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INDIANA<\/strong> \u2013 The Indiana Pacers<\/a> face an unusual test this season. Tyrese Haliburton\u2019s<\/a> untimely Achilles tear ruined Indiana\u2019s title dreams just short of glory. It also left them without their floor general for a whole year. But the league gives teams a fallback plan. That fallback is the disabled player exception<\/a>, a small lifeline for teams in crisis. The DPE is simple. It lets the Pacers add one player on a one-year deal or trade for an expiring contract. Tyrese\u2019s big contract gives the Pacers power to use the exception on any trade target making $14.1\u202fmillion or less. If they don\u2019t use it by March 10, it vanishes forever. This is pure \u201cuse it or lose it.\u201d The Pacers know they can\u2019t waste it.<\/p>\n Indiana let Myles Turner<\/a> walk to the Bucks. They replaced him with Jay Huff<\/a> but stayed mostly quiet. This silence is by design. GM Chad Buchanan told Setting the Pace exactly why they\u2019re patient.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always going to be, if there\u2019s an opportunity out there to help our team, we\u2019re not going to turn our nose to that. And we have some tools to do that. We\u2019re still below the luxury tax. We have exceptions that we can use as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Buchanan doubled down on how the Pacers plan to use the exception on a trade target:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>We\u2019re going to be scouring the market for a player that makes sense, for a player that can help us, you know people say this is a gap year for the Pacers. We don\u2019t view it that way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The message is clear. If the exception presents an opportunity to strengthen the team, the front office will strike.<\/p>\nThree Targets The Pacers Could Trade For With Haliburton Exception<\/h2>\n
Standing Pat, But Not Passive<\/h3>\n