 What's the word y'all? Pascal Siakam is now a part of the Indiana Pacers. Now, we kind of had an idea this trade was about to go down. Yesterday, Shams tweeted that the conversations were very fluid and that three first round picks were involved. And the moment I read that tweet, I said, there's no doubt in my mind Pascal Siakam is about to be a part of the Indiana Pacers because anytime you can get three first round picks for an expiring contract, you pull the trigger and they did. I was so confident in it that I woke up this morning and I was like, you know what? I gotta wear my Pacers gear. It is the only piece of Pacers merch that I have because this was the last time that they was, anyway, shout out to the Pacers. They did the deal. Pascal Siakam, as far as we know, and I always gotta say as far as we know, Pascal Siakam was the number one potential trade piece on the market and he's gone. He's an indie and that sets, maybe sets the market a little bit and we'll kind of talk through some of those things. And I say as far as we know, because I had no idea that Kevin Durant was gettable a year or so ago. So you never really know the trade that line. They just get kind of crazy. Here are all the details. The anti-outpacers are finalizing the trade to acquire All-Star, Ford, Pascal Siakam, the deal that was sent Bruce Brown, Jordan Ward and three first round picks to surround a Raptors. New Orleans will be a third team of the deal sending Kira Lewis to the Raptors. Three seconds on that, every NBA tax nerd in the world knew that the Pelicans were gonna trade Kira Lewis to give them under the tax and they did that in this deal. Now, Indiana is sending two 2024 first round picks and a 2026 first round pick to the Raptors. One of those picks is their actual pick and then another one is the worst of a Utah, Houston Clippers OKC pick, which is gonna be at the tail end of the first round because OKC and the Clippers are both very good basketball teams. All right, so those are all little details and that 2026 first round pick because it's been about an hour since the trade has gone down it doesn't like there's any protection so that's completely unprotected. And again, we mentioned that the Indiana pick is unprotected too but the Pacers are a playoff team at the moment and acquiring Pascal Siakam, you would assume that stays the case. So we're talking about some picks from the Indiana perspective that maybe not something you care about whatsoever because you don't pull off this type of trade without the assumption that you're gonna be able to retain Pascal Siakam. Now, if that's not the case and Pascal walks in free agency then we look at this trade differently but as of right now you gave up Bruce Brown who you gave that bag to this office and a lot of people question that he's been looking pretty good but it wasn't a guaranteed contract for the future. You turn that plus Jordan Warrow who sometimes in the rotation sometimes not in the rotation to Pascal Siakam? Oh, it's gonna fit like a glove. A lot of y'all know that the Indiana Pacers as of right now are the best offensive team in the history of basketball. It's kinda skewed because of the pace and everything but as of right now that's factually true. They are the best offensive team in the history of basketball and now they add a little bit more fuel to the fire. Again, under the assumption that Pascal will resign this feels like a no-brainer and it's very on brand for the Indiana Pacers to do something like this. Other than last year because Tarris Halliburne got injured the Pacers has always been a team to build towards the middle. They're never gonna be really, really bad and then boom, they're gonna make some trades. They're gonna do this in order to hit that next step. We saw that when they traded All-Star the Matissa bonus to the Western Conference in exchange for this young guard that looked pretty good throughout his first year and a half and Tarris Halliburne, now he has blossomed to an All-Star potentially multiple time All-Star. Not potentially, he is a multiple time All-Star and they set pat on all of their assets because before this trade they had from 2024 all the way to 2030 as far as their own draft picks. So they were just playing around with house money at this point. Who is a person that we believe can help us hit that next step? Should we sit on our assets and wait into the off season or should we acquire a guy right now because we're damn good right now? And the answer is let's acquire him now because who knows what can happen? You get him in the door a couple months early you showcase hey, India's the place to be you play a couple games, 20, 30 games with Tarris we make a little playoff push you ain't even thinking about free agency. Well, the alternative is you let him hit free agency you try to acquire him then but he might have hair lunch in Detroit with these 64 million dollars he might have hair lunch and Philly would have a much money they gonna have so you get him in now to say hey, we traded these assets for you because we really believe in you for the now and the future and there's no better place than here in Indianapolis. I just love the NBA so much because there are so many different ways to make things happen. If you look at their roster I mean they have Tarris Halliburton who they acquired via trade they have Benedict Matheren who they drafted obviously they acquired OB Toppin they drafted them hard and they second round they had this pick because last year they fell off they acquired Buddy Heald they acquired TJ McConnell again Bruce Brown who they picked up in free agency and then flipped him. Jordan Rurra, Aaron Neesmith who was a part of the Malcolm Brogdon trade and a lot of people thought that the Pacers didn't get anything back and now Aaron Neesmith is a quality NBA player they acquired Jalen Smith and Myles is like one of the soul draftees that are actually like getting real, real PT so they've always been Jim Boylan is on the I did not know Jim Boylan was on the staff, okay? Again, it's just another way to make it happen we don't need to bottom out every single season to get a star because we can trade for one we don't need to do this, do that we're gonna be consistent give our fans a good product and then when the time is right we pounce and that's what they did with Pascal Siak now it's probably gonna be a minute since we see these guys together because Tyrese Steele with his injury I think it's a hammy and a hamstring injury can go a lot of different ways but eventually we will see these boys on the court together and I think that number one offense of all time is just gonna be better. I mean, right now the top two of fast break teams in all the basketball is the Toronto Raptors because of course Pascal Siak and Scotty Barnes are on the team and then the Indiana Pacers and now we're taking away one of the best fast break players in the league right now and add them to one of the fastest pace teams of all time this should just be really, really good and though he might not be as good of a defender now as he has been like two to three years ago Pascal Siak obviously is an upgrade defensively for a team that lacks a bunch of long defensive players I mean, Pascal Siak is definitely and because you've been able to build your team without having really good draft spots and things like that you feel comfortable giving up these picks because again, this year we're a playoff team that other pick was like we don't really care about the 23rd, 28th overall pick and then in 2026 you just assume you assume that with good health and resign a Pascal Siak we're gonna be in a playoffs again so let's pull a trigger with the Raptors I'm just happy they did it but that was conversations about the alternative of not trading him letting him play the season and trying to resign him in the off season with the idea that we can flip him for something even more if he's under a long term contract and I'm like bro, please just give the keys just give the keys to Scotty Barney and let's Scotty be the guy and now he's completely got that you get a contract that is expiring or an option in Bruce Brown you determine whether or not he can be a part of your core slash future and that's something you decide after the season and then you get three first round picks the same thing we just mentioned with the Pacers though I mean those picks at least if everything goes perfectly aren't very super valuable high picks but who really knows? This is an organization that drafted O'Gianna Nobby with the 23rd overall pick and drafted or that they trade for Pascal so y'all come on draft mine either way at the end of the first round I think number 26 or 27 so they've been relatively successful in the spot now recently it was like Malachi fling over Desmond Bayne so it hasn't been 100% hits but this is a spot that they've been pretty comfortable with and have had success everybody's gonna keep trying to compare it to I guess what they could have got last season if they make the trade but without us knowing exactly who was interested or what they were potentially willing to give up it's hard to really say I mean I have been a guy that said that they should have made these adjustments make these trades back last season but better, better late than never because they waited too long on Fred Van Vleet and then Freddie just walked for nothing so being somewhat proactive is better than not I guess and now this puts you in a place where obviously it's not a full reset because you did get a player back in Bruce Brown and then the previous trade you got RJ Barrett and you got Emmanuel quickly and you still have Scotty Barnes so it's not like it's a complete reset but nonetheless, that is a way for you to I guess get rid of a little bit of talent and maybe that sacrifices some wins and maybe you get some extra lottery balls so your own first round pick being better is probably the best pick you get in this trade it just feels good to be here, honestly, honestly because last year I sat on this channel that until OG or until Pascal get traded I will not be reading no mock trades with them because I'd never really know what Masai and was it Bobby Webster I'd never really know what they got planned and what they had planned was making these two trades and these two trades are pretty different, right? The O'John and Obie trade net at zero first round picks and I'm assuming, I'm just assuming that because of the teams that were interested in him that they could have got some first round capital but instead they opted to get real players that can help and be developed in Canada right now and Emmanuel quickly and RJ Barrett while the second trade of Pascal Siakam is mostly draft capital versus getting back the players now again, Bruce Brown is a good NBA player and maybe they try some Kara Lewis Jr minutes here and there but the first trade was players the second trade was picks and I kinda like that balance but the market is set, the market is set and again, and now that we've seen OG and Pascal fall the next name that is high on the priority list to be moved is probably Dejante Murray because his contract is really nice and again, he's a good NBA player I wonder what that means for his market I wonder what that means for a Zach Levine market Yeah, bring it into the bulls baby and maybe the three first round picks for Pascal Siakam is the anomaly but a lot of people believe that because he wasn't expiring a deal the return wasn't gonna be too crazy right and now that we see that those first round picks are not maybe as valuable as the number says three first round picks sounds like a ton but you think about where they're projected maybe not that much maybe he's the anomaly because the Pacers have full confidence that they'll be able to resign him and here's a tweet from Mark J Spears that said new Pacers for Pascal Siakam just got off a phone call with Rick Harlow and President Kevin Pritchard Siakam maintains his bird rights with the Pacers who are expected to resign him in free agency appears doubtful that he'll play in the next game but I like this trade a lot more for the Pacers than I do the Raptors I think the Raptors did okay but I love this trade for the Pacers because they get a guy that at the age of I think he's turning 30 this year so you get him now before 30 and it doesn't feel as though Pascal Siakam's game will translate that in the next three years or so because I'm assuming that contract is probably three to four years long when you resign him he feels like a guy that will be consistently in these conversations for being an all-star caliber talent even if he never makes it again because the East is gonna be crazy and he will be again the number two option behind Terry's Halliburton even if he never makes it again we know that the talent is gonna be there and given that the Pacers have been a team ran this specific way I love this a lot I'm giving it like an A minus and for the Raptors I'm probably giving it closer to a B, B minus because again even though they have had success drafting any spots it's not like you got a pick that projects to be a lottery pick so only time will tell I edited this video and I've been just thinking I'm lower on this trade for the Raptors now after editing and re-thinking about it because there is a world that in a couple years you don't get anything tangible for Pascal Siakam who's one of the greatest players in your franchise history you did not get Jiris Walker which I thought was a guarantee in Australia you didn't get Benedict Matherham which is less of a guarantee so you got three first round picks that are probably late first rounders and obviously those are no guarantees I think I said B minus originally it's probably a C bro maybe I'm being generous I don't know again only time will tell what they use the picks to get in this draft they also traded their pick their own first round pick now that I'm thinking about they traded their own first round pick for Yaka Perdell because they thought that this draft class was trash so you just acquire you just acquire two picks in the draft class you thought was trash last year I'll talk about it more later haven't really been on Twitter or social media a lot today it seems like the Warriors lost their assistant coach Deckey which I didn't expect to read that right now some fortunate but that's not what this video is about I was just saying my prayers to his family to the Warriors organization and everybody impacted by his passing man that's super young alright let me know what you think about the Pacers and the Raptors deals I will be talking about it more on the Kenny Beatson podcast a little bit more in depth when I get my mind around it in a few hours so links is in the description to the Kenny Beatson podcast