After working for the team for over two decades, Larry Bird no longer has an active role with the Indiana Pacers. Pacers front office executive Kevin Pritchard confirmed to the Fieldhouse Files that Bird is "not active", but "always available" if Pritchard or the Pacers need help.

Bird stepped down as the president of basketball operations for Indiana in 2017. He said at the time, “It’s a pretty decision for me, at my age and I feel healthy. I think everything came together. It’s just time to go. I really enjoyed it here. I love Indianapolis. I love living here.”

At the NBA's 75th Anniversary celebration during February's All-Star Weekend, Bird was notably absent. The Boston Celtics legend was just one of around 10 living players to not attend the ceremonies.

Bird seems to be enjoying his retirement, spending most of his time at his home in Naples, Florida. He has declined to do interviews in recent years, but did film a commercial for Capital One that aired during the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

The Los Angeles Lakers are well-known to be open to moving Russell Westbrook in the right trade. The Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Utah Jazz are the most recent teams to have talked with the Lakers on a deal involving Westbrook.

Those three teams are all open to bringing on Westbrook, as long as Los Angeles attaches future first-round picks in any deal. Thus far, the Lakers have reportedly held off on including more than one first-round pick in any Westbrook trade.

Indiana has roughly $30 million in cap space, which makes acquiring Westbrook an easier task for them than most other teams. The Pacers and Lakers have been linked in recent trade talks involving Buddy Hield and Myles Turner potentially headed to Los Angeles.

New York would have to send matching salary, including that of likely one or two rotation players. With the Knicks engaged in trade talks for Donovan Mitchell, it's unclear how they would approach a Westbrook trade.

The Jazz could offer the Lakers a package of players, as they are kicking off a rebuild after trading Rudy Gobert and talking Mitchell deals. Utah can't aggregate any of the players they acquired in the Gobert deal just yet, but those restrictions will lift in advance of training camps opening.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers have discussed a trade involving Russell Westbrook and a first round pick for Myles Turner, Buddy Hield and other assets, but those talks are currently dead. 

The package the Lakers have offered has included Westbrook and a first round pick. If the Lakers add another first round pick things could resume, but there currently "at a standstill."

The Lakers previously pursued a trade for Hield before they shifted to a trade for Westbrook last summer.

The Indiana Pacers and Andrew Nembhard have agreed to a four-year, $8.6 million deal. Nembhard was the first pick of the second round (31st overall) of the 2022 NBA Draft.

The deal for Nembhard includes a $6.4 million in guaranteed salary. That's a record amount of guaranteed money for a second-round selected out of college.

Nembhard played two seasons at Gonzaga, after transferring from Florida. In 32 games (all starts) as a senior, Nembhard averaged 11.8 points, 5.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the Bulldogs.

The Canadian-born point guard started five games for the Pacers at Las Vegas Summer League. In those five contests, Nembhard averaged 6.6 points, four rebounds and five assists.

The Los Angeles Lakers appear to prefer a trade of Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving, but with the Brooklyn Nets seemingly unprepared to make such a move until resolving the Kevin Durant situation, Rob Pelinka has engaged on other scenarios.

The Lakers nearly traded for Buddy Hield last July before pivoting to Russell Westbrook and they appear to be attempting to trade for him again now that he's on the Indiana Pacers.

"There is no traction on a deal that would involve sending Russell Westbrook out and bringing Kyrie Irving in," said Dave McMenamin.

"One thing I have learned over the last day or two, tangentially, there has been some talks reengaged between the Lakers and Indiana Pacers. Now, that would center around a Buddy Hield deal and could it be that would include Russell Westbrook in terms of also having Myles Turner in that deal? Or perhaps it could be a secondary move where you would be talking about a Talen Horton-Tucker type of package to try to get Buddy Hield deal so we would see whether that would affect Russell or not.

Deandre Ayton will remain with the Phoenix Suns after they matched a four-year, $133 million maximum offer sheet he signed with the Indiana Pacers. Phoenix never made an offer to Ayton.

"This is a blessing," Ayton told ESPN's Andscape in a phone conversation after signing his contract. "This contract not only has generational impact for my family, but also with the way we are able to work in the Phoenix community and home in the Bahamas. That is the things that we go by ...

"I've come to understand that this is a business. So, I was more anxious to know the end of the result so I could focus, move on and just get back to work. I just treated everything like a business. Just keep being professional, approach everything with professionalism and not looking too deep into it."

James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

Jones noted "negotiation" as the reason the Suns didn't offer a maximum contract to Ayton. Phoenix saved roughly $43 million and an extra year of contract with the matched offer sheet.

"I'm not going to go into the inner details," Jones said. "I just look forward. We had some really robust and good conversations. It ultimately led to him getting a max offer sheet that we matched."

The Phoenix Suns have matched the four-year, $133 million maximum offer sheet Deandre Ayton signed with the Indiana Pacers.

Ayton will remain with the Suns and cannot be traded without his permission for a full year, and cannot be traded at all until after January 15th.

The Suns never presented Ayton with an offer in free agency.

The Phoenix Suns have yet to show any interest in negotiating a sign-and-trade with the Indiana Pacers for Deandre Ayton.

Ayton is expected to soon sign a four-year, $133 million offer sheet with the Pacers.

The expectation is that the Suns will match the offer sheet. Phoenix would be unable to trade Ayton before January 15th.

The Suns never offered Ayton a contract in restricted free agency.

Deandre Ayton is easily the best free agent still available and his market has been slowed due to his status as a restricted free agent and the Phoenix Suns possible pursuit of Kevin Durant. Now, it seems like Ayton is finally getting some movement on his next contract.

While speaking on ESPN's Get Up, Brian Windhorst said that the Indiana Pacers could sign Ayton as soon as Monday to an offer sheet. Windhorst also said a sign-and-trade is possible to send Ayton to Indiana.

The Pacers had to complete the Malcolm Brogdon trade with the Boston Celtics before they could move onto a deal for Ayton. That trade was officially completed on Saturday. The Pacers are now within range of being able to sign Ayton to a max offer sheet, or to work a sign-and-trade with the Suns.

While the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets continue to slowly negotiate a potential Kyrie Irving trade that might necessitate a third team taking on the contract of Russell Westbrook, other deals have been explored.

The Lakers have discussed a Buddy Hield trade with the Indiana Pacers, as well as an Eric Gordon trade with the Houston Rockets. The Lakers were close to trading for Hield at last year's draft before they pivoted to the Westbrook trade. 

"They've looked at other deals," said Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN. "They've continued to, I know, check on Eric Gordon in Houston. That's certainly a player that interests them. Buddy Hield in Indiana. Different kinds of guards. Shooting guards, certainly, both of those players former Rob Pelinka clients."