It was a quiet first day of free agency for the Indiana Pacers. The one news item from the team that everyone expected in Myles Turner getting a new contract still hasn’t happened yet as of Tuesday morning.
UPDATE: Myles Turner has signed with the Milwaukee Bucks for 4 years, $107 million according to multiple reports. The Bucks signed him outright by waiving and stretching Damian Lillard. There will be no sign and trade. Pacers lost him for nothing.
The only updates we’ve received in the last few days on Myles Turner and the Pacers front office’s negotiations are from Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype reporting yesterday morning that NBA executives still expected Turner to return to the Pacers and Brett Siegel of Clutch Points reporting a few hours into free agency that he is still expected to return on a “new, lucrative contract” with the parties discussing a new deal over the last few days and trying to find common ground.
Chris Haynes also reported the same just before free agency began at 6 p.m. last night that the expectation is that he will return to Indiana.
So no news beyond the two sides haven’t come to an agreement yet but it’s still expected to come eventually. This likely means that the $30 million per year number that was getting floated by ESPN during the playoffs is no longer on the table. You’d expect that Turner and his agent would jump on that level of deal immediately. With Haliburton’s injury changing the Pacers calculus on whether or not they should go into the luxury tax and Turner having an underwhelming NBA Finals, the question now is how low can they get that first-year starting salary and if that can help prevent a cost-cutting roster move that would stop the team from hitting the luxury tax but cost the Pacers a valuable piece of their depth.
The risk would be that if you play hardball too much with a guy that’s already been put through the wringer with endless trade rumors and an offer sheet to replace him with Deandre Ayton, he might just decide to take someone’s MLE and move on, leaving the Pacers with nothing and limited avenues to replace him. Sign and trades are something that could happen but the Pacers would have to satisfied with whatever they are receiving in return for Turner while the center would still have to find a team willing to pay him a deal that he wants. Having both of those things be true isn’t easy, especially as more and more teams fill up their rosters in these opening days of free agency.
But as the reports suggest, it doesn’t appear that it’s going to get to that point as all expectations are still that Turner and the team will eventually agree to a new deal.
As far as other players the Pacers have been rumored to be interested in, it’s nearly barren. To be expected with how many players are already under contract with a team that has a lot of depth and is in a difficult spot without their best player for next season.
Nick Richards, a rumored interest
A trade candidate the Pacers may be interested in is Nick Richards according to Scotto. Richards is on a contract with the Suns worth $5 million per year, a fine number for a backup center. The Pacers did tender a qualifying offer to Isaiah Jackson and picked up the team option on Tony Bradley as well but neither of those things necessarily mean they will be back with the Pacers next year.
Bradley’s deal is fully non-guaranteed until January so he could be used in a trade to salary match or waived at a later date if the team decides to go elsewhere for a backup big. Bradley’s deal would also pay him a little more than his minimum so it’s likely that even if he is brought back to Indiana that he’ll be waived and re-signed for the minimum.
With Jackson, it’s a little surprising he doesn’t just sign his qualifying offer immediately. It would seem unlikely that he gets more than the ~$6 million this season as he comes off the Achilles tear. It does make him a restricted free agent and the Pacers could rescind the qualifying offer at anytime if they choose. There haven’t been any rumblings to this point on whether the Pacers are interested in bringing back Thomas Bryant.
What they would have to give up for Richards is unclear. He spent last season with both the Hornets and the Suns and averaged 9 points and 8 rebounds in 22 minutes per game.
Yet to hear of any free agents the Pacers may be looking at to fill the final few spots on the roster. No word if they are interested in renewing their previous courtship of Deandre Ayton, who was bought out of his deal with the Blazers that was originally agreed to with Indiana, as he seems destined to end up in Los Angeles with Luka and LeBron (guessing, not reporting). No reason to think that they would be unless we hear news that Turner and the organization are too far apart in their negotiations. I’d expect that the rumors remain relatively quiet this free agency period for the Pacers.
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