Practice “Very Important” For Floundering Club

The Pacers’ Caris LeVert is attracting plenty of interest around the league, Jordan Schultz of Schultz Report tweets. His playmaking and scoring ability is highly coveted, according to multiple sources who spoke with Schultz.

A report last week indicated the Pacers were looking at a roster shakeup, with LeVert among the players they’d be willing to move at the right price. He’s averaging 15.5 PPG and 3.1 APG in 28.1 MPG this season for Indiana, which has a 12-16 record. He has one more year left on his three-year, $52.5MM contract.

We have more from the Central Division:

• Pacers president Kevin Pritchard has apologized for his recent comment to The Athletic that the franchise is still trying to “manufacture that real star,” according to James Boyd of the Indianapolis Star. Pritchard took heat on social media for the comment, considering the team has a two-time All-Star in Domantas Sabonis. Pritchard wrote in part on Twitter, “First of all, I believe in all our players and hold them to the highest order. In all honesty, I believe we have multiple ‘stars’ on our team but we all know we need more. We have challenged our players to be better. … Could have used a better word than ‘stars’ probably.”
• Bucks guard George Hill will not play on consecutive days in the near future, Jim Owczarski tweets. He’s returning from a hyperextended right knee and sat out the team’s game against Boston on Monday. Hill played the front end of the back-to-back on Sunday, going scoreless in 14 minutes against the Knicks.
• The Pistons have lost 12 straight and their game at Chicago, scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues among the Bulls. Detroit won’t play again until Thursday against Indiana and that’s just fine with coach Dwane Casey, Rod Beard of the Detroit News tweets. “It gives us a couple of days of practice, which is very, very important,” Casey said.