MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Timberwolves agreed Saturday to send Chase Budinger to the Indiana Pacers for Damjan Rudez in a swap of small forwards, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been finalized.
Budinger was beset by knee trouble for most of his stay in Minnesota and was unable to deliver on what he or the team hoped for after signing him to a three-year, $15 million contract prior to the 2013-14 season. Budinger will make $5 million in the last year of his deal, but the Timberwolves found the market rather cool for a player so racked by injuries the last two seasons, despite the lure of an expiring contract.
In Indiana, Budinger will join a revamped Pacers team that's planning to play at a higher tempo after trading plodding 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert to the Los Angeles Lakers and losing hard-nosed power forward David West to the San Antonio Spurs in free agency.
If he can stay healthy, Budinger's ability to move without the ball and read cutting lanes should fit well in coach Frank Vogel's offense with veterans like George Hill, Monta Ellis and Paul George. In three seasons with Minnesota, Budinger played in only 131 of a possible 246 games. He was originally acquired right before the 2012 draft from Houston in a trade in which the Wolves sent a first-round pick to the Rockets.
Budinger finally began to show flashes of the effectiveness expected in the last month of the season as he finally got his legs underneath him. He averaged 6.8 points and 19.2 minutes per game last season for Minnesota.
But the Wolves are in the throes of a youth movement, and Budinger was buried on the depth chart behind younger and higher-profile players at the wing position like Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad. So he told the Timberwolves at season's end he wanted to be moved to a more veteran-laden team.
Rudez shot 40.6 percent from 3-point range in 2014-15, his first year in the NBA after coming over from Croatia. If he stays with the Wolves, he would be a big boost in the shooting department for a team that was among the worst in the league from long distance last season. The 29-year-old Rudez, who is listed at 6-foot-10 and 200 pounds, averaged 4.8 points and 15.4 minutes last season for Indiana.
The deal was first reported by FOX Sports 1 NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.
