ESPN reports that Thad Young will opt into the final year of his contract to remain with the Indiana Pacers and will not be a free agent this offseason.

Young seemed a little frustrated with the lack of a long term deal on the table from the Pacers with a few tweets on draft night.

It appears that Thad’s desire to remain in the Pacers locker room trumped wanting more security as he enters this next season at 30 years old.

In an interview with Alex Kennedy shortly after the offseason began, Young talked a lot about next year with the Pacers, making it clear that he’d like to be back, even if he hadn’t made a decision on his option at that time.

Man, I think the sky is the limit for us. As a team, we’re already pretty good, but I think we’ll be so much better entering next season because we’ll all have another year of experience under our belt and we won’t be a new look team that just got together anymore. … Next year, it should be 10 times easier. There’s not much learning and acclimating that we’ll need to do; we can just pick up right where we left off and focus on getting better.”

https://twitter.com/ipacersblog/status/991075158289997825?s=21

Young’s final year is worth $13.7 million. The Pacers still have about $20 million in cap space if they waive Al Jefferson.

Earlier today, Indiana was rumored to be interested in making a large offer to RFA Aaron Gordon, but with Young opting in, the question will be if the Pacers interest remains in the 22-year-old forward.