INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird plans to spend a lot of time on the phone with executives from other teams in the coming days.

“We’ve got a lot of cap space and we’ve gotten a lot more calls,” he said. “It’s interesting. It’s just begun, but we figure in the next week or so, it’s going to be pretty active.”

Bird said he can afford to be extra careful because Indiana will be in a strong negotiating position again next year.

“It might be a slower process than our fans want it to be,” he said.

Bird says he wants to add pieces to a solid young core that features Danny Granger, Darren Collison, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, Paul George and newcomer George Hill. Of that group, only the 28-year-old Granger is older than 26. The Pacers for years have targeted a top scoring option to go with Granger and an elite power forward.

As players began to arrive back at their teams’ facilities across the league Thursday, Bird wouldn’t address the team’s rumored interest in Boston point guard Rajon Rondo and Utah forward Paul Millsap.

“Over the course of the next two or three weeks, you’re going to hear a lot of rumors, and there’s going to be a lot of things out there that’s going to have us right in the middle of a lot of it,” Bird said. “I wouldn’t believe any of it. We’ve talked to teams about players. We don’t like to talk about any other team’s players.”

General manager David Morway said the Pacers will be good, even if they don’t make a move.

“We don’t feel like we are in a position where we have to add a player,” he said. “We’ve got very good players right now at every position on this basketball team. We want to continue to add to this team, but we want to do it with diligence and with prudence.”

The Pacers made the playoffs last season and lost to the Chicago Bulls 4-1. Bird wouldn’t make a prediction about this season.

“You don’t know what to expect because of injuries and different things,” he said. “I know we’re a better basketball team than we were last year when we started, and I think we’re going to be even better after we get through this process.”

The process will be unique because there’s no preseason and the players have been working out on their own.

“It makes it a little bit more difficult, but we spent the summer preparing,” Morway said. “I think we have a good game plan, and we’re going to stay disciplined.”

Once the team is assembled, it will need to adjust to a new coaching staff. Frank Vogel had his interim tag removed in the offseason, and he hired Brian Shaw and Jim Boylen as assistants to go with holdover Dan Burke.

“I think they’re excellent,” Bird said. “I think Frank did a great job of going out and getting some guys that’s been on championship teams. They’re all on the same page. They’re excited about the team. They want to go to work.”

Bird said he’s happy there will be a season, not only for the Pacers organization, but for the local businesses that depend on the team.

“I can tell you there’s a lot of people out of work here,” he said. “I think it’s huge for downtown, and it’s big in a lot of other ways. I like to watch our players compete. I like what I do. But I also know that outside of this building, there’s a lot of people hurting because we’re not playing.”

Bird said he can afford to be extra careful because Indiana will be in a strong negotiating position again next year.

“It might be a slower process than our fans want it to be,” he said.

Bird says he wants to add pieces to a solid young core that features Danny Granger, Darren Collison, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, Paul George and newcomer George Hill. Of that group, only the 28-year-old Granger is older than 26. The Pacers for years have targeted a top scoring option to go with Granger and an elite power forward.

As players began to arrive back at their teams’ facilities across the league Thursday, Bird wouldn’t address the team’s rumored interest in Boston point guard Rajon Rondo and Utah forward Paul Millsap.

“Over the course of the next two or three weeks, you’re going to hear a lot of rumors, and there’s going to be a lot of things out there that’s going to have us right in the middle of a lot of it,” Bird said. “I wouldn’t believe any of it. We’ve talked to teams about players. We don’t like to talk about any other team’s players.”

General manager David Morway said the Pacers will be good, even if they don’t make a move.

“We don’t feel like we are in a position where we have to add a player,” he said. “We’ve got very good players right now at every position on this basketball team. We want to continue to add to this team, but we want to do it with diligence and with prudence.”

The Pacers made the playoffs last season and lost to the Chicago Bulls 4-1. Bird wouldn’t make a prediction about this season.

“You don’t know what to expect because of injuries and different things,” he said. “I know we’re a better basketball team than we were last year when we started, and I think we’re going to be even better after we get through this process.”

The process will be unique because there’s no preseason and the players have been working out on their own.

“It makes it a little bit more difficult, but we spent the summer preparing,” Morway said. “I think we have a good game plan, and we’re going to stay disciplined.”

Once the team is assembled, it will need to adjust to a new coaching staff. Frank Vogel had his interim tag removed in the offseason, and he hired Brian Shaw and Jim Boylen as assistants to go with holdover Dan Burke.

“I think they’re excellent,” Bird said. “I think Frank did a great job of going out and getting some guys that’s been on championship teams. They’re all on the same page. They’re excited about the team. They want to go to work.”

Bird said he’s happy there will be a season, not only for the Pacers organization, but for the local businesses that depend on the team.

“I can tell you there’s a lot of people out of work here,” he said. “I think it’s huge for downtown, and it’s big in a lot of other ways. I like to watch our players compete. I like what I do. But I also know that outside of this building, there’s a lot of people hurting because we’re not playing.”

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Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cliffbruntap

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

As Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge aggressively pursues possible deals for Rajon Rondo(notes), the Indiana Pacers have emerged as an intriguing suitor for the point guard, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

For the past few days, Pacers officials – and third-party surrogates – have been making calls and gathering information and insight into Rondo’s reputation as a teammate and leader, sources said.

The Pacers and Celtics have discussed the preliminary framework of a deal, but two sources said Indiana would need a third team to provide Boston with the talent it wants to do a deal. The Celtics are likely trying to gather the necessary pieces to make a bid for Ainge’s ultimate target: New Orleans point guard Chris Paul(notes), sources said.

Chris Paul might be the ultimate target for the Celtics in their trade talks.
(NBAE/Getty Images)

It was unclear if the Pacers had begun to reach out to broaden discussions, but there was an expectation they would do so.

The Celtics have been gauging Rondo’s trade value for more than a year, and have held discussions with teams about him across the past few trade deadlines and NBA drafts. There have long been divides within Boston’s front office, coaching staff and locker room about Rondo. He can be moody, difficult and stubborn, and several league sources were dubious if the Pacers’ young coach, Frank Vogel, would have the stature to deal with Rondo.

[ Related: Top 15 NBA free agents: Who tops the list? ]

Boston could be trying to gather players to make a more attractive bid for Paul, sources said. New Orleans has shown no interest in a deal that would include Rondo and any combination of Celtics teammates. Yet, New Orleans GM Dell Demps is determined to get maximum value for Paul, if it’s clear the point guard sees his future elsewhere. Demps has no desire to simply let Paul walk away as a free agent to New York.

Most teams in the league are engaging New Orleans about Paul, whose intentions are to get to the New York Knicks as a free agent in the summer of 2012. Paul does have some history in Oklahoma City, having played there with the Hornets in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but the Thunder have resisted dialogue on a Paul-for-Russell Westbrook(notes) deal, sources said.

The Thunder are prepared to make Westbrook a substantial contract offer – probably a maximum deal – in the near future.

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The Indiana Pacers do not have a lot of bad contracts on the team, rendering the amnesty clause expected to be in the NBA’s upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement all but useless (if the two sides are even able to come to an agreement, that is). The likeliest candidates if they do use it, however, include Dahntay Jones and James Posey.

The most likely options for each team’s amnesty clause were broken down by ESPN basketball experts Marc Stein and Chad Ford on Monday morning. An explanation of what the amnesty clause exactly entails is included at the top of the story.

Analysis: The Pacers’ financial flexibility is as enviable as any team’s in the league. Larry Bird and David Morway have gradually cleared away all of Indiana’s bad contracts and head into the next free-agent period — whenever it arrives — with a ton of cap space. As a result, Indy doesn’t have to amnesty anyone.

But the Pacers are weighing whether to cast aside Jones, who has two years left on his contract compared to Posey’s expiring deal. The ability to wait, however, makes it more likely that Indy saves its amnesty clause for the summer of 2012, since the Pacers could well struggle to spend all the cap space they have going into this season.

Indy Cornrows, SB Nation’s Indiana Pacers blog, weighed in on ESPN’s analysis as well.

Letting Jones go may surprise some considering the energy boost he provided toward the end of the season when Frank Vogel added him to the playing rotation. Good, bad or indifferent, Jones has a big presence in the Pacers locker room. When things are going well that can be a positive presence and good impact on the team. But if the Pacers did in fact tag Jones for amnesty, it may indicate the team would prefer a role player with a little less influence on the mood of the team.

For basketball fans, it probably doesn’t matter who this clause is used on as much as that there’s a season so the Pacers even have a chance to use it.

INDIANAPOLIS — Players on the Indiana Pacers are trying to stay ready for the start of the NBA season — whenever that might be.

With players’ union and owners failing to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, the league has postponed training camps and canceled some preseason games.

The main challenges for many players this summer were to stay in shape without the summer league and to improve without input from coaches.

Lance Stephenson and Josh McRoberts stayed in Indianapolis, while Paul George went to Los Angeles to work with Danny Granger. Several Pacers worked out together last week at Butler University.

“It’s starting to hit everybody,” Pacers guard Paul George said Saturday night before playing in a charity game in Indianapolis. “Once you start canceling games, the season is looking like it’s going to be shorter and shorter. You can only just continue to keep working on your game and hopefully, we can ride this thing out.”

The Pacers went 20-18 to close the regular season last year and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2006.