Chad Buchanan interview on Setting The Pace
Pacers General Manager, Chad Buchanan, stopped by Setting The Pace for an in-depth interview about the current and future state of the team.
Before the Pacers returned to action from the All-Star break, Pacers General Manager, Chad Buchanan, stopped by Setting The Pace to answers several questions about the team and the season. Chad spoke about the difficulties of making in-season trades, the growth from players on the current roster throughout the season, hosting All-Star weekend and more. It is always a privilege to hear from the Pacers front office, to get a better understanding of how they’re envisioning the team they’re wanting to build for the playoffs and for years to come. So, without further ado, here is a majority of our interview with Chad Buchanan:
Alex: “I wanted to ask you about this amazing weekend and get your thoughts overall on the All-Star weekend.”
Chad: “Yeah, this doesn’t happen very often, the last time it was here was decades ago, so when it does present the opportunity to host the NBA and the pro basketball community and showcase the Pacers, our city and our state to the world, it’s a great opportunity. I really feel like our organization, our ownership, all of our staff, and the fans especially put their best foot forward and made a great showing for the weekend.
I got a lot of great feedback from players, other executives, and media, agents, about our city and what basketball means to this community and this state. They could feel it when they were here. Mother Nature tried to rain on the parade a little bit, but that didn’t stop our fans and the enthusiasm for the event.
We had great attendance at every event that was offered, really really a lot of pride coming from our organization as to how the weekend went. I know it means a lot to our owner, Mr. Simon, and his family, to showcase the Pacers to the world was a great opportunity. I think it was a phenomenally fantastic weekend for us.”
Facci: “One thing that I personally loved was how the Pacers honored their legends of the past. How important was it to the franchise to do that?”
Chad: “We had an event reception for all of our alumni on Thursday night. Just getting to meet, I hadn’t met a lot of those guys before. I wasn’t here when they were playing, they had retired by the time I got here, so it was my first time to get to meet some of those guys. Their feeling of affection towards the Pacers and the community and the city is still there.
To have them back all in one spot and to see them interact with each other, some of them hadn’t seen each other in a while, to see them reconnect was a really special moment for everybody. To have them recognized on All-Star night during the game was super cool. Putting them all upon stage there and recognizing each guy was really a lot of pride for this organization. It was great seeing those guys back.”
Alex: “It was really fun to see Benn Mathurin shine in the Rising Stars game, I loved the back and forth that he had with Jaden Ivey. I know you talked about how Mathurin has that dog in him, is what he did with Ivey, having fun with a little trash talk there, is that kind of who he is?”
Chad: “I think there is certain moments and certain matchups that bring that side out in him. It’s all in good nature. He has a lot of respect for Jaden as a player. Obviously, there is competitiveness between both guys, both ways. I think it’s all good natured, but you get him in a competitive environment with the whole world watching, there’s a different side that comes out in any competitor, and you saw that with Bennedict that night.
I think he was anxious to show what he could do on that stage with the other great young talent and great young players in our league. I know the cameras caught the interaction there with Jaden, but I know there is mutual respect on both sides, and it was kind of a fun-loving moment in the heat of the game that got magnified a little more than it should have.”
Facci: “From training camp till now, what is some of the progress that you’ve seen from this Pacers team that’s really stood out, that’s got you very excited about the outlook of the team in the future?”
Chad: “Yeah, from the start of the season to now, obviously our roster looks a little different. Our team is playing a little different because of some of the roster moves, but we’ve seen evolvement, especially in our defense that continues to make little strides here and there, which is important to us. Obviously, that was not our strength earlier in the year, and it’s still not a strength of ours, but we’re trying to make it to a level where we can be competitive in a playoff setting and that just takes a little time, a little chemistry with guys, so we’re seeing some progress there which is good. We’re seeing progress from individual players.
I think you see Aaron Nesmith, Jalen Smith, those guys in particular, really had good seasons up to this point. Seeing them take the next step in their evolution as players. Tyrese has taken another jump. Integrating some new players, especially when you integrate a big piece like Pascal, that takes a little bit of an adjustment, because you kind of rock the boat a little bit with that. Obviously, Buddy’s not here now, so you’ve taken another piece, an offensive weapon off the team.
It’s been a little jolt to the system for our guys, it’s going to take a little time for them to adapt, but I’m pretty confident with our coaches and our players that they wanna make it work. We’ve hit a little bumpy spot here coming into All-Star break, I think our guys were a little tired, like everybody across the league is, but I think we needed the break and hopefully we come out of the break recharged and ready to go.”
Alex: “You guys do trade Buddy Hield on the Trade Deadline Day, there had been questions all season long on whether or not an extension would get done, or if he would get moved. He eventually gets moved but was there ever a trade potentially earlier in the season that was there, but you didn’t want to move him, because you felt like you had a good thing going and didn’t want to ‘upset the fruit basket’? And then what led to the decision to actually move on from Buddy?
Chad: “I think at the beginning of the season our goal was to keep Buddy. We had talks with his representation about a contract extension with him. That was our goal and I think that was his goal as well. Sometimes the business of basketball doesn’t always allow the stars to align, so we played that out. As we got to the point where we knew how Buddy felt and where things were at with his contract situation and looking forward, it became clear it was probably best to try and find a trading partner for him.
It’s a hit to our team obviously because of his shooting and what he brings to our spacing for everybody else on the floor, but we had to weigh: do we keep this group together and see what we can do, or do we prepare ourselves for the inevitable at the end of the season? And that’s tough decisions.
Buddy’s such a great guy. His spirit and personality are a big part of our locker room. Sometimes like I said, you gotta make tough decisions along the way when you’re trying to build a roster and when the business of basketball comes into play, it causes you to have to do some things that are maybe not ideal for your team but are best for you hopefully in the long run.”
Facci: “When you talk about a tough decision, this season has had quite a few of those. One of those was that decision to kinda push the chips in a bit more and go after Pascal Siakam. Could you give us a behind the scenes view of when those initial conversations started to when they finished?”
Chad: “I would say the initial conversation can date back to 18 months. The trade deadline a year ago, we tried to express some interest and try to find a way to trade for him then, but Toronto wanted to keep him. Obviously, he’s a great player and they were not wanting to move him. Those carried on into the summer a little bit, they were still wanting to hang on to him, but they knew how we felt about him.
He’s a guy that we have chased for a little bit here. Just a little patience for them to be willing to really be serious about moving him and obviously he’s a foundational player. He helped them win a championship and he’s been with them his entire career. That’s a hard player for any organization to wanna move on from and he’s a terrific play still and a terrific person. He’s a player that we felt fit our culture, fit us positionally and fit us how we play. His skillset compliments our best player, and there were just a lot of boxes that were checked with him that we felt really made him a prime target for us if he ever became available.
It’s hard for us to go get a high-high level free agent. So, we gotta try and trade for those guys or draft them and develop them. So, here’s one that became available and there was an opportunity for us, and we felt like we wanted to be aggressive. Like you mentioned Michael, putting in a lot of chips, we put in a lot of draft capital, we put in a couple players that were Bruce and Jordan, who had value in themselves for us. We just wanted to be aggressive.
It was time to see can we elevate this group a little bit and open up our window moving forward with this group and adding a player with his caliber it’s hard for us to do. When those guys become available, usually there’s 8 to 10 teams that are lined up to get him and there’s other teams if you’re throwing a draft capital package in the deal, there’s other teams out there that can beat us, because of the draft capital that they have stored up in their chest. It takes a lot of stars to be aligned to be in position to get a player of his caliber and it felt like this was the time for us to pounce and I’m really glad we did.”
Alex: “You talked to us in the summer about how free agency is not being as impactful as it once was. Did you guys view this Siakam trade as basically your free agent signing for this summer?”
Chad: “That’s a great way to look at it Alex. As you look into this summer, we would have had decisions to make on several key players if we kept this roster together. This was a chance to be proactive in adding a player now that gives you a chance to you know, our intention is to hopefully, well we are optimistic to keep Pascal moving forward. But it’s being proactive when you have an opportunity to pounce on a guy who’s available and you have a package the other team likes that you can go get. So many guys are signing extensions now and these guys are just hard to get as free agents anymore. This was being preemptive and trying to land a guy that we feel can be a big piece of what we’re doing moving forward, and that’s why we did it.”
Facci: “I felt like the front office was very adamant that they wouldn’t include their young core in trade talks for Siakam. How important was it for the front office to hold strong on that front that those players wouldn’t be involved in that deal?”
Chad: “It was a very important factor in those talks. Jarace, Benn and Drew are young guys that we have drafted and we’re not ready to turn the page on those guys yet. They’re all still young, developing players, that 5, 6, 7 years down the road, that’s when they’ll be in their prime. Who knows, maybe one of those guys or multiple of those guys can turn into a high-high level player that we’re trying to go trade for right now like we did with Pascal (Siakam). We went through a lot of losing to get a couple of those guys and we still believe in those guys and want to continue developing them as Pacers.”
Alex: “I saw a picture of Pascal Siakam’s locker next to Jarace Walker. Was that intentional and what relationship do those two have?”
Chad: “It wasn’t intentional, because either Bruce or Jordan had a locker next to Jarace, but we liked how it worked out where they’d be next to each other. Pascal came into the league as a raw young talent and went through some time not playing and spending time in the G-League, and we felt like he could really give Jarace some advice or input on what he went through as a player. Pascal demanded respect from everyone the moment he walked into the locker room. He comes in with a status but doesn’t carry himself that way. From top to bottom in the organization, he’s gained instant respect with what he’s displayed. Super happy he’s with us, super happy.”
Facci: “One of the players you made a commitment to was Aaron Nesmith. This contract is looking like an unbelievable bargain for the Pacers. Can you talk about that commitment made to him and how you’ve seen his game blossom this season?”
Chad: “He’s been a fantastic story for our team. He’s a terrific guy number one, he’s a guy that’s easy to root for. He comes in everyday and what you see when you watch us play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse it was you watch everyday at practice, in the weight room or in a workout. He attacks everything with a tenacity that’s hard to replicate. That’s the type of pieces you need around superstar players. You need guys that don’t care about the credit and are willing to do all the hard, nitty-gritty work. He’s worked quietly behind the scenes on his game. He’s become a solid, physical defender and is a guy who embraces doing stuff that other guys don’t want to do, and he does it every night. You can never say he’s not bringing 100% intensity every night. To see him get rewarded with a contract extension, we knew we wanted him long term and we would have given him a 10-year extension if he would have taken it or if we were allowed to. We wouldn’t be where we are today without Aaron Nesmith.”
Alex: “Do you see Jalen Smith as a longterm piece with this team and does he have starter potential?”
Chad: “I hope Jalen is here longterm. He’s really stepped up this season. His catch and shoot has been terrific. That’s a big part of his confidence this season compared to last season. When you see the ball going through the net and making shots, it tends to elevate the rest of your game. We’ve seen him become a more impactful defender. He’s rebounding the ball well, he’s physical around the basket and he’s just maturing. You can see him developing out of the like I’m a young colt and developing into more of an adult and I’ve got my man strength and more games under my belt and I understand what coach wants from me and how to play with other guys.
The question on whether or not he can be a starter, with how young that he is, there is no ceiling. He can be a starting four or a starting five, he has potential to be either one if he continues down this path. Hopefully he is with us here moving forward. Really happy for him. A great-great young man who loves being here in Indiana and has really embraced the work. He spent all summer here in our building. He didn’t go spend the summer on the beach in LA or Miami, he was in our building working everyday. That’s the blue collar mentality that he brings and it’s benefited him this season with how he’s performed.”
Chad talked about other topics on the episode, and you can listen to that in full wherever you get your podcast. However, this episode was unavailable for YouTube as it was not a video recorded interview.