Today is the day of Woj bombs. Yahoo Sports guru Adrian Wojnarowski owns NBA Draft day, and after a momentous Wednesday before, he’s kicked off the festivities today with report of a trade:
Brooklyn has traded forward Thad Young to the Indiana Pacers for the 20th pick and a future 2nd rounder, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 23, 2016
This one is an interesting one for the Pacers, who are looking to build something after their recent trade for Jeff Teague. There’s a good chance Larry Bird isn’t done yet. After sending Frank Vogel packing and hiring Nate McMillan, plus these two trades, Bird is making good on the scoring-first vision he espoused when the Pacers’ season ended after a first-round playoff loss to the Toronto Raptors.
With the No. 20 pick in a class that isn’t especially deep, Bird was going to have limited options in the draft tonight, so getting Young seems more suited to his approach anyway. Teague and Young are a couple of veterans who have tasted the playoffs before, and Larry Legend seems bent on making a dent in the Eastern Conference as soon as possible. Bird has alluded to moving Paul George up to power forward and even center recently, so don’t be surprised if any more moves he makes are in a small-ball vain, which these two newest trades certainly keep in play.
