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2026 NBA Trade Discussion Thread

I kind of get it for the Pacers.

They have an expensive team and Zubac is one of the better value contracts at the 5 in the NBA. This allows this some wiggle room and keep the core going strong without cutting cost as much.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
So yeah, the Pacers will tank their asses off to make sure they get the worst record with those protections.
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But they keep the pick if they’re good enough.

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this. The answer may lie in the details of if it doesn’t convey this year.
 
jom2003 said:
Yeah exactly. Maybe they looked at Peterson/AJ/Booz and said nah, we want Arenas or Ament instead. So they gonna try win a few games and go for the playin. Worst case they can still come up with a 11th or 12th pick and get a very solid player out of it. Keep tanking at this point is simply too risky for them. And honestly watching their games, they just aren't that bad. Their record has a lot to do with the professional tanking job from carlisle. He's a master at that. Tanked Mavs so they could draft Luka.
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Yeah, if htey want to win, especially now that they have Zubac, I dont think getting to the 10th worst record would be that difficult.

But why would they hardcore tank the Jazz game two nights ago? Possible they didnt foresee/discuss this trade with this wrinkle, but it would have been great for us if they chose that path before they played us (if they do indeed choose that path)
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
If they get to 10th they have a 10% chance at jumping into the top 4 and a 100% at keeping the pick.

With the worst record they have a 48% of losing the pick by selecting 5th.
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They are currently 10 wins out of 10th place in the tank race, but would only have to pass a whole bunch of teams that will be losing a lot of games. Let's just say the most any of the teams ahead of them win is 6 games, they would have to go 16-15 the rest of the way, which could be a tall order for that team.

They are only 7 wins out of 9th though, which seems more doable. I don't know, it would be pretty risky to give up on percentage points to chase 10.

Either way at the very worst they have 0 incentive to finish 1st or 2nd since 3rd is exactly the same for them.
 
I definitely would not have done that trade giving up Kessler. Just too risky and the 2029 pick is going to be buns unless Tyrese is broken beyond repair.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
They are currently 10 wins out of 10th place in the tank race, but would only have to pass a whole bunch of teams that will be losing a lot of games. Let's just say the most any of the teams ahead of them win is 6 games, they would have to go 16-15 the rest of the way, which could be a tall order for that team.

They are only 7 wins out of 9th though, which seems more doable. I don't know, it would be pretty risky to give up on percentage points to chase 10.

Either way at the very worst they have 0 incentive to finish 1st or 2nd since 3rd is exactly the same for them.
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Nice math, but with a starting lineup of:

Nembhard
Nesmith
Mathurin
Siakim
Zubac

They can easily win a lot of games, especially vs the bad teams. And some of the good teams will be resting players down the stretch as well. It's risky, but so is banking on 52% chance at keeping the pick.
 
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