INDIANAPOLIS, IN - OCTOBER 17: Mike Conley #11 of the Memphis Grizzlies looks on prior to the game against the Indiana Pacers during the game on October 17, 2018 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

Zach Lowe of ESPN lays out why Mike Conley still makes sense for the Indiana Pacers, as well as the difficulty of making a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Are the Indiana Pacers still interested in trading with the Memphis Grizzlies for Mike Conley?

According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, the Pacers were thinking about making the deal, but for a number of reasons, the buzz around the deal is fading.

The mix of Conley’s contract concerns as well as the mechanics of the potential trade doesn’t make it easy for the Pacers and Grizzlies to pull off.

Building an offer is tricky. To make the money work, Indiana can really offer only expiring contracts, and all of the movable ones are linked to primary ball-handlers: Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, and Tyreke Evans. (The Pacers want to re-sign Bojan Bogdanovic, also working on an expiring contract, sources say.) They could toss in their 2019 first-round pick, but that may not be of much interest to the Grizzlies. Adding Aaron Holiday gets you close — and maybe all the way there — but it also costs yet another ball-handler. They could find a third team to supply some matching salary, so they could keep one of those point guards. In any case, the current buzz is that Indiana has stepped away from Conley talks, sources say.

The three veterans are one thing — there’s no indication that re-signing with the Pacers is in their plans — but giving up Holiday is giving up youth Indiana might need if ultimately a Conley-Victor Oladipo pairing isn’t as fruitful as the Pacers hope.

On top of that, Lowe posits that the Grizzlies might want Domantas Sabonis as part of the deal instead of a middling first-round pick. That’s a much tougher choice for Kevin Pritchard.

A conundrum for the Indiana Pacers

If the Pacers get want to get older, more playoff-ready and trade for Conley, that very much makes their window with him and Oladipo very much right now.

The problem, as we all know, is we don’t know for sure what Oladipo will be like when he comes back next season.

If they skew older, they can’t wait on Myles Turner (and Domantas if he weren’t traded in this Conley deal) to hit their peaks. They’d need them (or one of them) to be ready to take over as one of the team’s best players — in every sense of the word — now.

But if they leaned into the eventual primes of those Turner and Sabonis, you’re very much hoping Oladipo’s body and game holds up as he goes into the final years of his next contract.

Regardless of trading for Conley, that’s the difficulty that comes with gap between Oladipo and the team’s two centers. If they trade for Conley, that only makes the need for competing now even stronger.

If the Pacers trade for Conley, he is a big upgrade for Indiana, but acquiring would limit the money the Pacers could spend in free agency when summer comes.

All of that is hard enough in a world where Oladipo is healthy, but it is even more difficult to know what free agents think of Indiana right now.

Other notes

Lowe mentions that Indiana considered an offer sheet on the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon last summer and that they are looking at Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks as a potential free agent signing this summer.

We had Gordon on our summer wish list for Indiana, so that’s no surprise, but seeing Middleton’s name is newsworthy.

Middleton’s scoring (17.4 points per a game) would boost Indiana’s struggling offense and his defense couldn’t be any worse than Bogdanovic’s. Though Lowe mentioned Indiana’s showing interest in re-signing Bojan, they would likely prefer a more well-rounded scorer who is a little younger.

If the Bucks are successful in the post-season, the prospects of Middleton signing are weaker, but money talks. If the right deal is there, perhaps he can be lured away from a good situation in Milwaukee.

The trade deadline is on February 7th at 3:30 p.m.