What the Indiana Pacers 2024 NBA Draft picks mean for free agency: Johnny Furphy, TJ McConnell, more

What the Indiana Pacers 2024 NBA Draft picks mean for free agency: Johnny Furphy, TJ McConnell, more

what does the Pacers draft mean for their free agency plans do any of their moves have any effect on anybody who could or could not be back what decisions were made Friday what’s coming Saturday fre agencies right around the corner there’s a lot to talk about in pacland and we’ll get to it on today’s locked on Pacers podcast you are locked on Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the lock on podcast Network your team everyday what up y’all happy Saturday got to do bonus pods the roster moves are coming and welcome into another edition of the lockon Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always my name’s Tony East I cover the team for Forbes and Si and today we have a lot to talk about more on the draft and what it means for the Pacers upcoming week of free agency maybe less than I originally thought but we’ll see as we dive into it plus other moves that happened on draft night that I either thought were interesting or I would have done if I were running the Pacers storylines to watch the next couple days ahead of the 30th um there’s a lot to get to decisions are reportedly being made or not reportedly being made about players and their player options and the guarantees and everything and we’re going to cover it all on the shorter weekend bonus lock on Pacers let’s start with the draft if you’re wanting more on the Pacers in action the first night or their picks last night Johnny Fury Tristan Newton and Enrique Freeman yesterday shows for you with analysis from our lockedown hosts who covered Newton and fury in college today we’ll look forward a little bit we’ll dive into those players in mid July when the action dies down and summer league is over let’s start with what the Pacers draft picks could mean for free agency right every year they pick a player or two that maybe signals a bit about what to expect for the Pacers in the coming free agency period who could or could not be retained if you’ll recall you know years ago when they traded Aaron holiday to get the Isaiah Jackson pick it was pretty clear that night that okay TJ McConnell’s probably more likely to resign than Doug mcder right that was a very revealing one of many uh instances where the draft was telling for what was coming for the Pacers in the free agency period and that has remained the case many times throughout the years of the Pacers the only one that was not particular ring was the Goa baz pick but year after year you can tell something about oh you know he here comes jarus Walker and they’re finally going for fours or okay here you know here comes Ben Ma and Buddy hee might have a different role you you just you understand stuff you can see what’s coming and so let’s start with the draft from M night I think Fury is very interesting as a starting point because he plays the same position as Doug mcder and Kendall Brown and there is at least a decent projection of him as a shooter not a great one yet we’ll see I want to see him play more before I say anything about how I feel about it because again I haven’t had time to watch him yet but shot it okay in college and a lot of people say he looks like a good shooter stats say he’s a good spot up guy and good in transition and he’s a wings siiz player so naturally you gravitate towards Wings towards shooting and the thought with the Pacers already is and Jaylen Smith matters for this calculation but they only have three or four roster spots and you bookmark one of them for Fury and you bookmark one of them for Obi toppen and maybe one for James Johnson maybe not we’ll see and then if Smith Ops out you might want a third big as the Pacers there’s your whole team you’re done and so that does not leave a spot for Doug McDermot right that would be uh one interpretation of the move we just saw where they draft Johnny Fury as they have a new younger Wing in the door and they would lose one out the door now the other interpretation could be and again I don’t know you know how the Pacers feel about keeping Doug mcder Kaylin Cooper and I both predicted on our player season review that it made less sense to keep him this Summer given how his season went and how his apparent fit looked like on the floor as a good shooter you know if he’s on a minimum deal or is not expected to play it’s fine but that’s not what we’re here to necessarily talk about if they decide to keep mcdermit though Fury in for Kendall brown spot also could make sense I bring that up to say it’s possible already that both of them are gone and I think the addition of Fury only increases those uh to the mix right I think that that uh the chances that one or both of Doug mcder and Kendall Brown are on the opening night roster next season took a hit uh I’m going to go back to something I talked about on yesterday’s show Julian Phillips right he was the 35th pick last year where Fury just went uh and he signed with the bulls on a four-year Deal over8 million but only 5.7 million guaranteed I bring that up to say his first year salary in that contract was 1.6 million even if that doesn’t sound like a lot it’s not that’s 500,000 less than Kendall Brown and so if you’re the Pacers managing your resources and thinking about what you need to do to keep top in and maybe Jaylen Smith opts in we’ll see again we’ll talk about him in a minute uh you know that savings could matter that could allow you to do something later in the season with your mid-level exception or make a different kind of trade to create a trade exception there’s just a lot of ways that it could in theory be something that matters and so I think Kendall Brown and J and Doug McDermot a wing getting picked does not bode well for them in free agency those would be the two most direct hits I think it also makes like a veteran addition on the wings less important if they’re going to replace one of them so um positionally I think the biggest losers from the Pacers best pick of the draft would be those two guys who are already guys that I think their future or at least their offseason prospects of of returning or getting some money guaranteed were already tough but Kendall Brown again just guessing based on his guarantee dates would have a chance in summer league or in training camp if he makes it that far to prove Pro that he belongs on the team his contract is still very cheap and only very lightly guaranteed until January 7th so uh we’ll see where that ends up heading but that would be my Fury analysis Tristan Newton at pick 49 a point guard they like point guards on two-ways or the guards in General on two a if you would like to go back through the years for proof it’s not very hard to look at Devon Reed and Edmund Sumer one year and then the next year they have nasm trong and then the next year uh they they had guards until they had to wave them for Amita bryman they had Jaylen lq and then the next year they had Gabe York uh and before Gabe York they had Dwayne Washington and I I keep going through the years Gabe York again the next year two ways and the guards Trevin Queen uh am I missing anybody Isaiah Wong last year it it makes sense to have that if you can develop a ball handler that’s great if you can have and if you have an emergency at point guard you need someone who can do something that knows your system that doesn’t suck uh they learned that the hard way with Brad Wanamaker in 20 whatever that was they had to they let him go for kefir Sykes who was also on a two-way I believe I can’t remember what his contract status was but they needed a point guard at all so Tristan Newton on a two-way makes a lot of sense given their history I only say that to say if there was a chance Isaiah Wong was going to be retained it probably hit zero when Newton got picked because now they have that point guard on a two-way and they made another pick right after which also would eat into a two-way slot um that’s an I already thought won’s chances being back were pretty low he got picked very late in the draft he was the 55th pick last year uh 55 I believe 55 he was a very late pick last year didn’t do a ton for the Madden only played in two games for the Pacers and one doesn’t even show up in the stats because the in season tournament championship game um I don’t think he made enough progress in the ways they would have needed him to to want to keep him and they already are running into two-way spot number so Isaiah Wong but via the uh Tristan Newton pick unlikely I would would say to be retained and maybe a hit on Quinton Jackson’s chances of being retained although he was the best of the Pacers two-way players in my opinion by the end of the season so perhaps he could still steal the third one Enrique Freeman doesn’t have a ton of to me direct hits he doesn’t play the same position as sheway or any of the Guard two are on two-way deals last year I don’t think he’s going to get a full roster spot for the Pacers this year unless he’s like incredible in summer league or something like that so that one seems less impactful Maybe maybe you could view it as depth behind Obi Topp and Pascal seak and jerus at the four and they feel less inclined to add an external free agent there but in terms of who they did pick I would say the biggest losers on the Pacers when it comes to upcoming free agency would be Kendall Brown Doug mcder Quinton Jackson and Isaiah Wong uh and they did not add another twoa guys they have an open slot so it’s possible they keep one of their twoa guys from last year but those would be the guys that I think are you know the most impacted by uh the free free agents or excuse me the draft moves the P com some guys had good days or some guys had days that at least make their considerations different going forward in terms of how they’ll think how they’ll be um considered by the Pacers let’s get to those guys next before we do that though we’re going to talk about eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning 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the move with three second rounders for Quinton Grimes hate that trade for the Pistons kah Hill will have more un locked on Pistons great for the Mavs who actually got a good player who’s young and can now keep Derk Jones Jr so the draft is over the Pacers made some picks you know who they didn’t pick in the draft anyone who’s a center maybe Enrique Freeman one day will be buil as a Center but I would not currently slot him there it’s possible I have no idea I need to watch him before I make any sort of decisions on that regardless I bring all this up to say Jaylen Smith was one of the most interesting players to me entering the draft in the considerations for the Pacers he has a player option deadline that if you’re listening to this is actually today it is uh January January good Lord June 29th and today right now I’m talking it’s 3:12 12m on June 28th I bring that up to say perhaps by the time this podcast posts this is outdated because of how fast these deadlines come but Michael Scot reported a couple weeks ago that the early indications were that Jaylen Smith was gonna opt out and he also reported today that uh there’s a chance or he Al he reported today that he’s going to opt out I retweeted it under my feed uh he said Pacers for J Smith is declining as $5.4 million play option but then Scott Agnes reported just after uh I’m trying to find all these tweets very quickly that Jaylen Smith has not finalized a decision regarding his player option that was about an hour ago to right now so I bring all that up to say that’s still as of me talking right this second maybe not when this is published be talking right this second TBD uh I could not get any confirmation that he chose to opt out at this time again we’ll see I’m bring sorry to to do too much detail on Jaylen Smith you’re gonna hear a segment about Jaylen Smith on tomorrow’s podcast for sure so the draft was interesting to me with him because I wondered if there was a chicken in the egg situation going on here with Smith his player option date was after the draft right and so there are a lot of things for him to consider in free agency money is obviously a factor duh but so is playing time and so is a potential starting spot and proximity to home and all sorts of stuff that players consider when they’re picking their new team and Jaylen Smith I don’t know where the Pacers currently view him but was the backup center a lot of last season if he knew he’d be the backup center in Indiana maybe he’d opt in maybe he thinks he can get more money by opting out he shot very well last year right Scot straight up in his tweet put his percentages in there because he shot it extremely well from the field 4 59.2% from the field 42.2 42.4% from De I’m all over the place right now Jaylen Smith is relevant because I wondered in the draft if he would look around and say oh they didn’t pick a center now I have a better chance of being the backup maybe I’ll stay versus if the Pacers did pick a center he could opt out and say oh they have too many centers they might not prioritize me this year but the other thing was if he opted out before the draft the Pacers chances of picking a center or need for Center would have gone up in the draft right so there’s a little bit of like Chicken and the Egg what came first scenario of do the Pacers pick a center to get him to opt out if they want him to do they pick a center because they think he’s opting out do they not pick a center because they think he’s opting in or do they not pick a center because if he opts out they can save some money there there’s so much interesting Dynamic to me between those two things they did not pick a center in the draft and so should Jaylen Smith opt out you could consider him a winner for this for the Pacers in free agency right I put good day for sticks in my notes in instinctively after the draft yesterday instinctly whatever I cannot get this segment straight and if if he wanted to stay if his if his gut feeling wanted him to stay but maybe it wasn’t his best long-term decision not picking a center certainly helped Jaylen Smith I would say but if you’re the Pacers and you have to think about the tax and how that’s going to look with with Obi toppen and can you add any other players besides toppen if Smith Ops in and you’re close to attack you have to the roster spots if he Ops out and you have Miles Turner and Isaiah Jackson and you’re comfortable going small with toppen or seak at the five might be okay with him opting out and then not resigning and if you’re Jaylen Smith then you can get close to what you’re making now but with another team but you guarantee yourself playing time or you can get I’m making these numbers up I have no idea what Jaylen Smith fore agency is going to look like what if he can get two for 10 somewhere else right and if the Pacers he’d get one for 5.4 but then maybe not play as much and then not be able to get 4.6 next year right if he get two for 10 is that worth it to him so there’s a lot for him to consider about not just this year but his long-term earnings because he’s young and possibly playing time right because he could be the third center for the Pacers I’ve rehashed this a lot and we’ll go into more detail on it once his decision is finalized but if you’re the Pacers you might be okay with that because if your proximity the taxs if he opts out you get more flexibility to keep topping and maybe add another like interesting enough player that could actually help you should they be needed uh and you’d have more resources to potentially fill the third Center roll on the team so I the the fact that they didn’t draft a center was interesting to me and I wondered what dynamic that would have with Smith we still don’t know as of me talking right this second right this second but I do think if he if his gut wanted him to stay with the Pacers regardless of his contractual future them not picking a center was a good day for him specifically everyone else on the team free agency is not not really a key factor I don’t think Obi toppen had any change in his Outlook from the draft they did not pick a four fur he’s not playing right away at his position um and the other free agents on their team were not really dependent on the draft which is only James Johnson of the guys left and T.J McConnell wasn’t getting waved anyway so uh also this episode’s coming out on the 29th maybe earlier on the 28th um I haven’t even checked to someone on this so there’s a chance that I just the next 20 seconds of me talking looks super dumb but the Pacers would look super dumb in turn uh T.J McConnell’s contract becomes fully guaranteed at midnight tonight 9 hours from around this episode might even be up before that he’s not gonna get waved it’s just pointless um he would make 9.3 million this coming season he gets five million of that either way and you can’t do better with 4.3 million than TJ McConnell and that’s all they would save and they’re over the cap and they can’t replace him they’re not going to wave him there’s nothing even to say there’s nothing even for me to check on uh congrats to T.J McConnell on getting his contract guaranteed his extension is actually much more interesting than than his guarantee date and we all know that they didn’t pick uh they did pick a point guard but not one who’s going to be good likely during McConnell’s contractual time with the Pacers not much more to add on that so I bring that up to say that’s everybody who has free agency implications for the Pacers McConnell Smith Kendall Brown Doug MC durman Obby Topp and James Johnson in the two- ways so the winners B by a small margin Jaylen Smith and the losers McDermot Brown all the two-way guys basically of course the winners the guys who got drafted and will be with a team in the NBA next season and I think Johnny Fury is going to get if I had to guess six million guaranteed five and a half something like that cap environment matters Pacer situation matters we’ll see where that ends up shaking out for him that is certainly number to think about as you bake in the Pacers cap in tax space um and we’ll see you on Jaylen Smith tomorrow that will be a segment leading into our free agency preview I’d like to have a guest I haven’t literally have contacting anybody I’ll be out of town this weekend I’ll be on my computer as much as I can so chaos coming for me and coverage of this team coming so other interesting moves that happen to the draft that I want to talk about and then get you ready for a little more free agency stuff by myself coming here on lockon Pacers and we’re back here on lockdown Pacers thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day jump on over to Holy Moly bronny James Stu Stu on lock on Pacers is or lock on Pacers lock on Lakers good Lord could be a place to go um Andrew Wiggins maybe not playing for Team Canada because the Warriors are going to hold him out lock on Warriors could be a good place to go no James brego in the Pistons coaching search talked about that one lots of places to go for your second listen as these transactions flow in shorter third segment to close this one out other stuff that mattered on draft night and looking ahead to free agency a tiny Teensy bit uh moves that I thought were interesting okay first of all we saw Kendall Brown and Oscar sheway at the Pacers facility during the draft if you wanted an indication that they might be on the summer league team and the summer league schedule came out I’ll talk about that in just a second too so uh one thing that happened is the Pelicans in Magic agreed to a trade that to you guys probably meant nothing or was completely pointless and uninteresting uh that was the let me find it 47th pick in the draft the Pelicans traded for it by sending out two future second round pick swaps so they didn’t give up any picks they just maybe made some picks worse I say that to say there’s a chance that that package is valueless and they and that a pick got traded there that was 47 I believe which is before the Pacers went 49 and 50 and I only bring that up to say that is the kind of indication that the second round of this draft did not have a ton of value to teams right everybody’s looking looking for value and cheaper salaries and players but I thought that was a very revealing maneuver about the value of what teams were thinking about uh with these picks that ended up being Antonio Reeves who went to the Pelicans so just keep that in mind that from like maybe pick your number 45 40 onward might not be the most memorable draft the other thing that happened right before the draft is the Hawks and Rockets made a trade that fascinated me AJ Griffin went from the Hawks who to be clear have tax concerns which is a big factor here they sent AJ Griffin to the rockets for the 44th pick I believe maybe 43rd I can’t remember pick in the draft that was stunning to me AJ Griffin was a lottery pick uh in 2022 oh he fell the 16th he was a projected lottery pick that year I liked him for the Pacers quite a bit I had him in my top 10 that year um I think someone in his family passed away right before last season he was much better in his first season than second season he only played 20 games last year there were some injuries he shot 20 9% from the field that obviously stinks but his perception two years ago is pretty good he shot 39% his rookie year and average nine points a game I probably if I was the Pacers would have traded 36 for AJ Griffin myself maybe a different future second form if he was available just take a flyer if they’re giving him away but obviously they can’t offer minutes and possibly he could be the 10th guy in the Rockets I just found that trade very interesting in my own evaluation he’s 20 AJ Griffin is 20 years old right my own evaluation of him would have been to to do that trade I found that to be if you want to talk about stuff the Pacers could have done or that I would have thought hard about the 5 Seconds for 26 I would have thought about but probably not done 36 for AJ Griffin I would have thought about and I probably would have done I think those are the two moves that I thought huh maybe the Pacers could have gotten involved there or thought about doing something similar to that themselves but I did that for the first night of the draft too if you want to go back to Thursday’s podcast to get more there uh okay one more news item to hit today we’ll talk more about summer league closer to Summer League to preview it but the schedule is out uh officially they play the 12th 14th 16th 18th and then a TBD third game or excuse me fifth game My Lord am I all over the place fifth game for summer league they pay Brooklyn Minnesota Phoenix and Denver if you want to catch a sniff there uh the highest profile player they play against might be Don Holmes Rob Dillingham maybe um the the Pacers did not have a first- round pick their opponents do not have very high-profile picks so we’ll be interesting to see how summer league shakes out for them uh the times are all on my Twitter feed we’ll talk more about summer league later this is an early estimate for me about guys that I would think could be on the summer league team I don’t know this yet this is just a guess but my current list is jarus Walker Kendall Brown move King Tristan Newton Johnny Fury Enrique Freeman and then two reported ones from elsewhere Josiah Jordan James who played in high school with Aon n Smith and worked out for the Pacers in the prft process he played at Tennessee the Knoxville News reported he’s agreeing to exhibit 10 with the Pacers and then Scott Agnes reported Lance Jones from Purdue as many of you know uh has agreed to play for the Pacers in summer league I love summer league I can’t wait for that so free agency starts Sunday tomorrow will be a full show about the Pacers Outlook and situation and I did a bleach report live stream on Friday you can find the VOD to that on my Twitter feed talking about that and trade stuff responding to some people’s comments look I still think that the thing to watch is Obi toppen versus an external guy they don’t have a lot of wiggle room to move and Meander beyond that being there thinking unless Jaylen Smith Ops out and if he does which has been the early reporting indications but we don’t know that yet if he does OP out they’ll have a little more wiggle room to do stuff but not a lot not a lot uh and that might be all of the story worth watching as for agency approaches I’m looking forward to it I’m looking forward to seeing if the Pacers can find a way to wiggle their way into a little more Talent or if their Summer’s just going to be Fury in mcdermid out and maybe Brown out for a third Center or Smith out for a third Center uh it’s going to be fun and you know we’ll have all the coverage right here on lock on Pac there’s much more in-depth discussion of all this uh tomorrow with hopefully a guest so Smith Ops and decision and then looking ahead at free agency moves that could happen yada yada yada we’ll talk about all the X Pacers that sign elsewhere and then early in fre agency I want to have a much more detailed discussion about seaka resigning not a ton of time to do that with how many moves have happened in the last week but it’ll be fun this will be fun for everybody and I hope you get coverage that’s satisfying you here on the lockdown page podcast and riding on Forbes and Si thank youall for tuning in today on your weekend hope this was enjoyable informative entertaining back tomorrow talking more Pacers offseason till then everybody have a wonderful day

The Indiana Pacers made three draft picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, including Johnny Furphy, Tristen Newton, and Enrique Freeman. What does that mean for their upcoming free agency outlook? Host Tony East breaks it all down, including the winners and losers on the Pacers roster and among free agents.
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