San Antonio Spurs Trade Doug McDermott to Indiana Pacers
As I write this, the trade deadline has officially come and gone. But that didn’t stop teams from making some last-second deals. One of those being the Spurs sending Doug McDermott to the Pacers for Marcus Morris, a second round pick, along with some cash. Shams from The Athletic was the first to break the news.
For the Pacers, this trade is clearly to try and replace the loss of Buddy Hield. More specifically, his shooting. While it’s hard to replace the kind of shooting Buddy Hield gives you(arguably the best in the NBA currently). Doug McDermott should come in and serve that role rather well.
He’s a career 41.2% from three, shooting 43.9% this season. He won’t ever give you scoring volume that Buddy Hield could. But McDermott is more than capable of hitting an open shot and commanding the respect of defenses.
Which, at the very least, should help negate the spacing issues that initially arose from losing Hield. Again, it’s not a perfect replacement for Buddy Hield, but it does at least soften the blow a little bit in terms of the amount of shooting you lose.
As for the Spurs, well, who really cares? Not to sound gloom, but I mean, this season is all about developing Victor Wembanyama and your young talent. They aren’t going to be competitive, and the addition of Marcus Morris won’t change that.
Nor will the loss of Doug McDermott hurt them in any real way. Spurs are still rebuilding, so getting even a second out of this is solid. It’s gonna be a lot of losing, so might as well stockpile those picks while there valuable.
But nobody has had a crazier day than Marcus Morris, who has been traded twice in the span of about 6 hours. I’m not even sure he got to Indiana from Philadephia before he was sent to San Antonio.
The career journeyman already had seven teams under his belt, but now he can add two more, I guess. Even though he didn’t play a single game with the Pacers. We all know it’s a business, but that’s still one crazy day for Marcus Morris.
Overall, I don’t think the Pacers become a lot better after this move. It was more so a move made to alleviate the loss of a previous trade. Which, to its credit, it does perfectly. But if shooting starts to become an issue for this Pacers team, this could be the day people look back on as why.
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