Vogel happy Pacers made no deals, surprised by others

PHILADELPHIA – Much like anyone else observing the activity at the NBA trade deadline, Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel watched with astonishment.

"I thought there were a few that raised eyebrows," Vogel said on Friday morning inside Wells Fargo Center.

"I'm not going to mention which ones," Vogel continued, "(but) I just felt like you'd be surprised that they would be ready to move on from certain players. A few different teams. Obviously, seeing somebody like Goran Dragic moved was no surprise because that's been known for quite some time but there were certainly a lot of surprises to me."

The Philadelphia 76ers will face the Pacers on Friday evening a day after jettisoning one of their few recognizable players, reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams. The 76ers, one of the more active teams on Thursday, picked up a pair of first-round draft picks along with oft-injured center JaVale McGee from Denver.

However, the 76ers weren't the only ones treating the final 30 minutes of the trade deadline like a lovesick barfly scrambling to find a date before last call. Miami, Detroit and Boston all made substantive moves; these teams, along with Indiana (21-33), are among the six contenders for the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

"We'll see how it shakes out," Vogel said. "Sometimes it gives teams a boost and sometimes it disrupts continuity, we'll see how it shakes out. I like that we didn't do anything."

Though Vogel did not want to comment on the specific deals of his rivals, his words bring to mind the bad memories of the Pacers last season. Indiana fans understand that a deadline acquisition can look good in press releases but not pan out to expectations, as they should remember all too well how the team dealt away Danny Granger for the former No. 2 pick in the draft, Evan Turner. However, after the deal, the Pacers finished the regular season with a 15-13 record and Turner turned out to be such a bad fit that he did not play in four of the last five games of the Pacers-Heat Eastern Conference Finals series.

This time around, Vogel endorsed the move of doing nothing at all.

"Some of those teams have made trades to change their teams. Obviously, if there was something that would've made us better, it would've made sense to do that but obviously there wasn't. I like the group we have," Vogel said. "We've played (54) games so far and not really seen what this group can do at full strength without Paul George, so we've got a really good glimpse of that the last couple of weeks when we've played good basketball with George Hill at the point guard spot and hopefully we can continue to build on that."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.