The definitive Halloween candy identity of every NBA team

Indiana Pacers: Dum Dums Original Pops

Kevin Pritchard is not a genius. No one has ever made that accusation in earnest. You don’t look at Kevin Pritchard’s decisions and confuse them with good ones.

I do understand the degree of difficulty. Having Paul George on your team for one more year and one more year only adds a bit of pressure to your job. Yes, Mr. George is extremely good at basketball, but Mr. Pritchard’s team was not going to be challenging for a high playoff seed, let alone a championship, even with Mr. George in the fold.

So he had to try and turn that last year of an All-Star into as much long-term benefit as he could. In situations like this, it’s best to take your time to survey the surroundings. Gather as much info as possible. Take as many offers as one can. Perhaps these offers can be leveraged against each other. The Pacers are in no rush, whereas many teams around the league from Cleveland to Boston to San Antonio could use George’s production. Everyone knew the Lakers wanted him. Maybe extract some value now instead of watching him walk.

There are chances everywhere. Just wait it out. Relax. Play it cool.

Or set an artificial deadline and then make sure you trade Paul George to the opposite conference because that matters for some reason. The right to pay Oladipo a lot of money and the son of someone who was really good at basketball is tremendously adequate, I guess. I still don’t understand how this happened. I’m resigned to that at this point.