The quiet moves the Indiana Pacers made to prepare for Pascal Siakam
Can I can I point out two very smart very kind of in the weeds salary cap eccentricities the Pacers went for uh which are indirectly related to this but really help facilitate being able to make a move like this I feel like there’s gonna be some Obby top and mixed
In here no there’s no Obby top and mixed in there’s no Obby top in mixed in uh it is so first of all two years ago the Pacers have all of this cap room and they just go into the season with tons of cap room and eventually in order
They’re like below the salary floor and in order to get to the floor they decide they’re going to use it instead of to trade instead of trading Miles Turner like everybody in the world thought they were going to do for 97 years they decide to use it to ex renegotiate and
Extend Miles Turner and the way they structure the extension is they give him a massive balloon payment raise in that year where they were way below the tax so he gets like 30 some odd million dollars and then in order for him to get all that money up front he takes a
Little bit less the last two years in the extension so he’s making 20 million this year he’s making like 19 million the year after that which is a great deal for Miles Turner and you talk about being able to have that room and have that cap it’s just a fantastic way for
Turner to get the total dollars that he wants and economics 101 is a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow anyway so he makes out great and for the Pacers to be able to have that long-term Financial flexibility when they were going to have to pay that
Money to get to the floor regardless so that ended up working out not well just phenomenally uh the entire way they structured that deal and is a huge reason why they’re able to make this one today the other one last summer the rules change you have to be able to get
To under the new CBA you have to be able to get to the salary cap floor by the start of the Season not by the end of it and so in order to get to the floor by the start of the season because the Pacers have tons of cap room once again
They say you know what let’s go one year just balloon payment to Bruce Brown coming off of a title with him being this essential role player on the nuggets and really helping them in their charge for a ring they give him $22 million for one year so they can
Basically get to the floor and get up there and they say you know what Bruce Brown come on in do your Bruce brown stuff we’ll put a team option on the second year and we’ll be able to trade it trade you if you play awesome will be
Able to trade you to a team that might want the team option because you’re playing awesome or if you aren’t good then you’re a big $22 million expiring salary during a season with tons of teams who are horrified about the luxury tax during all the second and first
Apron restrictions that are coming in and are going to be desperately trying to get off of money in a season where expiring contracts are once again this big fancy thing that everybody wants because they’re trying to get off of all this money so they signed Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown was great for them he was awesome I can’t imagine how he could have possibly been better in the role that they had him in and then they still ended up executing the plan and because they had that Bruce Brown contract they were able to trade Pascal seaka without
Sacrificing what they otherwise would have had if they hadn’t said you know what let’s pay Bruce Brown and they they kind of got criticized initially when the numbers on the Bruce Brown contract came out but it ended up being a phenomenal move I mean that’s that’s the
Money that’s the salary and and by the way not looked at as a bad deal at all I could see Toronto flipping Brown at some point before the deadline and getting a pick back or something like a lot of teams will want that deal so I I just
Two fantastic little moves that at the time seemed like kind of marginal eccentricities but when you hit on those sorts of things then you are able to go get a guy like Pascal SE yakum who’s an awesome multi-time All-Star and a great fit and now all of a sudden you’ve got
This core of really good players who all fit really well together and you’re set up to be good for a little while now and I just I think their little moves along the way have been have been really great no that’s that’s well uh Led Out Fred
Let me end the Pacers segment and I’m gonna add one more thing too Sam yeah and that n Smith ex extension as well where they get him for for 33 over three years and now he is just balling out and playing at a level that is way higher
Than that contract and they know they have locked in him in for for less than the midlevel except too that’s another one
The Athletic NBA Show discuss the Indiana Pacers preparation for a Pascal Siakam trade.
