NBA Rumors: The Indiana Pacers would be making a huge mistake if they ended up trading for Cam Johnson.
After emerging as one of the most disappointing teams in the Eastern Conference through the first two months of the season, the Indiana Pacers, to their credit, have looked like a completely different team since the middle of December. Over the last 13 games, the Pacers are 10-3 and have begun to make a strong move up the Eastern Conference standings. As the Pacers begin to turn their season around, there is a team that could be looking to make a sizable move at the trade deadline to help their chances of breaking through in the East this season.
Per Marc Stein, the Pacers are another team that has joined the pursuit of Cam Johnson ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline. As the Pacers look to make an aggressive move at the deadline, you can't help but question whether a move for Johnson would move the needle enough for the team.
According to recent reports, there are some who believe the Brooklyn Nets are asking for two first-round picks in exchange for Johnson. Ultimately, the Nets will likely end up settling for a young player and first-round pick. But, either way, that's still a significant ask for a non-star player. For a team like the Pacers, who are not considered to be one move away from championship contention, they need to be extremely careful with how aggressive they are in their pursuits for Johnson ahead of the deadline.
What is the ceiling for the Pacers with Cam Johnson?
To be perfectly honest, even if the Pacers were able to acquire Johnson without touching the key components of their team, I still have a hard time imagining they could compete with the other contenders in the conference. Even though they made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the conference is much more competitive this year.
Much of the talk out East continues to revolve around the Boston Celtics. However, the case can be made that the Cleveland Cavaliers are the much better team at the moment. Whether or not they'll be able to put it all together once the playoffs start remains to be seen but they're certainly playing the better brand of basketball at the moment.
En route to the ECF last year, the Pacers beat a wounded Milwaukee Bucks team and a flawed New York Knicks squad. With all due respect to both of those teams last year, the case can be made that there are at least three teams (and perhaps even five) that are better than Indiana's two postseason opponents from a year ago. On top of that, the Pacers aren't playing at that high level this season.
I can't imagine Johnson changes much of that. And if the whispers are that Indiana is going to have to trade significant pieces for Johnson, which is probably the case, this is a move the Pacers should stay away from. I understand the Pacers' desire to go all-in with a splash move at the trade deadline but Johnson is not the difference-making player that the team perhaps believes he is. Johnson could be the final championship piece of the puzzle for many teams; I'm not sure if the Pacers are one of them.