Indiana Pacers offseason lookahead: Considerations in free agency/extensions for Pacers players

Indiana Pacers offseason lookahead: Considerations in free agency/extensions for Pacers players

it’s off seon time let’s preview the summer ahead for the Pacers what the GM said about it all the key internal decisions the Pacers need to make all the contract rules you need to know to be prepped for the Pacers offseason all coming today on the lockon Pacers podcast you are locked on Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your Team every day what up y’all happy Thursday and welcome into another edition of the lockon Pacers podcast where are 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 are officially pivoting to offseason mode we covered the playoffs we covered the season we broke down the playoffs with Jay now we pivot to off seon mode got to look ahead what’s coming for the p this year especially internally with their own free agents what did they say about it what could it look like what how will these decisions be thought of internally can’t wait to break it all down a little draft stuff today not a lot uh and then we pivot to a summer of offseason podcasts here uh the season review series will be back looking back at every player so still some stuff to talk about from the last season and we’ll look ahead at the decisions the Pacers need to make in free agency so that series that you guys like every year going through position by position what the Pacers will be looking at we’ll start next week uh less draft stuff significantly less because they have no first round picks at all uh so get ready for all that I know people really enjoy that kind of stuff and I hope that some of my expertise with the cap stuff can make these interesting discussions to get you thinking about the Pacer summer and if you don’t mind for 10 seconds I would like to say thanks for listening this season it’s a very fun year I’m very very fortunate that I got to cover this team in person this year a lot and for all of the playoffs and that wouldn’t be possible without you guys listening and rocking with me every day and now you want to hear about the offseason we’re going to talk about it Chad banan spoke to us Tuesday uh for his exit interview and I’m going to Loop that in with all the stuff that I think matters a great deal for the Pacers in the summer we’re mostly going to look on this show at their internal players with decisions this year not so much externally in terms of what they could add that will be for a different show and we look at Key dates and Key Resources the team has and I think the biggest thing from exg interview and this is a no du kind of decision Pascal cakam is trying to keep him as Priority One for the Pacers they will do everything they can they’ll bust out all the stops Tyrese Howton expert recruiter who got Aon to sign a Max here and or was part of that at least and has been all about that will’ll do everything he can to make sure SE yakum stays if I had to guess right now my guess would be that Pascal seak signs a contract with Pacers already seen sham Tran a report that that you know could be a thing that happens with the max offer that is Priority One for the Pacers is is making sure he stays on whatever deal uh it requires they’ll do what they can to keep he was great for them in the playoffs he’s a wonderful player uh and that was something Rick Carlile said the very first thing he said in response to a question tyres Halbert was asked about it and Chad Buchanan made it clear they would like to keep him um this season uh the other thing Chad Buchanan said that of course was important is if they’re going to make additions defense is going to matter right the defense in or externally will m matter but if the team’s going to make additions or what they need to add to the team he said the defense was the top thing on that list and they will be aggressive if the opportunities present themselves now here’s a thing about Tony East I used to use the word aggressive a lot so if you wanted to dunk on me and say you used to do this you could that word in and the Lexicon of the NBA is meaningless to me now what is what does it mean to be aggressive and you like what does that actually entail because to me like sometimes very minor moves are very aggressive like salary dumping CYO Lewis to get out of the tax in in mid January like the Pelicans did it’s kind of aggressive you got to duct the tax at some point they did it way earlier than they had to because an opportunity presented itself who knows what else could have been out there if they waited till the trade deadline like that does that no one thinks of it that way but I do um but anyway usually what people referring to that means is like a big massive trade with lots of stuff or lots of talent involved and I get that um and the other part of the opportunity and I asked this question because I was personally curious about it is the luxury tax which is now a thing the Pacers have to think about this season we’re not going to cap stuff specifically today that will be on a different podcast um but it could be a factor this summer depending on the decisions the Pacers make and uh Chad said that the Simons are supportive and would pay for the tax for a title if the right move is there that gets them there this is what I expected the answer to be by the way uh they would do that some of you might roll your eyes at that answer and say I shouldn’t I don’t care they should pay the tax every year and be as good as possible and it’s great that the Warriors have done that and the Clippers have done that let me tell you a little bit why you should care if Chad is not offering lip service Chad we Canon is not offering lip service with an inser and that is actually true the Pacers are willing to pay the tax for a title team if they avoid doing so when they aren’t a title Contender their repeater tax clock starts later which does matter because the NBA’s tax rules are changing I believe it starts this year it might be next year I can’t remember a lot of the CBA stuff is rolling out slowly and it actually makes it less punitive to be just over the tax and in the tax but barely so you pay less in taxes um but you don’t obviously don’t get the tax revenue from other teams but you know if that is less of a change in your financial circumstance more teams might be willing to just barely climb over but if you do it a couple years in a row or a certain number of years within a fiveyear span the repeater tax kicks in and then those do become more stringent taxes you have to pay more and so I understand the thinking that is always said of well fans shouldn’t care an owner should play taxes every year and blah blah like yeah that’s true but if if it is true that an owner is more willing to pay the tax for a good team that’s worthy of it then I think fans should care a little bit that the team does it the right year for the first time because then the repeater clock starts as late as possible and that extends the window of how long a team is willing to spend and be as good as possible but that’s just my take on that I get it um regarding Obie they loved his fit they loved his work ethic and his culture fit with the team and specific quote from Chad buen and quote would like to continue the relationship with Obi toen which is significant heading into the summer that’s all the like big picture stuff that will matter for the discussions we’re gonna have on this podcast obviously he said all the stuff in way more detail you should watch the whole EXs interview if you can they posted it on YouTube but now let’s discuss that Pacers actual summer and their own things this is just going to be a look at the Pacers decisions with their own players that are coming this summer I have eight buckets there’s really nine because there’s the draft to sum that up they have the 36th pick 49th pick and 50th pick those come with no predetermined cap hits uh and those could be any number of players on the second night of the draft really hard to get into what that could be specifically but expect very slightly more than a minimum player if they make a pick at 36 and two two-way guys later I kind of think they’ll trade one pick maybe two but I do think they should pick at 36 just because of their young guy Pipeline and what that could look like if they end up making a big swing later but let’s talk about the internal players on the team and of course starting with Pascal sakam the biggest thing is them keeping him my take on this which may not be the most popular based on Twitter reactions although I will say Twitter is obviously a a minority and B the vocal loudness does not reflect everyone I’d be more willing to pay Pascal the max than basically anyone it sounds like uh for two reasons one I think he’s very good and I think people hear Max and think oh this guy’s making the same as that other all Superstar who’s making the max like yeah they’re making the same raw dollars but 1% of the cap is a more valuable metric to assess players two the best players are are underpaid tyres halberton is underpaid but he can’t legally be paid more if that makes sense like uh Luca donic is probably worth I’m making this up but like 80 million in theory but he can’t be paid more than a certain amount so he’s an underpaid air quotes player compared to his value so a lot of players like sakam who are truly worth a Max and the number they would get look like it different when you compare them to other magx players either way I think zakum is is worth it one because he’s good and two because the camp is gonna go up a lot uh the new TV deal starts in 2025 uh kicks in at least and if you remember when Miles Turner signed his extension it was the rest of last season this season and next season two years and Kevin Pritchard talked about right after it happened that barrier that some people are looking ahead to for contract ending around that time because of the way the way the salary cap could change with that new TV deal now there’s no cap Spike this time like there was the last time this happened in 2016 but it’s still projecting and the NBA has it set up that it could go up 10% every year and if the new TV deal is as rosy as it sounds like 10% growth every year outpaces the growth of contracts the maximum raise allowed in contracts in the current CBA is 8% so this is way too in the weeds but the cap will go up a lot to the point that even with two players on 30% max deals just three years from now right the summer of 2027 the cap could be 187.5 million whereas 2 30% max players would be under 100 million like it’s not that stringent at all so yes I understand the the oh my gosh shock value of seeing two giant numbers at the same time on the Pacers that hasn’t happened before but I think siakam’s worth it first of all uh and second of all he’s tremendous and they should be doing everything they can to keep tremendous players on their team uh it’s the biggest thing of their summer is keeping him it will Define the rest of their moves and I already said this on another podcast but if they keep him at all regardless of what the number is I will consider their summer at worst a c because then they’re going to be very good for presumably if they sign him a long time although it could be a short deal uh for those interested in the numbers seak has been in the league for eight years which means he can get up to 30% of the salary cap a full Max contract offer for Pascal seak would be the exact same contract that tyes halber is now going to get via his rookie scale extension 5 years currently projected at 245.20 million that could go up or down depending on where the salary cap actually lands now here’s where this gets to be a thing one the Pacers are the only team in the NBA that can offer Pascal seak a five-year contract every other team can only offer him four years other teams can also only offer him a deal with 5% raises whereas the Pacers can offer 8% raises and that’s based on the first year of the deal so the max another team n Pacers could offer Pascal cakam is four years 181.000 for the sake of this in the rest of the summer I’ll say 182 million now for a direct comparison the Pacers because of those raises can offer Pascal seak four years $19.5 million so that’s where if you are a he’s not worth the max Guy this is where you can find your happy medium to discuss this with other people your argument would be well they should offer him 5 years 200 for example that’s more than any other team can offer him financially that isn’t the same annual value uh that other teams can offer him it’s lower but it’s the fifth year and guarantees him a fifth year of more guaranteed money than he could get elsewhere his uh max value per year on a four-year deal is like 45.4 something million over the life of a five-year contract that’s 227.50 for 228 is still not a Max contract for sakam but is more than he could get even per year for for many other teams so there’s a lot of ways that there’s a middle ground available if negotiations are to happen but if I’m the Pacers losing him for nothing is an absolute disaster catastrophe they made the Conference Finals so they could grit their teeth and say it was worth it and that’s true to an extent but obviously so much worse un indescribably massive Gap worse than than having him on the team so I expect that he will get a lot of money uh and I think the Pacers should be willing to pay him whatever it takes to keep him and that is my stance on that but those are the numbers involved in this situation Pacers can offer as low as the minimum and as high as that five for 2 45.3 four so can other teams cap space will matter what teams have cap space will matter uh we’ll get to that when we look ahead at the whole NBA’s summer with with the you know cap space numbers key dates all that for the Pacers this summer but those are the numbers you need to know and I think the Pacers should be willing to pay him whatever it takes even if that’s not the popular take I think that is what makes the most sense lots of other players to get to Obi toppen Andrew nard TJ McConnell and so many more to get to here some extensions some other stuff let’s get to all that coming up before we talk about those guys and their Summers for the Pacers though really quickly need to talk to you guys about FanDuel it’s winter take all time in the NBA the Mavs battling still with the wolves and then the finals with the Celtics and the NHL still rocking FanDuel it’s giving you a shot to bring home a huge win of your own during the playoffs right now new customers on FanDuel can get 150 bucks in bonus bets how about that with any winning $5 bet 150 bucks that you can bet on money lines on player props on spreads and so much more but to get that offer you got to visit fanduel.com lockon and make every shot count and get 150 bucks with any winning $5 bet fanduel.com lockon FanDuel America’s number one sports book back here on lockon Pacers thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day for your second listen lock on Celtics get one more listen in from John corales about the Pacers Celtics series Celtics a lot of respect for the Pacers on the way out despite beating them in a sweep it’ll be weird to see how that series gets remembered versus what it was in reality but such as history such as life I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go second here uh but I guess I’ll just roll through the the the free agents first sakam is the first one the next highest paid player who’s entering for Agency for the Pacers is Doug mcder Doug mcder is a free agent um I can’t imagine his value you know last year he made 14 million like that’s not he’s not even worth close to that anymore wasn’t in the playoff rotation until late like he might be a minimum player now you know those specialist types who can’t really defend his age um it’s hard to say though you know I’m looking through some contracts from uh Last Summer from you know going through all some vets or from from specialist types or some Shooters right you could make the argument that there’s more for him out there than maybe the minimum but not by much like Seth Curry got two years eight million uh from from Brooklyn and Kevin Love got two years 3.9 million but like also Eric Gordon got the minimum and you know Kelly UB that was a different scenario but he got the minimum Danny Green like it might be he might just be in minum I don’t think he’s out of the league anymore but uh maybe the Pacers could want him back just for the depth I mean he’d probably be their 12th guy next year just with health and young guys getting better but if he’s will to take the minimum to stay maybe that’s something he is full bird right so there’s like some goofy sign and trade stuff that could happen who knows I’m not going to make a prediction on this one necessarily because you know maybe they just value the roster spot more since they’re GNA have to fit a draft pick in somewhere if they make one um but his scenario just big picture I’m not going to go through the pros and cons of every player in full detail I’ll do full podcast on those hard to say uh nonzero sign in trade value I think that something like four million per year tops is where Doug mcdermit summer could go next highest paid free agent for the Pacers and the most interesting player of the summer to me not the most important that’s seak without a doubt is Obby toppen Obby toppen a restricted let’s be clear here restricted free agent if the Pacers want to keep Obby Topp and assuming he does not get an insane bananas offer from another team they’ll keep him they can match offers uh if another team submits him an offer sheet and if they make him a restrict free agent they can keep him it’s that easy it’s that simple that’s great news that’s the starting point if Pacers want OB top and back they can have what interesting Dynamic here so he didn’t start for the Knicks two years ago which matters because qualifying offers I I don’t want to get to in the weeds but this is important details there’s something called starter criteria specifically for lottery picks and if you don’t meet it meet it by either not being a starter or not playing enough minutes across two seasons you don’t your qualifying offer goes down and Obi toin didn’t start for the Knicks two years ago and didn’t start for the PTI this year and also did not meet reach the minutes requirement meaning his qualifying offer is actually lower than someone of his usual pick spot at pick 38 his qualifying offer this season is 7.74 little over that million which that is the offer the Pacers have to make him to make him restrict free agent his old qualifying offer at as just the eighth pick in his draft was higher and was high enough that like if negotiations go poorly maybe he just signs it and just plays out a one-year deal where he’s untradeable and that’s not great this one’s lower which means it’s less likely he would sign it and likely he would want to at least negotiate with the Pacers or other teams he’s got a power he’s with CA big agency so fun stuff going on there which is always exciting in these thing so what is he worth right that’s the that’s going to be what the question actually is because clearly as as Buchanan said they like him he fits in with them culturally he fits in with them basketball wise he didn’t end the playoffs great defensively but he played well enough offensively to stay on the floor for every playoff game he played all 82 very good player very valuable better than I thought he’d be too the shot was huge became a better rebounder right so there’s a couple questions to ask with him what is he worth right what is that player actually worth just for some examples you know to do the same thing that I did with MC dur last summer I’m trying let’s start with a shooter type uh with not so great defense George yangang he got three years 25.5 million that’s eight and a half million per year Joe Eng Les veteran not as good as Obie uh he got two years 22 million it’s 11 million per year I think Obie’s better than both those players I just named to be clear uh Grant Williams and remember Grant Williams didn’t have the best year especially from a PR perspective but it’s important to remember what the perception of Grant Williams was last year uh and he had a decent playoffs he was young he was good he was coming off of his rookie deal into his for agency this is probably the most comparable player to me and probably a good starting point for Pacers in top in negotiations Grant Williams last summer got four years 53.3 million that is 13.3 million per year you adjust that to a rising salary cap environment maybe something like four for 55 makes sense PJ Washington who’s obviously as the best PR ever right now he’s playing Amazing in the postseason but what he was thought of last summer it took a while for him to sign he got three years 46.5 million that’s 15.5 million who’s probably thought of a little better than Obi is now last summer so that settles into me as somewhere between like 12 14 15 12 to 15 range per year per topin so that that’s would be my estimation um with a rising cap reality also a factor now there’s another question with Obi that isn’t what is he worth it’s how much are you willing to keep him to then not play jarus Walker and they could play jarus Walker to other positions five three even four if they find other ways to do that but then who else isn’t playing is it Ben matheran is it Ben Shepard is it a center like that that is an interesting factor of them to think about with all of their additions or potential additions this summer um but I think jerus should be a factor that they consider and Obi who naturally I think plays the same position as jarus that has to be a consideration and if they do resign Obi that signals at least some sort of thinking with jarus I asked Chad Buchanon about Walker in his X interview you can hear that again in the full thing the other thing is you don’t I talked about Top’s agent jiler like you don’t want to you don’t want to piss off any agency but especially that one and do you want to play the restricted free agency game right PJ Washington signed with the Hornets after a very long restricted free agency game last summer right I’m gonna try to find the exact datea I should have pulled this tab up earlier but you know it it didn’t end up hurting anything there to do that but you squeeze him out the cap space goes away there’s only one place for him to sign that’s fine uh the official PJ Washington sign was August 29th last year right that’s almost two months into free agency for PJ Washington and you do that and you get a better deal because the guy can’t go out and get another offer and they can only negotiate with you really I’ll be curious what this looks like for the Pacers in toppen my guess would be that he stays he played well he’s a good fit he’s a good dude uh I really enjoyed being around him in my interactions with Obby toppen uh but there is a lot of questions about because he’s a restricted free agent because he plays the same position as the guy they just drafted all sorts of factors that make this one at least interesting to me one more free agent uh plus some extensions including a guy who just crushed it in the playoffs what does it look like what does it mean what do the Pacers do with all that in the summer let’s get to all of that to close out Today’s Show and we’re back here on lockon Pacers thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day for your second listen lock on wolves they’re still alive still alive big win for Minnesota for not only themselves to keep playing and get another home game but also for me so I can watch NBA games before the finals because there’s going to be a huge gap between series after how quick the Pacers one ended okay last free agent for the Pacers is James Johnson who’s coming off a Min deal I laugh because there’s nothing to consider here um not because he should be gone and they shouldn’t want him back but if he wants to come back he’s a minimum guy and they that would be it that would be it if the Pacers have a spot for him great I know this sounds silly and people just say why not be an assistant coach or blah blah blah like I hear that like he doesn’t play that much if at all there is to me value like first ball veterans are obviously valuable we’ve known that in the NBA for forever especially one like him who has everybody’s back and it’s tough and no one’s meth something like that’s all great I think there is legitimate value to some extent of that guy who’s being your coach and has your back who like practices with you and goes through scrimmages and is like a player right that’s just the respect added value to me I don’t know how much to put on it and it does it’s not you know fans always say why need assistant coach well I guess the roster spot could be used differently and perhaps more constructively I don’t think so though veterans are very valuable to have and either way uh if it takes up a roster spot so be it so we’ll see I mean last year they didn’t have him and they wanted him and then signed him in December so we’ll see what happens there’s not much to ask about that it’s just they have a roster spot do they want him does he want to keep playing if not we’ll see you there so that’s all the free agents for sure for the Pacers SE McDermot toppen and James Johnson uh all their twoa guys are free agents Quinton Jackson Isaiah Wong Oscar sheway I’ll get into them at a later show um let’s do the extension stuff now we’re guys who have other decisions hanging over them this Summer the biggest salaried player who could is contract extension eligible this summer is TJ McConnell the guys who make more Tyrese Halbert not extension eligible Miles Turner non extension eligible and Ain Nan not extension eligible that gets us to McConnell who is now three years into the four-year deal he signed in 2021 meaning he is extension eligible uh starting officially on uh August 6th although that was a CO year deal they usually do some mapping with the the years it could be earlier than that but whatever this off season before next season starts T.J McConnell will be extension eligible for the Pacers he also has a non fully guaranteed contract next year let’s get this out of the way because people will think of this wrong $5 million of T.J mccon 9.3 million is guaranteed first of all he’s just worth 9.3 million in general but second of all you can’t you view waving him as saving 9.3 million you have to view waving him as saving 4.3 million and then you have to figure out can you do better with 4.3 million because you’re gonna spend the five million anyway than you can with TJ mccon team no not even close so that’s just an no-brainer he’s that will be a guaranteed thing I believe the date on that is two is the night after the draft two days after um so June 28th because it’s two night draft but that doesn’t matter I believe that’s a lock he’s also extension eligible um with the new extension rules with 140% raises this would start in 2025 26 T.J McConnell is eligible for a four-year extension that can be up to not exactly this number up to 58.7 million it would start at 13 million next year I don’t really know what to make of T.J McConnell’s value but maybe it’s that maybe is one of the best backup point guards in the league maybe it’s that who knows at his age though exactly what the Pacers are thinking of him Andrew nard certainly a very valuable guard on their team as well Ben matheran but he was Sensational like T.J McConnell saved their season at times when halberton was hurt as a bench player on the stretch he was great in the postseason so he has immense value to the Pacers right he there’s no discussions going into next season about should he or should he not be in the rotation he’s going to be he should be at least he was tremendous so what value does that have now let’s go back to last summer again let’s do some comps Kobe white remember this is what they were thought of last year not this year because Kobe White had a tremendous season Kobe white got three years 36 million that’s 12 million per season Dennis schruder got two years 25.4 million 12.7 million per season for example uh Gabe Vincent after his awesome run to the finals got three years 33 million which is 11 million uh per year in the last comp I had was Trey Jones who got two years 20 million that’s 10 million per year those are some good backups or or low-end starter guys Kobe white ended up being more than that but Trey Jones started a few times uh schrudder started with Toronto a decent amount so in that range makes sense low tens but again Rising cab environment he’s good he’s better than those guys so maybe like two for 25 three for you know something like that perhaps that could be numbers that make sense but you know it comes down to what m wants what the Pacers want there and he’s a great player they need him or at least they needed him last year but how he fits in with the Dynamics of their depth and their team is what will kind of lead into this and McConnell as a free agent next year like could be his last big contract but he will have full board rights and could potentially just resign with the Pacers at that time so very interesting summer coming for T.J McConnell the next highest paid player who’s extension eligible is Jaylen Smith uh after T.J McConnell the next two salaries are Benedict Maan and jarus Walker neither of them are extension eligible Jaylen Smith is uh I don’t H I didn’t run the numbers on his extension because doesn’t make sense to me why it would happen I at one point had them somewhere in here and for some reason I have completely buried them or lost them in the side of my notes which is just a bunch of gobbly G of numbers um whatever a 40% raise on his current deal is would be the first year value I guess I could type that in uh really quickly with 8% raises um so that would be a deal that starts in 20 5 26 at $7.5 million um and could last as much as four years so four years something like 36 million I believe is what the max would be for Jaylen Smith extension I don’t know why the Pacers or Jaylen Smith would pursue that at this particular time Pacers have front Court depth uh they have young front Court depth and J Smith was not in their playoff rotation I also don’t get why Jaylen Smith who didn’t play in the postseason and didn’t close the season as strong as he may be wanted would want to extend unless you just got an absurd money offer so the real question about Jaylen Smith summer is not about the extension about his player option which was a big part of negotiations presumably with him the Summer where they had a hard ceiling on what they could offer him contractually will he or won’t he pick this up 5.4 million dollar player option for Jaylen Smith this season kind of a key part of their summer their spending what their team looks like roster spots during the season right it felt like a lock that he would up out of this deal because he was playing so well well uh that you know it thought oh he could get more than that you know I was doing comps on centers who were making who got paid more last year like Jack landel per year deal and mo Vagner and all that and then he did not play well the Clos of season or didn’t play very hardly at all in the postseason so what do you make of that if he’s the regular season player again like you think yeah that’s a guy worth having for 5.4 million if he’s the playoff guy maybe not so much so it’s a player option what the Pacers want doesn’t matter what Jaylen Smith matters which excuse me what Jaylen Smith wants does matter that could be money that could be a starting spot that could be a longer deal at slightly less value on a different team and so this one’s hard to say right because he’d be unrestricted free agent if he Ops out Pacers have no control over that if he goes out and figures out that he could get three years 15 million from someone to be there back up Center and guarantee himself playing time and get less money next year but more money in the future maybe he wants that if some young team the Wizards or the I’m thinking about the young teams or the I can’t think of any that need a center off the top of my head fast enough the Wizards uh for example say Hey you could start for us at a cheapo number maybe that’s appealing just for the opportunity to start and earn more money that way um so it kind of will depend to be on what Smith wants and what’s out there for him Elsewhere on what happens with that player option it’s really hard to say Pacers have no say in that um because again during the season it felt like a lock hey would opt out now not so sure so at his age it’s about more than the finances right uh I think it’s close but my official prediction I’ll make right now May 30th May may not June May 30th um is that he will opt in and he officially becomes extension eligible on July 6th uh okay the next highest paid player who is extension eligible summer uh Isaiah Jackson is not benen Shepard is not that leaves us uh with two players left on the hierarchy of guys under contract for the Pacers next year and both of them have interesting contracts stuff this summer this is a big one that people have been talking about someone tweeted something like just totally guessing about this yesterday that kind of blew up uh Andrew neard is extension eligible this summer which is fascinating he signed a four-year deal when he was drafted in the second round it’s been two years there it is he is extension eligible so let’s let’s start with this people have talked about this oh they they got a try they might lose him for nothing in two years I don’t think there’s a reality where the Pacers lose nard for nothing because next offseason they could decline the team option on the fourth year of his contract and then he would be a restricted free agent so they could negotiate with exclusive rights and keep him that way so so if they want to keep them hard Beyond next year they could do it right they have the means to do that and that’s great for the Pacers he’s a great player everyone knows I’m very high on him and he had a great close to the postseason what about right now what about an extension right now that would kick in the 25 26 Season where they theoretically declined that team option now um so the trouble is an EXT a veteran extension there’s two ways it can happen either 140% raise on the final year or the most recent year of a player’s salary or a 140% bump Over The League average salary Josh Richardson most famously signed that one it’s called the Josh Richardson extension among some cap dorks um the reason that number is relevant is 140% raise Over N hard’s current salary is meaningless it would not he would never sign that but 140% raise Over The League average salary could potentially be interesting here the problem is we don’t know the league average salary for next year so telling you exactly what Andrew neh hard’s extension value could be is impossible because he’s not even extension eligible uh until I can’t remember the exact date I typed this somewhere I pulled up tabs and now I can’t find it but you know Late July which is before the season starts there all the important parts there July 22nd is the day that Andrew neard would be extension eligible so the current right now estimated League average saler from the NBA is 11.95 eight million next year it’ll be higher um so I’m going to use 12 million just to make this easy math but it will probably end up a little higher than that a four-year extension for Andrew neard would then be it would start at 16.8 million and with 8% raises would be four years 75.2 six million fascinating fascinating a good two-way starter guard at just under 20 million per year I think that’s close I think that’s close so the bet would be one the Pacers want to do that and two would be does n hard think well if I wait I I had this great close to the postseason if I wait a year am I going to have a great year it’d be worth more than that and then they have to do restricted for agency to keep me at that number because they don’t want to lose me like that’s the bet he would make and he would be eligible for this exact same extension next summer too so I think that this one’s tricky just because of the beted on yourself element uh and TJ McConnell for example like if the Pacers do not agree to extenstion with him and he signs elsewhere next year nard could be in line for a much bigger role like would that entice him to to sign a different contract next summer with the Pacers so this actually could make sense like I think the extension is high enough that it could entice nard to stay at that number especially a guy who’s just been on a minimum basically deal the first few years of his career but he has got a chance to make more than that as a good two-way guard and I think some people might think I’m I’m overdoing this and I’m just much higher than him but I think St good starters 15 million’s like the floor you know Aaron nemith signed three for 33 last summer and first of all I thought that was a steal right away but second of all remember like there were we were talking about this on this podcast last like is Ain neith going to be in the rotation how would you how would you do this if you’re the Pacers and I said all summer I’d be making decisions with him in it and then working from there but it wasn’t obvious right some people were talking about you know jarus and Obie are in and maen and and McConnell and nart everybody like is Aaron neith out of the rotation and obviously he was way better than that and was a deserving starter but he’s underpaid right solid starters are more are worth 15 million per year at least and so I think with nard that’s going to be a fascinating thing summer he is extension eligible I’m not sure where that actually shakes out the final player who is an interesting summer ahead is Kendall Brown Kendall Brown has a non-guaranteed contract at $2.1 million non-guaranteed until opening night where it becomes $250,000 guaranteed which is a tiny number this one usually comes down to what Kendall Brown finds on the open market uh because his guarantee date is after summer league for example like maybe the Pacers just bring him in keep him around see how he looks in summer league and maybe he plays great and they’re like great we’ll keep you as our 15th guy and keep developing you like he’s still 20 20 years old it’s crazy how a guy who’s been in the league that long is still that young he does not oh excuse me he turned 21 May 11th I didn’t realize his birthday was this month he’s 21 next regular season will end and he will still be 21 years old so maybe they want to use the roster spot in a different way than that whatever they have the 36th pick I could understand that you know I don’t think they would beat themselves up over that like he’s still young they really liked him they traded stuff to get him in that draft two years ago so don’t be surprised if he sticks around for the summer and is like a part of Summer League or maybe even a part of training camp so they can evaluate where he’s at and if he’s worth keeping around and then decisions are made from there remember Dwayne Washington for example played summer league for the Pacers two summers ago on an on- guaranteed deal he was waved I’m not sure how that would have gone if the DeAndre and stuff wasn’t going on but still this has happened in reality before so we will see what out there it might depend what happens Elsewhere on the roster and the roster spot count for the Pacers but I think summer league is the key thing to watch when it comes to Kendall Browns guarantee and free agency all right that’s all the numbers that’s all the details I can give you today at a high level uh seum and topen for sure will get individual podcasts breaking down the pros the cons and what I expect you happen for them in free agency uh and then I might lump in a like a McDermot nard McConnell show to get into more wedy details on those guys the other people probably not so what happens now going forward it’s offseason time some planning coming the the coming weeks you guys will have to tell me either via the comments on this or tweeting at me how much draft stuff you actually want uh my favorite player for the Pacers in the draft just decided to go back to school yesterday which was Coleman Hawkins the opt out date is done for players so they can’t go back to school anymore there’s some International deadlines that are later but in general we know the field now so you guys will have to tell me so tomorrow actually what we’re going to do is the first of the many positional free agency previews I think we’ll do the point guard one I know a lot of comments are coming oh why they don’t need a point guard we’ll just you’ll see why it matters when we go through all these episodes and then for the three weeks leading up to the draft there will be a mix of player season Recaps positional free agency previews player free agency previews and a Sprinkle of draft stuff maybe some mailbags maybe some stuff looking back at the season that I want to do and the week of the draft we’ll really dive into all that so I hope that’s a good offseason plan if you guys have something else you want in there just let me know happy to do it uh really looking forward to this this will be a very fascinating summer for the Pacers uh I’m on Twitter at Tony R East and the show is there at locked on Pacers it’s the best way to reach me thank you all for listening have a wonderful day we’ll see you tomorrow

The Indiana Pacers 2023-24 offseason is officially underway. What are the keys for the team to consider this summer? And what do they need to think about with their own free agents/contract extensions? Host Tony East breaks it all down.

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