Insider: 7 thoughts on moves Pacers made and didn't make at NBA trade deadline

Kevin Pritchard said when the Pacers announced Myles Turner's contract extension the team would be "opportunistic" at the trade deadline, but also indicated he was "bullish" on his current roster and was more interested in helping them grow organically rather than go through a major reconstruction at Thursday's trade deadline.

The Pacers president of basketball operations' actions at the deadline Thursday stayed true to those words as all of their activity was centered around one deal. News of their dealings with the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks trickled out in reports throughout the afternoon, and Thursday evening the Pacers announced in a press release that it was all part of what became a four-way deal that sent Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson to the Nets and Jae Crowder to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Pacers acquired forward Jordan Nwora, guard George Hill and center Serge Ibaka as well as three second-round picks from the Bucks and cash considerations from the Nets. They only had to part with the draft rights to Juan Pablo Vaulet, an Argentinian guard who was initially selected by the Hornets in 2015 but has yet to play in an NBA game and is currently playing professionally in Spain.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Pacers intend to waive Ibaka, but to clear the roster space to finalize the deal, the Pacers waived center Goga Bitadze and forwards Terry Taylor and James Johnson.

More:What to know about Pacers trade acquisition Jordan Nwora

The Pacers went into the deadline with a lot of flexibility and an opportunity to be aggressive, but after their 13th loss in 15 games on Wednesday night against the Heat, they were in neither a clear position to buy or sell. Though they consider themselves ahead of schedule in their rebuild and Pritchard likes a lot of his pieces, Indiana sits in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, a full game back of the 10th and final play-in spot and 5 1/2 games back of sixth, the last position that gets to avoid the play-in round. They ultimately weren't aggressive, but they also protected what they see as important assets. Here are seven thoughts on what the Pacers did -- and perhaps more importantly didn't do -- at the trade deadline.

They addressed their position of need ... kind of

The Pacers entered the deadline with an obvious glaring need -- a bigger wing who could play power forward and bring more rebounding to the position but still defend multiple positions and space the floor. It's not at all a sure thing that Nwora is the Pacers' long- or even medium-term answer at the position and he doesn't by himself promise a change to the trajectory of Indiana's season. However, he represents a minimum-cost attempt at a solution.

Nwora was a two-time All-ACC pick at Louisville and a third-team All-American for the Cardinals in 2020. The 6-8, 225-pounder was a true inside-outside scoring threat there, scoring 18.0 points as a junior and shooting 40.2% from 3-point range that season with more than 75 3-pointers in each of his last two seasons.

With the Bucks, he has earned an NBA championship ring but hasn't had much of a chance to play in large part because he's stuck behind arguably the best power forward in this galaxy in Giannis Antetokounmpo, not to mention a bevy of other talented wings and bigs taking up the minutes at both the 3 and 4 in Khris Middleton, Pat Connaughton, Joe Ingles, Wesley Matthews and Bobby Portis. In three seasons, Nwora has started just 18 games and played in 130, averaging 15.8 minutes. 6.0 points and 3.1 rebounds.

So Nwora doesn't have nearly the track record for the Pacers to plug him in at the 4 and presume he'll still be the man there the next time they put together a roster that can make real playoff noise. However, they have seen even this season that taking a flyer on a player who hasn't had an opportunity early in his career can pay off.

The Pacers acquired wing Aaron Nesmith from the Celtics this offseason after he was buried behind Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams and other wings in Boston and he has emerged to become the starting power forward and one of the Pacers' best defenders. Nwora might not be Nesmith's equal as a defender, but he has 3 inches on him which could make a significant difference on the glass where the Pacers have been crushed due to a lack of size at positions other than center. Even if he doesn't beat Nesmith out to start, he could still bring size off the bench at that position and could be an upgrade over reserve Oshae Brissett.

The Pacers certainly could have taken bigger swings at someone like Atlanta's John Collins, Toronto's O.G. Anunoby, Charlotte's Jalen McDaniels or even New York's Obi Toppin or Utah's Jarred Vanderbilt, but they would have paid significantly more for either of those players and particularly would have had to part with a lot for Collins or Anunoby. It's a cheap flier, as Nwora will only cost $3.2 million against the cap next year, but there could be a legitimate payoff.

They protected their rotation players

After Turner's signing, Pritchard gushed about players throughout the roster and how their contributions both on the floor and in the locker room to team chemistry and spoke at length about how important the culture was to this team. Pritchard ultimately decided to shake up as little of that as possible.

The Pacers protected every member of their rotation. Bitadze, Taylor and Johnson in particular are beloved in the Pacers' tight-knit locker room, but both of them spent far more minutes watching games from the bench this season than they did participating in them. Working Nwora into the rotation will be an adjustment and that could lead to the minimizing of Brissett and possibly a minute cut for other players as well, but there won't be a dramatic shake-up in terms of chemistry. That marks a drastically different approach to the deadline than what the Pacers expected to take when the season began, as it was presumed that they would have to move Turner with his contract set to expire as well as veteran wing Buddy Hield, whose contract will run out at the end of next season. Both will stick around until the end of next season as will every other Indiana player averaging at least 10 minutes per game.

The Pacers aren't tanking, but they're not going for it either

With the entire rotation retained and the addition of Nwora, the Pacers have clearly not decided to give up on the rest of this season with a postseason spot still clearly within reach. But they didn't go big enough to raise their ceiling either. Even if this team catches fire, it's almost impossible to imagine them avoiding the play-in round. Even if they survived that, they'd be looking at a playoff series against one of the top two teams in the East.

Their season could also go the other direction and they could find themselves in the draft lottery and they're currently in position to get the No. 6 overall pick, but they're not going to shut it down to try to maximize their ping-pong balls in hopes of acquiring French phenom Victor Wembanyama. That ultimately looks like a very middle-of-the-road approach, which could be frustrating to a fanbase that has seen many good teams come through Indianapolis but never one good enough to win a championship and several bad teams but never one bad enough to land a generational player who could quickly flip things around. They could ultimately end up with another excellent player at the No. 6 pick to pair with Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin as keystones for their future, but some fans will wonder if the early season excitement was worth giving Houston, San Antonio, Detroit and Charlotte the inside track to a potentially generational player.

They barely addressed areas where they have excess assets

The Pacers went into the deadline with too many backup centers and they still have too many backup centers on the other side of it. They have more picks in the 2023 draft than they have ability to accommodate and develop more rookies, but they didn't move any of those picks. So where they had gluts, roadblocks and logjams, they still have gluts, roadblocks and logjams.

The waiving of Goga Bitadze at least allows the Pacers to move away from one player they weren't playing, but they still have three players vying for the 18 minutes a game available for backup centers behind Turner. Veteran Daniel Theis has received the bulk of those minutes since returning from knee surgery last week, which has left promising young big men Jalen Smith and Isaiah Jackson mostly stranded on the bench. If the Pacers were giving Theis minutes in hopes of luring a suitor to trade for him, no team bit and now the Pacers have to figure out how to use all three down the stretch. Each has a different skill set and his own value, but it would have been helpful to turn at least one of those players into other assets, at least for the future. Theis is still under contract for $9.1 million next year, so the Pacers could move him in the offseason, but the more he plays, the more Smith and Jackson lose opportunity for development.

The Pacers obviously still have plenty of time to move 2023 draft picks before the draft itself on June 22. As Pritchard said, it's hard to bring in four rookies at once and give them real opportunity for development, especially for a team with so much youth already. The Pacers will almost certainly be looking to make a move sometime between now and then.

The journey of Goga Bitadze represents a failure and a cautionary tale

Goga Bitadze was a first-round pick in 2019, the No. 18 overall selection. He wasn't a lottery pick, but any first-rounder is one a franchise like the Pacers can't afford to miss on. He was taken ahead of numerous players who have made impacts for their teams as either starters or important rotation players, including Memphis' Brandon Clarke, Boston's Grant Williams, Golden State's Jordan Poole, Brooklyn's Nic Claxton and the Clippers' Terrance Mann.

And Bitadze leaves the Pacers after four seasons having barely made an impact, usually because he was stuck behind more talented players at his position, in many cases more than one. He got minutes when Myles Turner went through injuries last season especially after Domantas Sabonis was traded, but this season he was an afterthought behind a healthy Turner and Jackson and became even more of one when Jalen Smith moved from the starting power forward to center.

And as the Pacers move forward, they have to make decisions considering what they've already lost. Smith and Jackson were both first-round picks themselves, even though Smith was selected by Phoenix. They both have their flaws, but they have talent and are valuable assets and the Pacers certainly don't want to be parting with them with nothing in return in the next few years.

George Hill's role will be intriguing

The Pacers don't have an obvious space for George Hill to fill.

He can still be a steady backcourt presence at 36, but the Pacers already have an experienced backup point guard, but one who clearly has a lot left in the tank in T.J. McConnell. The 30-year-old kept the Pacers offense at least functional even if they didn't win a lot of games in Tyrese Haliburton's absence, and continues to be a difficult player to defend and a hard one for ball handlers to deal with when he's on defense. He scored 18 points on Wednesday on 8 of 12 shooting and even the vaunted Miami Heat defense couldn't keep him from getting two feet in the paint.

In essence, the Pacers already have much of what Hill brings to the table. That being said, he's still an Indianapolis native, former Broad Ripple High School and IUPUI star. There's still value in veteran experience, even if the Pacers already have some, and there is no better ambassador for the Pacers to the broader Indianapolis community.

James Johnson could return

Though he only played in 12 games with the Pacers this season, James Johnson was one of the most respected men in the Pacers' locker room. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle vouched for him because of the role he played for him on his 2020-21 team in Dallas, and he thought the Mavericks lost something significant when he left for New Orleans that year.

In games, Johnson is in his teammates' ear almost as much as a coach. He invests in his teammates, getting to know them as people and knowing how to inspire them and keep their spirits up. And they know if opponents mess with them, Johnson will be the first to step up in their defense. If the Pacers do in fact waive Ibaka and Johnson clears waivers, expect them to try to bring Johnson back.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NBA trade deadline: 7 thoughts on Pacers' moves they made and didn't