Pacers moved James Wiseman at the trade deadline, intend to call up Jahlil Okafor for 10-day contract

Making sense of the Pacers' cap situation, their decision at the NBA trade deadline, and the search for more depth at center.

The Pacers were quiet at the trade deadline, as expected.

You make calls and you field calls, but that’s every day. Most of all, teams want to understand what other players are available and how other teams view their own.

Options were limited at the trade deadline because of the Pacers’ cap situation. Most of what they did was in the summer when six of their own began new, larger contracts. That includes Tyrese Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith, both of whom agreed to those deals before the season. Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, T.J. McConnell, and Obi Toppin all received new contracts too.

After a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals last spring, the team elected to run it back and their actions at the deadline reinforced that. Like team president Kevin Pritchard has stated before with previous teams, he listens to the locker room and also believes teams deserve to see how far they can go

That was again the case here.

Yes, I believe owner Herb Simon when he says he’s willing to pay into the luxury tax again. But no, it’s not worth it right now. Not when you’re not a contending team just yet. You don’t want to pay it until you really need to because then there’s a repeater tax the following year.