Despite already having a president and general manager in place, reports indicate that the Indiana Pacers have contacted the Spurs about assistant general manager Dennis Lindsey joining the team in what Yahoo Sports described as “a prominent” front-office job.
Yahoo reported that Jim Morris, who runs the Pacers’ business operations, , sources said. The call was received with trepidation, the sources said, as Lindsey and the Spurs made clear there be no conversations as long as Pacers president Larry Bird and Pacers general manager David Morway still occupied their current jobs.
Bird will meet with Indiana owner Herb Simon in the next several days to discuss his future with the franchise. Bird’s contract expires in July, and league sources believe Simon wants Bird to take a pay cut to continue in his current job.
Yahoo reports the most likely scenario is that the Pacers would like to replace Morway and Lindsey would be their top choice.
Lindsey is a respected NBA executive who has been mentioned for other jobs in the past. Yahoo reported he turned down an offer of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ job in 2009 and pulled out of the Phoenix Suns’ job search last year. Before joining the Spurs in 2007, he spent 11 years with the Houston Rockets.
The Pacers have a good nucleus of young talent that pushed Chicago before losing in five games in their first-round series. It will be interesting if Lindsey has any interest in this job compared with the others he has been involved in, or if he would prefer remaining with the Spurs.