According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Nets have moved into the 1st round of the 2016 NBA Draft by dealing starting power forward Thaddeus Young to the Pacers for the No. 20 pick and a future 2nd round pick.
Brooklyn has traded forward Thad Young to the Indiana Pacers for the 20th pick and a future 2nd rounder, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) June 23, 2016
The Nets traded away their 2016 1st round pick to the Celtics in the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade of 2013, and that pick has become a number three draft pick for the Celtics. Ouch. The Nets are widely considered to be in the worst position of any NBA franchise at the moment with almost no trade-able assets or young talent and a lack of 1st round draft picks.
Trading Young allows them to move $12 million in salary and acquire another young player for their rebuild.
Young averaged 15 points and 9 rebounds in 33 minutes per game for the Nets in 2015-16.
He has three years and $39 million left on his current contract.
The Pacers have been very active the last few days trading George Hill and the 20th pick for Jeff Teague and Thaddeus Young. They are clearly trying to add athleticism, talent, length, quickness, the ability to play small ball and spread the floor and play a much faster pace.
A potential starting lineup of Teague-Ellis-George-Young-Turner is intriguing but could struggle defensively and seems like an odd fit. Not having Hill to defend bigger and better guards to cover for Ellis could hurt the Pacers even though adding Teague adds more offensive firepower.
Indiana is retooling and trying their hardest to pacify Paul George, we’ll see how these deals pan out.
