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What comes next in free agency for the Pacers? How does Myles Turner leaving change this FA and 26’?



What comes next in free agency for the Pacers? How does Myles Turner leaving change this FA and 26’?

What’s the status of Pacers for agency now? What do they need to do next? And most importantly, how do their biggest line item decisions they have to make change without Miles Turner? We’ll do that and also look ahead at 2026 based on what the Pacers have done all on today’s Locked On Pacers podcast. You are Locked on Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s up everybody? Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend and welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers. As always, my name is Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and today I have survived my 100 hour speedrun of Las Vegas. I am back home. The Pacers play their third game tonight against the Bulls, their currently only scheduled game and a nonplayoff opponent from last year in Vegas. And we are going to kind of put a bow on free agency. Kind of not. You know that it’s a really slowed down time for the Pacers right after the Isaiah Jackson move late last week. They really only have one kind of outstanding line item, which we’ll get to in terms of actually signing a player to their current team. They obviously have lots of stuff to still make decisions on, and we’ll run through some of that stuff in the first segment because I talked about a lot of it in the offseason previews, but I haven’t gotten back to them since Miles Turner left. And he does have like that’s a big salary slot gone that does have a changing impact on a lot of those decisions and how I think the Pacers could or should be thinking about them. And at the end, we’re going to look ahead at 2026 a little bit given what the Pacers have done and what it could suggest about their future. Again, nothing is final about their team, right? They still have lot, not a lot, but they still have stuff to do. And anything I am saying today, I keep getting comments about this that are driving me crazy. I’m not saying that this is what I think. None. If I insert my own opinion, I’ll say this is what I think. This is just stuff that they probably have to consider or think about because it’s their job as a front office. Okay. So, I talked a lot about things like a Ben Madtheran extension, an Aaron Emith extension, uh, you know, all sorts of other stuff leading into free agency. And then I haven’t talked about it since Turner left. And that actually obviously changes the Pacers short-term outlook, but it’s also like a 28, 27, whatever million dollar player off their books for future seasons, which does have a long-term cap impact on their team. And we’ll talk more about 2026 in the third segment today, but I want to kind of run through how that changes some of the stuff that could happen because there’s some little things that were just no-brainers. Doesn’t matter what Turner does, they’ll still happen, right? Ben Shepard and Jarus Walker, they have team options for, you know, 26 27 because of their rookie scale deals. Those are still getting picked up, right? They’re good players. They’re already worth what their contracts should be for that year basically. Now, they’re obviously going to get better and the hope would be maybe in some cases significantly better. Like there’s not really anything with those, but there is to me the two big ones, the extensions of possibilities for Benedict Matherin and Aaron Smith do have a kind of a changed outlook, right? And I’ve made my case that on both of those a little bit, but uh let’s run through them now because the original thing I talked about with Matherin is it might not be worth it for the Pacers to extend him. Again, to be clear, I I know that some people get annoyed by me saying this a lot, but a lot of people comment are like, “You’re not you’re not thinking of him and his growth.” Like, I put that to the side. This is just about the salary cap, right? I thought an extension for him would be challenging because if Turner takes them over the tax and then Matherin salary also gets a big jump the following year, they’d be a really expensive team. See, Matherin is the only player of like uh rotation significance coming off the books after this season, which again, we’ll get to in the third segment. So, if they had Turner with a small raise and then Mather with the big raise, they’d be really expensive, right? And we even heard Kevin Pritchard say, you know, he thinks the second apron, as every team does, as we’ve seen by transaction is pretty prohibitive. You don’t want to be there. They would have been close to andor at it, you know, at what it would be next year, uh, if they would have had both of those guys on what I would consider reasonable contracts. Well, I find it kind of hard to estimate Ben Mather, but like at 220, 222, it’s we don’t know what second April will be next year, but you know, they’re already at 181 million of guaranteed salaries next year. Add in 40 something, 50 something for Turner and Matherin and you’re over it, right? And so with Turner, I thought there’s just little way to me that a Mather extension is going to happen unless it’s very team friendly. Now, it’s at least possible to me that they would talk about it in a way that’s like, yeah, the Pacers actually have the wiggle room to do this and still, you know, not be bound by aprons and they could still dance around the tax if they feel like that’s important to them and they could lock up a player long term if they think he’ll be valuable. I still think the challenge of an extension, again, not my opinion of Ben Mather as a player. I think he’s good and is more important next year than he was last year given their new situation. I still think an extension is challenging because what he thinks he can be and especially if he’s a starter for a full season is probably a higher level of player and a higher more highly paid player than what his performances have shown mostly because of the role he’s been given so far. And I think that’s fair. I think a lot of players on rookie scale deals think that. But I think it’s now at least a possibility that the Pacers and Mather explore one. Although it is tricky that he’s going into a season where his mall role, excuse me, might be different than what it would be again in two years if Hallebertton returns. So, it still seems tricky to me from a team and player synergy perspective that they would know exactly what his value is. Like I have trouble coming up with the perfect contract comp from prior restricted free agents or at least even even guys getting signed this summer, right? free agency has been pretty slow for those restricted guys so far. But it’s like possible that if they find a number they like in the you know whatever it would take high teens 20s 30 whatever that is. I don’t I wouldn’t think it’d be that high but you know it’s possible that if they find the number they agree on they could do it now right and uh uh Matherin also would be much harder to trade if that happens. That’s another reason that potentially the Pacers wouldn’t want to do it unless the number is very team friendly and if you’re Mather you’d like to go prove it in a bigger role. So, there’s a lot of reasons I still think it’s probably unlikely and I would say fairly unlikely, but I would have put the chances close to zero before Miles Turner left. And now I’d put them at least a little bit higher. Uh maybe 10 15% if the negotiations can go away. The Pacers uh find and they actually have room to do it right as it stands next year. Right. As of now, things will obviously change. Players will sign, players will be traded at some point, I presume. Um I’m not projecting that’s going to happen. And I just that’s how every team has made transactions for all the time. The Pacers at 181 million of guaranteed salaries heading into next year with a luxury tax of 200. Like they have 20 million of wiggle room under the tax. Uh can they get Matherin on that and still be under? Probably. They might have to shed a little bit of salary elsewhere, but that’s reasonable. So Matherin’s chances of extension I think went up after the Turner departure. And Nesmith’s interesting, too. He’s the other guy who’s extension eligible. Uh people keep asking like why hasn’t this been talked about more? Well, technically it can’t legally happen till October 1st. So, that’s part of this. It’s like let’s let two and a half months go by before this becomes a much bigger discussion. It’s just on the it’s just because of the date he signed his last contract. So, I have also said that if I were advising Aaron Newmith, I would tell him not to take even what his max extension would be. And then something happened beyond Miles Turner and that’s that Herb Jones signed a threeyear $69 million contract. And I think that’s a bad contract for Herb Jones. I think he’s worth more than that. But that’s right basically in the range of what Nmith’s max extension is. I have it as 3 years 63 million. However, the league average salary could change between now and the time it starts and change that ever so slightly. Um, again, I think Eron is probably more valuable than a $20 million player. Ever so slightly, but that Herb Jones number made me go, hm, maybe not. And if he’s not more than that, maybe now is the right time for him to take it because who knows what he’s who knows what the perception of anyone on the Pacers, particularly more play finisher types will be a year from now without Tyrese Hallebertton. And then Nith’s kind of putting all of his eggs in one basket on a contract year or a bounceback, whatever you want to say. It might make more sense for him to take it than I thought because of Herb Jones. That’s not actually Miles Turner related because the dynamics of Nmith are the same in that his max offer is the same and his extension wouldn’t kick in for two years. It wouldn’t kick in until 2027 28. By then he will be a free agent unless he extends. McConnell’s partially guaranteed. Jarus Walker could be a free agent. Shepard could be a free agent. And at that time, you know, Isaiah Jackson going into contract year, Topin, Nemhard, Pascalakum, like a lot will have moved in a way that it’s harder to project their salary. a lot of players will be more movable, potentially more valuable, Jay Huff team option, Johnny Fury team option. You just don’t like it’s easier for me to project next year with Matherin starting than two years from now, N Smith starting and obviously all that stuff could happen, trades, options decline, whatever for Matherin a year from now. Uh, but it’s harder to project with N Smith. The cap impact of Turner’s departure as of right now, just on my tracking of it, their guaranteed salaries in two seasons is just under 150 million and a tax of 228. Like that’s a lot of float. So there’s not a ton of impact there. But if they need new deal for Nesmith, new deal for Mather, new deal for Walker, new deal for Shepard, that eats up a lot of that. So I think that the Nesmith extension likelihood maybe went up a tiny bit because of no salary in the books for Turner two years from now. I think his extension likelihood in my brain went up after Herb Jones’s deal. Uh even though I still would probably be telling Nith not to take it if I were his agent. And then Matherin, uh, I think the his extension likelihood probably went up, but probably not to like a significant percentage. Probably from like close to zero to 10, 15. I don’t know. I’m kind of making these numbers up, but that’s just kind of what I think about it. So, every other item of significance, Tony Bradley’s non-G guarantee, that’s just a one-year thing. Nothing really changes there. I already mentioned the rookie scale team options. The two-way guy scenarios, I don’t think really changes, especially because they already have Bradley. Like, they really need an extra center because of that. No, they have four right now. Maybe you could say they’re a little bit more in need of Freeman because they had lots of centers on opening night last year and they still needed Freeman. Regardless, I think the biggest line items, those two extensions, have ever so slightly been impacted in a way that I think makes them make even more sense for the Pacers than they did before the off seasonason started. Um, let’s keep going here. What do the Pacers still need to do this off season? They do have 15 players, but there’s still more to it than that. Let’s keep going. Two weeks into free agency. What’s next for the Pacers? Before we talk about any of that, let’s talk about Hungry Root. And be honest, meal planning and grocery shopping can be overwhelming between busy schedules, picky eaters, and trying to eat healthy. It’s a lot. It’s why I love Hungry Root. They take the stress out of planning by filling your cart for you with personalized groceries and meal options based on what you like and need. 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Thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day. They are second listed. Not a lot of transactional movement of late in the NBA, but locked on GRley’s Jiren Jackson has officially done the renegotiation and extension that got reported on the first day of free agency. Cole Anthony bought out. He’s going to the Bucks. That’s a good spot for him. I think Cole Anthony is going to be interesting this season. I think he’s kind of good. He’s really tenacious for the ball. You don’t care about my Bucks thoughts. Let’s keep going on the Pacers and their free agency. What do they still need to do this off season? Right, Isaiah? I I have to do a reminder first, but before the reminder, Isaiah Jackson has them at 15 players on standard contracts. That is in theory a full roster. That is 15 players. In theory, there are 15 players. Makes sense positionally and contractually. And that’s all great. And they have three new guys and three guys gone. And that is what it is. And they have two 2A guys. And that’s going to be a heavy discussion coming up in a second. In the regular season, once the season starts, you can carry 15 guys and three 2As. But in the off season, you can carry 21 players technically of any variety. You could carry 21 standard players. If you wanted, you just have to cut it down to 15 by opening night. I bring that up to say, yes, in theory, the Isaiah Jackson signing signals like a okay, they they’ve got a team. That does not mean they’re done, right? They could still sign a point guard tomorrow. They could convert a two-way up or down. They could sign another guy. They they could do all sorts of things. They could make a one for two trade and then have to cut somebody. There’s all sorts of stuff that they can still do. So, I would not call anything final. Of course, they’re going to do the exhibit 10 days. It’s in a couple months and everybody’s going to get all confused because those are hard to explain every single year. But that keep that in mind. Like, yes, it seems finalish because their team makes sense and like the decisions they’ve made, especially after Turner left, like makes it look like a roster that is put together, but they could still totally do stuff and in theory will do a couple more things. I would say the biggest thing still standing out there is what I’ve called two-way alignment. Right? That doesn’t mean in theory that does mean fill in their last two-way spot. Right? Right now, Ray J Dennis and Quinton Jackson are under contract with two-way deals. Uh that’s fine, especially in a season without Hallebert. They currently only have two point guards on the roster. My theory is potentially they could use Quinton Jackson as point guard three even on a two-way and then just have him be active and playing in games where one of McConnell or Nhard is out and in those games he’d be in the rotation presumably he’d be the backup point guard. He filled in well enough in rotation opportunities last year. Ray Dennis in summer league has shown the best of what he can do and the worst of what he can do. You know he could be the fourth guy in a pinch. I’d still make the case that perhaps they want to bring somebody else in, but you know, Cam Jones is sitting there if they have like desperate desperate to throw somebody on the floor and they’re gonna, you know, they have to try to get him time. He’s on a standard deal this year. Although I I I expect some boom time for Cam Jones just given the history of what the Pacers have done with their early second rounders and years that they’ve been at least trying to win. So perhaps their two-way situation is just using summer league and the rest of the offseason to decide on what to do with Tayen Peter and what to do with Enrique Freeman. And Peter’s had a nice summer league and Freeman’s had one game that I was like in one game that I was like, “Okay, there it is.” And they definitely have an idea of what Freeman is. And maybe they need another center. There’s just more to it than just those two guys. Maybe it is just that. Maybe it’s just who do they like better between those two in the short and long term that with with Ton Peter’s rights like they in theory could just give him a G-League deal and then stash him down there, let him develop in that way, promote him if he’s NBA quality and have Freeman on the team. That has happened before. That’s unusual, but there have been, like Isaiah Hartenstein’s the best player who’s had it happen. I ran through this already before with Peter Mojave King had it happen with the Pacers. like it’s not unheard of for a player to get drafted and then not sign an NBA deal, but it it’s it’s pretty rare. And Taylor Peter’s actually playing well in summer league, right? He’s been the last game he played was quite good. So, we’ll see what happens there. But that’s the biggest thing left is how the two ways kind of bleed into the rest of the team because I did this when Cam Jones and Quinton Jackson signed, but I feel like there’s kind of this connection in my brain with their roster spots between the centers and the point guards, right? where they have four centers right now and now that Isaiah Jackson’s back that’s confirmed, right? I was kind of estimating this back at the time. They have four centers right now and clearly they believe in their Achilles rehab program. They should. Every team should believe in their rehab programs, but you they they gave Isaiah Jackson more guarant or excuse me, they gave James Wisman more guaranteed money than last year and they signed Isaiah Jackson to a three-year $21 million deal. That’s fully guaranteed by the way that is descending. We’ll talk more about what that means in the third segment. Um, but it starts at the highest value it can, which makes sense. They have the space to do that now. They should do that. So, with with two centers coming off of Achilles tears, and again, maybe they totally believe they’ll be fine, ready to go. I talked to Isaiah Jackson. I think I said that on yesterday’s show, but for those who don’t listen on weekends and didn’t listen because they lost in a summer league game, I talked to him at Pacers Thunder. He said he’s at like 80 to 90% health and he should be ready to go by camp. So, like, if they believe in their Achilles program, maybe they’re just fine with it. But I wonder if they’re going to keep four centers because there are two of them coming off Achilles. Can they play back toback? Can they play heavy minutes? You know, are they even 100% like compared to where they used to be to start the season? So maybe they keep four centers, but I keep wondering if they’ll cut a center or move on from a center and then promote Quinton Jackson off a two-way and then give both Peter and Freeman twos and then Freeman’s kind of that fourth big anyway if they feel like they still need four bigs. That does make good sense. But um the obvious guy to look at in that kind of string of madeup Tony transactions that at least would make good sense to me is Tony Bradley who is fully non-G guaranteed and I ran through this all before the offseason and talked about his team option and I just forgot his contract was non-G guaranteed. So right now he’s on the roster at 2.9 million. That’s above his minimum. Right. I he him and his agent aren’t stupid. Like they know the situation at hand. Yeah, he can make the team. He could play well in camp and be on the roster. He played fine for the Pacers last year, but I’d imagine even if he plays well, they would wave him and then bring him back on a cheaper minimum deal, but regardless, like I would imagine given the guaranteed money that they gave Wiseman and that they traded for Jay Huff and certainly the guarantees they gave Jackson that Tony Bradley is the fourth center and his contract is completely non-garanteed. They don’t have to wave him now to open a roster spot. That’s why I open this segment the way I did. They could still do a lot of that stuff I talked about. give Quinton Jackson a standard contract, sign both Peter and Freeman, and keep Bradley for now and kind of figure it out in camp, right? That’s a totally fine way to go about things if they want to kind of push back that decision, and then it’s really obvious what the competition is and who’s competing for what, but Tony Bradley is the guy worth looking at if you agree with me that that that’s a consideration for the team between the centers and point guards. I I don’t know that the team agrees with me, but that’s what I think I’d be thinking about as the Pacers if I and that’s, you know, who do they actually want on the team, who do they not? That’s why summer league is still so interesting for them. Some of the balls in the air about actual roster spots are still floating around and Tony Bradley’s kind of at the center of it. Haha. To me, because he is the guy on the, you know, non-g guaranteed actual standard contract. You know, Wiseman’s deal isn’t fully guaranteed, but I think they view him higher than Bradley and they gave him a million dollars guaranteed. So, the the actions of the Pacers suggest that they’d have him higher. And so that kind of leads me to believe that the the the ball juggling of final spots would be Q Jackson, Tony Bradley, Freeman, and Peter for some combination of two or three contracts and figuring out how all those seats on the bus should be assigned and how everybody should be figured out from a roster perspective. Uh, but they could obviously add another point guard if they wanted to that’s outside the organization. They could obviously do any number of things. That’s just kind of what I view as their kind of last internal steps to figure out. Two-way alignment, roster building, uh, things of that nature. Okay, let’s look ahead. Now, they’re kind of, if two-way alignment, as I just said, is all they have left, then they’re close to done and they might be done done. What does next year look like? How does this set up next season? I talked about this a little bit in the Mather Smith stuff, but no Turner. What is the Pacers outlook from a free agency and team building perspective? because next year Tyrese Halurn should be back. How is that going to look? We’ll get to that to close out today’s lockdown on Pacers. But before we do any of that, I want to talk to you guys about FanDuel. Summer sports, they’re in full swing. And whether you are all about baseball under the lights, sculpt on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the games. Why not make them a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the action while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. They anyone many people using FanDuel will track their favorite matchups and the app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions fun ways to bet. It’s easy to use, fast payouts. It makes even regular season games feel like mustwatch events. 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That’s a year from now. This is probably a shorter topic for now because this is all very preliminary, right? Law Murray works for the Athletic. He covers the Clippers. He does this activity every summer and it’s always so jarring to me. And I’m bringing this up before I talk about this. What he does is he lists out every roster in the league and then says, “Who is still on your team from five years ago?” That’s not long at all. The longest a contract can be in the NBA is five years. The Pacers have one guy now with Turner gone. It’s T.J. McConnell. And the the point of the exercise is that teams change so fast, right? And so teams do project here’s what they want to do from a cat perspective. They want to have open space here. They want to be wiggle room flexibility here. They want to be able to get this guy this time. Right? They have to do that. But at the same time, keep in mind like right now I can tell you, okay, they have this many guaranteed contracts and this much space and that matters. It matters for the Pacers planning. They made deliberate moves with these numbers in mind. But also keep in mind that teams flip like that. Like opportunities come, trades happen. You just never know. And I think it’s very important to kind of keep that in mind when running through even as I do it all the time, future projections. Like five years from now, it’ll be 2030. How many of the current 15 Pacers players do you think will still be on the team? Right? No one is under contract for 2930 right now for the Pacers. Obviously, some guys could be with extensions. Just that’s an exercise for another day. Okay. 2026 as it stands, this continuity team that had continuity last year and their three new players this year are Cam Jones, Jay Huff, and James Weisman who’s not even only who’s only a new player sort of, you know, they still have continuity again this year. or they already right now as you listen to this have 11 guaranteed contracts for next season 2026 27 Halbertton Seakum Nemhard Tophen Nmith McConnell Jackson Huff Fury and then almost certainly Shepard and Walker have guaranteed deals for next season. The only four free agents they could have, and that doesn’t that doesn’t even mean they will be free agents, are Ben Mather, who could get extended, Tony Bradley, who is probably going to be a free agent. He can’t be extended. Uh James Wiseman, who also has a team option and could not be a free agent, and Cam Jones, who’s half guaranteed, and so almost certainly will also be at least under that contract, right? And and on the Pacers potentially. So they could have more than 11 players. They have 11 contracts guaranteed right now and then four that are of the four free agents, three of them, excuse me, two of them are half guaranteed or have an option. So, it’s possible that they have a lot of continuity again next year, which is relevant because as of now, they have about $181 million in committed salaries for next summer, assuming they pick up the options uh that I have laid out. I think it’d be silly for them not to. And so that is already over the salary cap which is very important for people to realize. I’ve seen a lot of like that’s okay they can replace this guy next year they can use cap next year. No they cannot it for them to get under the cap and buy a meaningful enough amount to actually do it. They’d have to trade away a player making like $40 million or more. That’s just Yakam and Albert. What’s the point of trading them away to get cap space? It’s stupid. They’re not going to be a capsbased team next year either, which means they’re limited to again next summer just using the MLE. Like this year they have access to that, although they’re almost certainly not going to use it unless they clear money in another move or or other little exceptions, right? The BAE, the all sorts of stuff. Keep that in mind in that next year will probably be about internal guys potentially. You know, Mather’s one of the only guys they’ll be able to sign for more than the mid-level with his full bird rights. They’ll have Tony Bradley as early bird. I guess they’ll have full bird rights on Quinton Jackson, which is hilarious. So, there’s lots of stuff that they could do to like pay a player more than 15 million. But next year’s non-t tax mid-level is $15 million. And the Pacers gap from that 180 million, 181 million they have in committed salary to next year’s tax of 200 million is $19 million. If they use all of the MLE, they’re going to blow by the tax if they resign Matherin or keep any of those guys. So, keep that in mind. They do have flexibility next year. They have float under the closest like spending barrier, but not a lot if they want to keep their team together. And if they want to do something dramatic, they have to be very cautious on how they spend and do things. Everyone’s going to throw around the word sign and trade. Those are very challenging and complicated in the new current spending alignment in the NBA. I don’t necessarily think that’s a CBA thing, but it kind of is. So there’s just a lot to keep in mind for next year with the Pacers in that it sounds so tempting to say great they can add players next year like it’s going to be just as hard. That’s why looking at the trade market now this offseason was somewhat interesting to me and might still be as the offseason progresses although you know they’re two weeks into free agency stuff isn’t over but slows down generally by this point. Uh and then throughout the season it’ll be worth monitoring if anything becomes available that could help the Pacers for two years from now because their actual ability to add talent is not going to be inc it’s going to look a lot like this year right their resources look a lot like this year just without a Miles Turner fullright situation hanging over at all as an option for them to do things I mentioned Isaiah Jackson earlier this is sort of a current year thing because his ne second season of the contract if it was ascending or descending which we’re talking about next year right now would have been the He is descending this year like I said earlier. So that means the Pacers current for my numbers tax base is about 6.1 million could fluctuate if they do something with Tony Bradley. That’s less than half of the non-tax mid-level and there like there’s no reason for them to go over the tax this season now. I mean they obviously to build the best team possible. Yes. But clearly that shouldn’t be their priority with Hallebertton out. So keep that in mind. There’s no they don’t have the room to use their non- tax this year. If they use it next year, it might be hard to keep Mather without blowing past the tax. Know their spending is very interesting and people will wonder about how it got to this point. Well, because the whole premise of their team was deep, right? Their depth was such a superpower and they have a ton of fairly paid players. I don’t think they have any bad contracts on their team, but to have a lot of good contracts and a lot of good players, you have to have a lot of committed salary. And that’s how you get in these situations where your resources to add talent while still sp staying within some potential spending constraints is kind of challenging, especially as we learned earlier this offseason that the salary cap for next year isn’t projected to grow as much as many people prognosticated for a long time. Anyway, keep that in mind throughout the season that smaller salary cap growth next year means it might be a little harder for the Pacers to add talent via signings and trade additions might be more appealing to them over the next 12 months. Which is why again I said maybe they should try to get a turn or trade exception from Milwaukee. But thanks to Tango, it does not sound like Milwaukee was interested in such a thing as evidenced by their transactions. Okay, end of this. Until the Pacers make a move, I will not just rip through my own free agency thoughts anymore because I’ve done them for two weeks now. So, we’ll do a guest later this week between the next two summer league games to help talk about the offseason, where the Pacers need to go next. Uh, we will talk about, of course, the two summer league games and we’ll figure out the other day, maybe some rotation stuff, maybe some what else they could still need or do stuff, all sorts of interesting things. And I’m open to topic ideas now that free agency has gone deep in and WNBA allstars coming up. So, lots of fun stuff. Lots of fun stuff on every horizon. Thank you guys so much for listening today. You can find me on Twitter and Blue Sky Tony East. This podcast is lockdown pacers on Instagram and Twitter. Back tomorrow talking Pacers Bull summer league action. Till then everybody have a wonderful day.

The Indiana Pacers roster looks relatively full. What comes next for them in 2025 NBA free agency? And what does Myles Turner’s departure change in this offseason and the next? Host Tony East breaks it all down.

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6 Comments

  1. I can't see more than 11-14 million on Mathurin. The team can't pay a lot for potential, its worth something but he's already had 3 years to develop. He is too inconsistent to sign for 20 million a season. Try to keep heck yeah but don't gamble the farm. Nesmith needs to be extended over Mathurin.

  2. I knew they could exceed 15 standard contracts in the preseason, but can they also exceed 3 two-way contracts now? If so, both Freeman and Peter could get two-ways now and the team wouldn't have to sort it out until the Fall.

  3. Why are you so critical of Mathurin?? Jkjk. Great overview! Financial flexibility helps and it’ll be interesting to see how Turners “savings” manifest.

  4. I'm really happy with the way they handled Wiseman's situation so far. I thought his career was over. Seems like a good guy that works hard. How about a deep dive on lineup possibilities for next season?

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