Chase Budinger Provides Solid Depth For Indiana Pacers

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Chase Budinger
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Pacers have been extremely busy this offseason, and that trend continued this afternoon. According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Pacers have agreed to a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves that will bring veteran small forward Chase Budinger back to Indiana in exchange for second-year player Damjan Rudez.

Rudez had become a fan favorite with the Pacers during his rookie season, which has made the immediate reaction to this trade mostly negative. Despite the immediate reaction, this is a very good move by Larry Bird and the Pacers. Budinger has shown throughout his career that he can knock down the three-ball with consistency, and will also bring more athleticism to the court than Rudez would have.

Frank Vogel and the Pacers are preparing to play a much faster offensive tempo during the 2015-16 season, and Budinger will fit very nicely into that type of a system. Rudez simply wouldn’t have succeeded playing much faster than Indiana did last season, and that is a big part of the reason that this deal was made.

During the 2014-15 NBA season with the Timberwolves, Budinger averaged 6.8 points and 3.0 rebounds in 19.2 minutes per game. He has dealt with injuries over the last two years, and that is a big reason that there is concern surrounding this trade. Even though injuries can be a big issue, Budinger showed a much improved version of himself in the last two months of the season.

Budinger averaged 13.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game in the month of April. He didn’t look to be bothered by his health concerns at all, and he knocked down an impressive 45.5 percent of his three-point attempts. If he can stay healthy, Indiana would be very lucky to have a player of that caliber coming off of their bench.

This could say a lot about the Pacers’ thoughts of Solomon Hill‘s Orlando Summer League performance as well. He looked awful to say the very least, and Budinger could take over his minutes.

That being said, this move should be one that Pacers fans come around to when they see him on the court. He has had a full offseason to get his body right, and Indiana was interested in acquiring him last offseason as well. It is obvious that Bird believes he can play at a high level for the Pacers’ bench, and the fans need to trust in Larry Legend.

It will be interesting to see what type of production Budinger puts up for the Pacers. He isn’t an acquisition who will be asked to make or break the Pacers’ season, but he will be yet another solid role player who helps them get back into the playoffs. When everything is said and done, this move is a good acquisition and Budinger has a chance to turn his career back around with a sizable role off of Indiana’s bench.

Evan Massey is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.

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