The Eastern Conference is about to get a whole lot more competitive at the top once a reported trade of Luis Scola to the Pacers comes to fruition.
Yahoo Sports reported earlier that the Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns are in the late stages of negotiations of a deal that would send the 33-year-old veteran forward to the Pacers in exchange for Gerald Green and possibly a draft pick or picks.
UPDATE: The deal is for Green, Miles Plumlee, and a lottery-protected 2014 first-round pick, according to Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
How will this tip the balance of power in the East?
Well, we already saw this spring how dominant the Pacers can be with their fearsome twosome of Roy Hibbert and David West along the front line. The New York Knicks couldn’t contain those two in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and it took the eventual champion Miami Heat seven games to dispatch the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals when the primary backup at the power forward position was Tyler Hansbrough.
But Hansbrough (who has since signed with Toronto) averaged only 12.7 minutes during the playoffs, and Ian Mahinmi logged only 8.3 minutes as the backup center behind Hibbert.
Scola has the ability to play either power forward or center, and he possesses one of the most polished low-post offensive repertoires of any big man in the league. The Suns acquired him on a waiver claim after he was amnestied by the Houston Rockets, and he has two years remaining on his contract.
If this trade goes through, you can put the Pacers right up there with the Brooklyn Nets as the team that has improved the most during the offseason. Remember, they also signed Chris Copeland away from the Knicks, and they reached into Brooklyn to sign C.J. Watson as the new backup behind George Hill at point guard, replacing D.J. Augustin.
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Gerald Green is going to do much better in Phoenix. His time with Nets wasn’t a fluke. He just needs to be a key player.
One sure conclusion I can draw, is that Paul George isn’t going to Lakers with the team the Pacers have put together.
Not sure why people are assuming that Heat will finish #1 in East. I see Nets and Pacers competing for #1 and Heat and Bulls competing for #3 in East. Heat will relax after winning 2 championships – nothing to prove.
Post season is another story.
Update: Pacers gave up Miles Plumlee and a 1st round pick too!!
Good move for Suns future. Plumlee should be a nice backup NBA Center. Looked good in Summer League. But when people see how well GG does in Phoenix, this trade will be questioned.
So Indiana get better, by getting older and forfeit a backup Center in Plumlee.
Brooklyn Nets get older, with more talent than Scola (Pierce, KG, Kirilenko, Terry, Alan Anderson and Livingston) and haven’t surpassed the Pacers? Nets had same record as Pacers last season and Pacers were 0-5 in head on with Nets/Celtics!!