NBA Rumors: Brooklyn Nets trade Thaddeus Young to Indiana Pacers

The Brooklyn Nets have made a pre-draft trade with the Indiana Pacers, sending forward Thaddeus Young to Indiana for the 20th pick and another future pick.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical of Yahoo! Sports, the Brooklyn Nets have traded veteran forward Thaddeus Young to the Indiana Pacers for the 20th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and a future second round pick.

Brooklyn has gradually begun to unload some of the club’s bigger salaries. Young was under contract with the Nets for the 2016-17 NBA season and could have opted out of his deal with Brooklyn to become an unrestricted free agent in summer 2018.

Young was set to make $12.1 million in 2016-17 as the Nets’ second best player behind All-Star caliber center Brook Lopez. This trade with the Pacers allows the Nets to get back into the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft after sacrificing much of the organization’s future with so many head-scratching trades during the Billy King era of the Nets front office.

Brooklyn will finally look to rebuild with Sean Marks as general manager and great player developer Kenny Atkinson as the Nets’ newest head coach. The Nets should be able to find some value at No. 20 in what is being considered a deep 2016 NBA Draft.

As for the Pacers, Indiana will get a great low-post scorer in Young. Indiana is trying to usher in a new identity as a franchise, perhaps one with more offensive vigor than it was under former head coach Frank Vogel.

With the Jeff Teague/George Hill trade with the Atlanta Hawks and the Utah Jazz on Wednesday and the Young deal with the Nets on Thursday, Indiana is clearly pushing for a deep playoff run in the Eastern Conference this season. For now, the Pacers seem very much in win-now mode.

For more NBA Draft news, please check out our NBA Draft category page.