Good morning. Let’s basketball.

The Pink Orchard; Vincent van Gogh; 1888

And just like that, Pascal Siakam is a member of the Indiana Pacers. After reports surfaced Tuesday indicating active talks between the teams, a deal broke early Wednesday.

The Pacers pick up Siakam, a 29-year-old two-time All-NBA big man, at the cost of three first-round picks, Bruce Brown and Jordan Nwora. The Pelicans sent Kira Lewis Jr. to Toronto as well, and gave Indiana a second-round pick to make that happen. (The Pels are now under the tax line.)

As I wrote on Tuesday, Siakam has not played on a team like the Tyrese Haliburton era Pacers, because they don’t really make teams like this. So we’ll see how cleanly the fit works. Siakam is a great player and Haliburton makes everyone look loads better on offense, so in the basic theory this should be great. But we need to see it to gauge whether the two stars will be greater than their sum or … just their sum.

Reports indicate that Siakam will re-sign with the Pacers this summer. Indiana would likely not have given up three picks without assurances that Siakam would take a max deal from them instead of choosing his team.

About those picks: Two of them are Indiana’s own picks in 2024 (likely to be around No. 20) and 2026 (top-4 protected, probably not great so long as Haliburton is healthy and Siakam stays). The third pick is low-value: it’ll be the worse of the Clippers and Thunder’s picks this year. So it’s likely be in the mid to high 20s. The pick actually stems from the Paul George trade to the Clippers. It went to Denver last summer when the Thunder traded 2023 and 2024 picks for a lightly protected 2029 Nuggets pick, and then the Nuggets flipped it to Indiana in the Julian Strawther deal. (I love draft pick forensics.)

The Pacers draft pretty well overall, but there’s only one risk among the three picks (the 2026 top-4 protected), and it’s not so far out that it will hurt the Pacers’ long-term flexibility. They’d still be able to move more picks and trade swap options if they see an opportunity. The real risk here is paying Siakam a max contract with uncertainty about the trajectory and scale of upcoming salary cap changes. But again, Siakam is a high-quality player and it should work out with Haliburton.

Lost in the equation are Brown (a good player!) and Toronto, who now fully rebuild around Scottie Barnes. Interesting times ahead.

A Tragedy in Utah

Dejan Milojevic, an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors and European basketball legend, died on Wednesday after apparently suffering a catastrophic heart attack during a team dinner Tuesday night during the team’s road trip. He was 46.

The NBA postponed the Warriors’ game against Utah after the news about Milojevic being hospitalized hit, which was a strong indication that something was terribly wrong. The coach’s death was announced a little while later. This is horrifying and traumatic for the team, the Serbian basketball diaspora and the extended NBA coaching fraternity. That the team and his fellow staff members were present when Dejan fell ill, and that it happened on the road, away from his family, just compound the immense tragedy.

My condolences to the Milojevic family, the Warriors family, the Serbian basketball community and all those who have lost someone far too young.

DNP-Ice

Deandre Ayton is healthy and ready to play again for the Blazers. But he didn’t on Wednesday, because he couldn’t leave his neighborhood due to ice. Portland is in a deep freeze, and Portland — unlike cities where this is more common and there is infrastructure to minimize impact — doesn’t handle rampant ice issues well.

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