to me that the Raptors get 3 firsts for a guy that is going to be a free agent and is 29 years old. The Pacers paid the Indiana tax - they cannot add a top free agent, so they need to try and get Siakam on board by the end of the season.
As long as they are willing to pay the max, they'll keep him. I'd imagine they are with the kind of investment they made.
That is my initial thought - but it is really hard to get really good players to sign as free agents in Indiana. They already have Haliburton and Myles Turner, so they are very unlikely going to be in a position to draft a player as good as Siakam. So they traded two draft picks they have this season and one in 2026 to get Siakam now with the belief they can get him to extend. He also is probably going to see his production go up on the Pacers, who are possibly the best offensive team in the NBA, so he may enjoy playing there. A core of Haliburton, Siakam, Turner and perhaps Mathurin may get them past the first round of the playoffs if they gel really well. They still have Jarace Walker and Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson that could become good contributors down the road or be traded for someone that fits. I think the Raptors won this deal - they really held onto Siakam until almost the last minute, but they still were able to come out looking good.... but Pacers fans are likely happy too.
mid-round draft picks are often such crap shoots if not, a "complete crap" to quote the Raptors' coach. Even our lottery picks can turn out meh. So I don't think this trade is so bad as some of y'all do.
I think it is a good/ great trade for the Pacers. Signing FAs is always going to be hard unless they have a very attractive pitch. Getting the 'ultimate 2nd banana' in Siakim is a significant upgrade to their roster. The price of 3 firsts feels steep, but only if Siakim walks in the summer. Indiana has plenty of young talent already, and giving up 2 picks in 2024s draft may not hurt them.
Why do we need a Pascal Siakam as a Pacer thread?!!? We don't have one for every player in the league. I nominate @Os Trigonum start one for every player not having a dedicated thread if this is the direction we are heading in.
Can't believe Siakam is worth 3 first rounders and they have to pay him the max. Is he even a top 50 player right now?
The Pacers are a small-market team trying to go from No Man's Land to a contender. They gave up a lot, but I think this hard swing of the bat is worth it. My main concern is will Siakam and Myles Turner get in each other's way. Halliburton could be the solution. I'm still dreaming of a Rockets/Pacers NBA Finals.
Can't believe some people here think this was a bad trade for the Pacers. Not all Frps are the same. 2 of those picks are for next year's class (notorious for being a joke draft) and they happen to be low frps on top of that. Right now that would be the 19th pick and 27th pick...yay? And we figure that 19th pick will go down even more as Pacers just upgraded from Jalen Smith to Pascal Siakam. It's like when Stone traded Tyty, Garuba and JC for nothing, the optics look bad "Omg we lost 3 Frps for nothing". In reality the Rox actually won that trade cuz they freed up capspace and roster space by getting rid of useless players. Our top 10 pick from the Nets next year is worth 5 of those picks Pacers gave to Toronto....and I'd argue our 20th pick last year was more valuable than the Nets pick next year. Secondly Siakam is scoring at 60%TS, grabbing 6 boards and dishing 4 ast while being a good defender. I think it's kinda dumb to say he ain't even a top 50 player that's like saying he is worse than every starter-6th man in the NBA. I think Raptors are actually the one who lost this trade, clearly it was a panic move to just get something for Siakam rather than lose him for nothing like FVV. Pacers didn't even give up one of their good players in return.
