A report surfaced in the early days of free agency that the Pacers were trying to trade for Suns guard Goran Dragic, but that’s all we heard from the traditionally reliable sources.
There was no mention of who Indiana was willing to part with, and the details remained undiscovered.
But with Dragic overseas preparing to play with the Slovenian national team in the FIBA World Cup that tips off later this month, we got some additional information on how far the Pacers were willing to go — and if the reports are to be believed, Roy Hibbert was part of the offer that was ultimately rejected by Phoenix.
Among other things, the Phoenix for Dragic offered Roy Hibbert and Chris Copeland . “And some money,” says Dragic, who he’s interest in Indiana, a transfer from probably nothing will : “According to my information, in Phoenix say they will not accept offer. “
As always, we recommend using extreme caution when taking into consideration reports from foreign websites that were translated into English. And of course, Hibbert’s contract is almost double that of Dragic’s, so other pieces would have needed to be included for a deal like this to take place.
But the short answer as to why Phoenix said no if in fact this was actually discussed is that Dragic is a better player, on a better contract.
Hibbert didn’t do the Pacers any favors in the second half of last season in terms of his trade value, when he struggled mightily and looked like a shell of the dominant player he was the season before.
As far as this particular trade offer, it’s worth noting that teams have conversations all the time involving a variety of assets, and those talks rarely get to the formal offer stage. But simply looking at the money owed to each player along with how they performed last season, it’s easy to see why the Suns were far less motivated to execute a trade like this.
