July 29, 2010 9:00 am  |  30 Comments

Pacers Want to Trade Mike Dunleavy, TJ Ford


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

According to the local press, Larry Bird and the rest of the Indiana Pacers’ braintrust appear ready to move some players for the first time in a while. TJ Ford and Mike Dunleavy are no longer in the team’s plans for the future, reports the Indy Star.

Indiana is looking for someone to take the injury-prone guard and forward off their hands:

The Pacers don’t feel comfortable going into next season with their current roster. That’s why team officials want to make a trade for the first time in nearly two years. The two players they’re trying to move are T.J. Ford and Mike Dunleavy, according to sources.

Ford isn’t surprising because the Pacers have been trying to unload him for some time. Dunleavy is the surprising one because coach Jim O’Brien has always held him in high regard due to his ability to grasp the offense. The Pacers have a logjam at the wing spot with the addition of Paul George last month.

The problem the Pacers are running into with Dunleavy is that he’ll make $10.5 million next season and there are concerns about whether he can regain his touch from the 2007-08 season when he averaged 19.1 points and shot nearly 48 percent from the field.

Dunleavy (slated to earn $10.5 million next season) and Ford (on the books for $8.5 mil) are each coming off their worst seasons statistically since they were both rookies.

So, no, it will not be easy for the Pacers’ front-office to move them and get something of value in return.

Teams are reportedly more interested in trading for Troy Murphy, a productive player that Indiana is understandably reluctant to move.

  • Add a Comment
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • StumbleUpon
    • TwitThis
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Print this article!
  • RSS

Tags: , , , ,

  • Michael Posted: Jul.29 at 9:18 am
    Once this team gets rid of a few bad contracts like ford and dun, they will be headed in the right direction. There not that bad of a team.They score a bunch of points they are just not athletic enough to stop anyone. The last few seasons they barely missed the playoffs despite having all kinds of injuries. Im excited about George,Stevenson,Hansbrough!

  • Fat Lever Posted: Jul.29 at 9:37 am
    Conversely, no one wants to acquire Dunleavy and Ford.

  • RickyRude Posted: Jul.29 at 10:29 am
    Trade Ford to Toronto for Calderon. Just kiddin’…

  • Dacre Posted: Jul.29 at 10:51 am
    Where could someone like Mike Dunleavy go and actually be an ‘upgrade’? He has too big a price to go sitting on someones bench. Does he have a buy out clause in his contract? Whats stopping him from having another 19ppg season….other than Danny Granger? And TJ Ford….?? ONE thing I can say - Your not going to ship those two off to the same team thats for sure. MY IDEA: Get Dunleavy to Cleveland (somehow) and solidify that SF spot with a wing player that can shoot and pass.

  • T-Money Posted: Jul.29 at 10:51 am
    They’ve been trying to trade Ford for damn near 2 years!

  • IndyB Posted: Jul.29 at 10:56 am
    This is not news.

  • henry Posted: Jul.29 at 11:11 am
    maybe bosh wants to play with his lil buddy again

  • JL Posted: Jul.29 at 11:13 am
    yah good luck trying to trade TJ “too small” Ford and Mike “Knee on Fire” Dunleavy

  • Dacre Posted: Jul.29 at 11:20 am
    Mike ‘Dontleaveme’.

  • LDR4 Posted: Jul.29 at 11:22 am
    I wish Ford’s career was not what it is. I really liked hime when he was with Texas. Not only are the Pacers trying to move these two (difficult enough because Dunleavy’s dad isnt a coach somewhere) but the franchise is still fighting for its life in Indy. The city just shelled out millions to try and keep them there but Stern is still noncommital. Plus the team is worth more now than when the Simon bros bought it in ‘83…whats stopping Herb Simon from selling? Two seasons ago Troy Murphy had the best season that no one talked about…hopefully people will still be talking about the Indiana Pacers in the future.

  • MikeC. Posted: Jul.29 at 11:25 am
    They’ve been reluctant to trade Dunleavy because he grasps the offense? Are you kidding me? $10.5 mil/year to grasp the offense? I’m a pretty sharp guy and they’d only have to pay me about $60,000/year to grasp the offense.

  • MikeC. Posted: Jul.29 at 11:26 am
    Forget grasping the offense. Dunleavy spends too much time writhing on the floor grasping his knee.

  • Breeze Posted: Jul.29 at 11:33 am
    Well how i see it get rid of them period because your not gonna win with them and damn dure wont win without them..i think they should get iverson and marbury and shaq …and burn the city down…!

  • J Posted: Jul.29 at 11:40 am
    trade granger.

  • SLAM ONLINE | » Hot Topics Posted: Jul.29 at 11:48 am
    [...] Dunleavy, Ford Gone? [...]

  • MikeC. Posted: Jul.29 at 11:50 am
    We have to find a way to get Dunleavy to the Raptors. I know he’s not European, but he is white. When they traded Turkoglu for Barbosa, it screwed things up for an all-right-if-it’s-all-white rotation. Derozan and Weems were really the last guys that needed to go since they’re starters/rotation players. Colangelo is really screwing up my summer. Now I need to find reasonable trades that move Derozan, Weems and Barbosa for white guys. Turk straight up for Dunleavy would have been okay since it would have been a lateral move, but now BC is making me put in work on the ESPN trade machine. Vujacic and Fernandez need to get into this mix somehow too. I’m willing to give up my day-long dream of seeing Rudy on the Knicks if it means an all-vanilla-gorilla lineup in Toronto.

  • Sparker Posted: Jul.29 at 11:57 am
    time to pull out the weird face photos?

  • riggs Posted: Jul.29 at 12:19 pm
    mike dunleavy is a good player that can be a great role player on a contender

  • abe_squad Posted: Jul.29 at 2:30 pm
    the pacers have to be in the discussion for most irrelevant franchise of the last decade (post-reggie/2000)…outside of a guy punching out some bros in the stands, who cares

  • james Posted: Jul.29 at 3:15 pm
    YESSSSS I KNOW THEY WERE GONNA GET RID OF FORD WHEN THEY DRAFTED LANCE. IDK MAN IF LANCE STARTS N KEEPS HIS HEAD IN THE GAME HE MIGHT END UP BEING ROOKIE OF THE YEAR THIS DUDE HAS SOME BIG TIME GAME!

  • total scrotal implosion Posted: Jul.29 at 3:49 pm
    After batman, rush, murph, and hibbeet everyone else can go. Xcept rooks, give em a chance

  • ConeyIslander Posted: Jul.29 at 5:35 pm
    THEY BETTER NOT END UP IN KNICK UNIFORMS!

  • Waylonakolipse Posted: Jul.29 at 6:22 pm
    They can trade those 2 for a #3 pick from the WNBA.

  • BackInBlack Posted: Jul.29 at 6:32 pm
    VON WAFER 1-YEAR DEAL WITH THE CELTICS!!!!!

  • Donovan Posted: Jul.29 at 11:23 pm
    Who in the world would take these guys? they arent bad players it’s just that they are two soft players who fall apart easily. they should go to the suns and get rejuvenated.

  • hoopistani Posted: Jul.30 at 4:16 am
    “The Pacers don’t feel comfortable going into next season with their current roster.” - hahaha… Pacers haven’t felt comfortable with a roster since 2004

  • BossTerry Posted: Jul.30 at 4:22 am
    I know, I miss 90s basketball… Imagine if the Knicks and Pacers were battling for best of the east…The Knicks V.S. the Hicks… 2014 perhaps?

  • IndyB Posted: Jul.30 at 9:22 am
    I am not sure 90’s basketball can happen today. Replacing Illegal Defense with the 3 second rule ruined team oriented basketball and made it all about getting the opponent to switch off the screen and then run Isolation off of the mismatch. When was the last time you saw a player come off a double baseline screen for a 3?

  • IndyB Posted: Jul.30 at 9:22 am
    but yeah terry, I miss it too.

  • MAD Posted: Aug.2 at 8:11 pm
    Trade them to the Bucks, for Michael Redd. Bucks would add depth to bench and Redd if he ever recovers could be a good fit on the Pacers. If not let him go next year when his contract runs out.

Comments




The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned: - Personally attack other commenters. - Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation or religion. - Troll, or comment with the intention of creating problems. Trolling includes, but isn't limited to, baiting people to flame at you, encouraging people to leave the site, spamming and using alternate IDs.
Win Kevin Durant Signed Hyperfuses