The Indiana Pacers announced on Wednesday that they traded guard Edmond Sumner and a conditional second-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for the draft rights to Juan Pablo Vaulet.
Vaulet currently plays basketball professionally in Greece, so he is likely not a part of the Pacers plans in the short term, and maybe not even the long term — he has never played in an NBA game. In reality, this trade was all about money and roster space for Indiana.
Sumner tore his Achilles last month, an injury that will likely keep him out for the entire 2021-22 season. He had surgery soon after and has been in Indianapolis recently going through the early stages of the rehab process.
Such a lengthy expected absence was brutal for the Pacers and their team-building situation — the organization was operating less than $1 million from the luxury tax line and had few ways to distance themselves from it. Having a player making over $2 million who was not going to play for them this season was not ideal for the Pacers salary cap outlook.
That’s why Indiana brass made this deal involving Sumner. By dealing him to Brooklyn with no salary coming back in return, the Pacers completely removed Sumner’s $2.32 million contract from the books. The deal gives the front office much more breathing room from the luxury tax, which provides the team more flexibility in future moves they make during the season. The front office can now be more creative in the type of contracts they give out, the trades they can make, and the overall team-building strategy they chose to execute throughout the season.
“It’s unfortunate because I think Ed was really on the up-and-up, he was ascending,” Pacers center Myles Turner said of Sumner after the team’s first preseason game on Tuesday. He noted, though, that the NBA is a business. “He had a really great summer and I thought he was going to have a breakout year this year.”
Sumner projected to be an important depth piece for the blue and gold this season. His defensive versatility and offensive burst made him a unique weapon against most opponents, and he had improved every season of his career. He was the perfect Swiss Army knife type of bench player, one who could provide valuable minutes when someone above him in the rotation was injured.
“You can ask him to guard about anybody. He’s a defensive guy for us, an energy guy for us,” former Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren said of Sumner last season. Now, the Pacers will have to look elsewhere for those skills, and it will be more difficult to bring back Sumner in the future without his free agent rights next offseason.
Beyond creating space away from the $136.6 million luxury tax threshold, the Pacers also created a roster spot and a trade exception in this transaction. The trade exception, valued at $2.3 million, gives the franchise a tool to add a player in the future making that amount or less via trade, if they are so inclined.
But that is a lesser benefit for the Pacers in this deal. A larger benefit, beyond the important financial savings, comes from the generated roster spot. That had a ton of value for Indiana since the team was at the current maximum of 20 rostered players prior to the deal. By sending away Sumner with no players coming back, they were now free to add someone to the team.
And the team did so, essentially immediately. In the same press release in which the Pacers announced that they had dealt Sumner to Brooklyn, the team made it known that they were signing journeyman point guard Brad Wanamaker to a contract.
Wanamaker, a 32-year old guard with three seasons of NBA experience, joins the Pacers as a needed point guard reserve. The blue and gold were light on floor general experience behind Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. McConnell — bringing in Wanamaker helps rectify that problem.
“It’s an important position on a team,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of the third point guard role. Carlisle values having a point guard with professional experience on his bench. “The third point guard always gets involved. There’s always a need for a third playmaker.”
Wanamaker can fill that role effectively. He may even be slightly overqualified. Last season, he spent part of his campaign as a backup combo guard for both the Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets, and he has been in the rotation for each of his teams during the last three seasons. Two seasons ago in Boston, the veteran reserve led the league in free throw percentage at 92.6% and canned an above average percentage of his three-point shots. He could be an efficient weapon for the Pacers if he can re-capture that accuracy.
“He’s a physical guard. [he] can shoot it,” Carlisle said of Wanamaker. “He’s a good cutter, he’s a good defender.”
Beyond filling a need on the Pacers roster, Wanamaker believes he is a good fit within Carlisle’s offensive scheme. He joined the Pacers on Wednesday, but he picked up the team’s strategy quickly and hit the ground running. The veteran then had a solid practice the following day and could debut on Friday in a preseason game against the Cavaliers, where he can show the coaching staff how well his skills fit with what they are trying to do.
“I think I’ll fit in great. Just the way they play, the new offense, the pace,” Wanamaker said. “I think it compliments my game pretty well.”
Wanamaker was inked to a training camp deal, per the Pacers announcement, so he will have to battle for a spot on the roster. He mentioned that the opportunity to make Indiana’s final roster was appealing and a big reason why he ultimately signed with the team — and the fact that the front office parted with a second round pick to clear the money, and roster space, to bring in Wanamaker suggests that he has a great chance to make the roster. A spot on the team is his to lose at this point in time.
Fortunately for Wanamaker and his ability to get up to speed despite joining the team late, he has some familiarity with his new club. Pacers assistant coach Ronald Nored was an assistant with the Charlotte Hornets last season, where Wanamaker played for part of the year, and the two have a strong relationship.
“That’s my guy,” Wanamaker said of Nored. “When I came here, we gave each other a lot of love, a big hug,” he added.
While giving up a second round pick to facilitate these transactions is painful for Pacers brass, doing so helped the franchise accomplish two goals: distancing themselves from the luxury tax line and finding room to add a third veteran point guard. The second round pick sent away by the Pacers is actually the Miami Heat’s 2025 selection, and Indiana put protections on the pick, meaning they keep it if it falls between the 31st and 37th selection that season, per Bobby Marks of ESPN. It could end up that the Pacers give up nothing, sans the free agent rights of Sumner, to accomplish two team-building goals, depending on how talented the Heat are in 2024-25. That would be the ideal outcome in Indiana, but making team-building progress still is valuable, even if it comes at the expense of a second-round selection.
Wanamaker has been training in Philadelphia during the offseason, and now he’s in Indiana ready to help out his new team. The Pacers are one step closer to finalizing their roster for the regular season, which begins in just under two weeks, and these two transactions will make the team more prepared for whatever challenges come their way in the 2021-22 campaign.
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