NBA Trade Rumors: 5 players who need to be moved at the deadline

4. Donatas Sabonis – Indiana Pacers

For an NBA general manager, one of the hardest pills to swallow is when the team you have assembled has reached its potential and is still not winning very many games. All your work has been for nothing and you know that you can either bite the bullet now or just waste more time and money if you try and improve things over the next year.

The Indiana Pacers are currently in this unfortunate position.

They are 15-26 after 41 games and their current roster is full of guys on pretty big contracts that are all in their prime. Indiana has 6 guys earning over $10 million this season, and it’s hard to see any of them getting significantly better. Better to blow up the team now rather than waste time, and this should start with trading Donatas Sabonis.

Sabonis is a two-time All-Star who comfortably puts up 20 points and 12 rebounds on a nightly basis. Although not much of a shot-blocker, he is an excellent inside-scoring presence that can give a team great value for money given that he’s only owed about $50 million over the next two and a half seasons.