Indiana Pacers forward Jalen Smith is declining his $5.4 million player option for next season as he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, per Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype.
This is another report that contradicts the report slightly as Scott Agness says that it hasn’t been finalized quite yet. This could be as simple as Smith and his agent haven’t officially notified the team or sent in the finalizing paperwork. A decision must be made by tomorrow.
In his third season with the Pacers, Stix had the best year of his career with elite efficiency. Over the first couple months of the season, Stix made an unbelievable 70.1% of his shots overall including 62.9% on his 3-pointers (22 of 35) over the first 18 games. While he couldn’t keep that impossible pace up for a full season, he still finished with career highs at 59.2% of his shots overall and 42.4% from deep.
Smith, who averaged 9.9 points and 5.5 rebounds in 17 minutes per game, was a valuable piece to the league’s best bench unit as the backup center and started 14 games including a stretch in late December as the power forward when the Pacers starting to turn their defense from truly awful to a more palatable mediocre.
While the team had a lot of postseason success, Stix was probably disappointed in how the playoffs went for him personally following a great season. In the first game against the Bucks, he struggled in the opening game as the team was outscored by 13 points in his 13 minutes and then he rarely saw the floor in the playoffs after that. The Pacers decided to go small against the Bucks bench with Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin as the 4/5 pairing for the next couple games and when the Pacers decided to use a backup center again, Rick Carlisle went with Isaiah Jackson over Smith and Jackson played well and never relinquished the spot through the entire playoff run into the conference finals from there.
So it isn’t surprising that Smith may be ready to cash in on his efficient season with a new contract and a new opportunity where he feels like he can find consistent minutes. Because the Pacers will be looking to re-sign Obi Toppin while avoiding entering the luxury tax if possible, they probably wouldn’t mind Stix declining the option and looking elsewhere as that $5.4 million gives the front office some breathing room to match potential offers to Toppin.
After Jackson’s performance in the playoffs, the Pacers probably feel comfortable giving the former first-round pick his first consistent rotation role since he’s been with the team. As he enters his fourth season, the high energy, lob threat will be a restricted free agent next summer. The team could also look to add competition at the center spot with a veteran on a minimum contract as well that can be a good fit for the locker room even if they end up out of the rotation if Smith does officially decline his option.
If this does end up being the end of his tenure with the team, his time with the Pacers will be remember for when he first joined the team at the trade deadline for Torrey Craig and then couldn’t miss from 3, much like the start of this season. Because the Suns declined his third-year option, the Pacers will limited on what they would be able to offer him in free agency. So, Pacers Twitter and Pacers Reddit took matters into their own hands spreading false negative stories about him under every tweet that mentioned him.
Stix, of course, did re-sign with the team that summer despite possibly having larger offers elsewhere partially because the Pacers offered him the starting power forward position to start the following season. Unfortunately for Smith, he wasn’t able to hold that spot for long but because he re-signed with the team Pacers fans returned the favor by making up positive stories about the center. It all resulted in an early season segment on Bally Sports where Smith read a few of the tweets from before and after free agency.
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