The Indiana Pacers have some work to do if they want to be seen as legitimate title contenders.

With a pair of routs during the NBA Paris Games — losing by 30 and two days later winning by 38 — the Pacers are now at 24-20 which is good for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.

At 8-2 in the last 10 matchups, the Pacers are certainly doing something right, but to compete with the top-tier of NBA talent come playoff time, a roster edit or two might be necessary.

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A name that has been thrown around is rotational piece Obi Toppin.

Continuing his solid play from last season, Toppin is putting up 10 points and four rebounds per game on 54 percent shooting during his second season in Indiana.

The 26-year-old has recently been predicted to get dealt before the Feb. 6 trade deadline in exchange for another bench piece.

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Pacers receive: Grayson Allen

Suns receive: Obi Toppin

The Phoenix Suns are in a similar position to Indiana as they see themselves as contenders, despite being the No. 8 seed in a stacked Western Conference. This can be a mutually beneficial trade.

Allen is a three-point specialist leading the NBA in three-point percentage last year with a 46 percent average. Putting up 10.9 points per game, he can be a similar scoring presence to Toppin but with the ability to spread the floor in a more efficient way.

Indiana is also 20th in the league in total three-pointers made per game this season and would love to have a deep threat on the bench in Allen.

Although it would be hard to part ways with Toppin, making a trade now may be the best time to do it given his current value. Additionally, there are a lot of forwards on the Pacers roster, and making this trade gives more opportunity to others to get minutes while adding a piece that makes them more of a contender.

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Indiana has joined the ranks of US states that will take a fresh look at online gambling legislation aiming to authorize and regulate the market segment during 2025. Indiana State Rep. Ethan Manning, a long-time backer of online gambling expansion in the state, has introduced House Bill 1432, an omnibus measure of gambling-related topics, including the approval of online poker and other casino-style online games.

Manning has sponsored or backed several previous gambling measures, the last of those coming in 2023 with his House Bill 1536. Manning’s new measure, HB 1432 (2025), had been teased earlier in January but was finally introduced on Tuesday, then immediately assigned to the House Committee on Public Policy, which Manning chairs.

Manning is also the sponsor of a second bill regarding charitable-gaming initiatives that will also receive early-year attention before his committee. Both gaming-related bills are scheduled for initial discussion on Tuesday, January 28.

iGaming returns to Indiana’s legislative debates

In 2023, Indiana had been considered one of the US states most likely to approve online poker. The state had been a relatively early adopter of online sports betting, and iGaming in Indiana appeared ripe for a similar run toward approval. However, a prominent corruption scandal involving another gambling-expansion proponent sent the state into a cool-off period, legislatively speaking, and Manning’s once-promising bill was allowed to expire and an informal moratorium on the topic went into place for all of 2024.

The issue, which lawmakers believed put a temporary taint on iGaming in Indiana, was the charging of one-time State Rep. Sean Eberhart as part of a scheme to benefit Spectacle Gaming, a former provider of off-track betting services at a small number of northern Iowa venues.

As part of the scheme, Eberhart lobbied and advocated for slashing or eliminating fees connected to two gaming licenses to be acquired by Spectacle. In return, Eberhart accepted the promise of a future position with the company with an annual salary of $350,000. In late 2023, Eberhart agreed to plead guilty and was ultimately sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence of year and a day.