In Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin, Pacers got what they needed in free agency
Kevin Pritchard and the Pacers' personnel department assuredly had grander visions of both the draft and free agency than what ultimately came true for them.
Pritchard, the Pacers' president of basketball operations, said in April when the season ended that the Pacers planned to be aggressive. They had made attempts at acquiring high-level players at the February trade deadline, he said, and none of them came to fruition. However, he was hopeful that the combination of, at the time, five draft picks and over $25 million in cap space would make the Pacers an attractive trade partner and free agent destination and in turn they’d be able to make a move that drastically altered their franchise trajectory.
After the draft and the first weekend of free agency with all of the brand-named free agents having found homes, the Pacers might not have accomplished everything they wanted to. In the draft, the Pacers ended up using their picks to trade back rather than trading up and in free agency, they didn't get the highest-level free agents they were connected to. That being said, they still checked all the boxes that had to be considered necessities.
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They brought in two of their favored targets in the draft, and in a free agency period that has largely been defined by players who stuck with their teams, the Pacers were as active in adding external talent as any team in the league outside of the Houston Rockets. They also locked up their franchise player with a maximum-level contract extension. They still have the rest of the offseason to add talent through trades, but even if their roster stands pat as it is now, they’ll head into the 2023-24 season with more talent and more depth than they had a year ago and should enter the year with a legitimate chance at getting back into the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s max contract extension was on one hand the easiest offseason task for the Pacers to accomplish, but it’s still the most important. Haliburton gave every indication he wanted to stay in Indiana long term and Pritchard indicated at every turn that the Pacers were willing to give him the maximum amount it took to stay. There’s little reason to believe there was much of any drama involved in the negotiations. Still, the five-year deal which could pay Haliburton up to $260 million sets the most important block in the Pacers’ foundation for the foreseeable future.
On one hand, the Pacers’ biggest free agent addition seems like a bit of an overpay, and it seemed considerably odd the moment he signed it because at 6-4, 202 pounds, he’s at best a stretch to fill the Pacers’ biggest positional need at power forward. Bruce Brown just finished his fifth season in the NBA, and he just averaged double-figure scoring for the first time with 11.5 points per game. And the Pacers gave him a two-year $45 million deal with a team option that makes him Indiana’s highest-paid player until Haliburton’s extension kicks in next year. He’ll make close to four times as much money this season as he did a year ago.
However, the market put the Pacers in a position where they were going to have to overpay somebody, as did new rules regarding the salary floor. And if they ultimately did have to overpay somebody, it makes sense to make that somebody a Swiss Army knife of a player whose versatility made him a critical piece of the Nuggets’ NBA title run.
The Pacers entered free agency with $32 million in cap room, which effectively became $36 million when news broke that they were finalizing a trade to send guard Chris Duarte to the Kings for as yet unspecified draft compensation. All that cap room made the Pacers competitors for a number of top free agents, especially some of the top power forwards on the market. However, those power forwards appeared to use the Pacers’ interest and those of other teams as leverage to re-sign with their current teams for sizable raises. Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes signed a three-year $54 million deal the day before free agency opened. Portland’s Jerami Grant signed a five-year, $160 million deal to stay with the Trail Blazers. Kyle Kuzma agreed to a four-year deal worth $102 million to re-up with the Wizards. Brooklyn’s Cameron Johnson signed for four years, $108 million before anyone could send him an offer sheet in restricted free agency and the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura got a three-year, $51 million contract to avoid restricted free agency as well.
The Pacers obviously had a sense that was the direction things were going by Friday, as all five of those signings hit the news within the first two hours of free agency. They still had to use some of their cap room just to get to the salary floor, which is set at 90 percent of the salary cap of $136 million, meaning they had to increase their payroll from $100 million to $122 million by the first day of the season or their payroll would simply be increased to that figure and the money would be dispersed to all of the NBA’s players, not just the ones on their roster. They would not be able to use that cap space and they couldn’t make any move during the season that would decrease their payroll.
So the Pacers effectively had to use that money or lose it, and by using it on Brown they got a player who could play and defend every position from point guard to power forward in a pinch, finish around the rim and shoot from outside. It’s not immediately clear whether Brown will start or how he will shuffle the Pacers’ rotation. They already have three options at point guard in Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell and several wings who can play shooting guard, small forward or both including Buddy Hield, Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith and Jordan Nwora. But the Nuggets have plenty of talented guards and wings too and Brown found his way to playing time among them, so there’s every reason to believe he’ll find a way to get on the floor for the Pacers.
Haliburton’s extension and Brown’s addition tightens the Pacers’ cap room significantly for 2024-25, but the Pacers put a team option on the second year of his contract which means they can decide to let him back into free agency after just one year if he no longer fits.
Brown didn’t solve the Pacers’ lack of depth at the power forward position, but grabbing Obi Toppin in Saturday’s trade with the Knicks goes a long way to taking care of that. The former consensus national player of the year from Dayton has been mostly stuck behind Julius Randle in New York, and Toppin has a real opportunity to win the starting job for the Pacers. Indiana also used its No. 8 pick on power forward Jarace Walker of Houston. Toppin could help Walker ease into the NBA and take on the starting role until Walker is ready for it, and the Pacers aren’t committed to Toppin for the long term. He’s owed $6.8 million this season and he becomes a restricted free agent next year. The Pacers will have the option to keep him but won’t be required to if the 19-year-old Walker makes it clear he’s ready to start.
The Pacers still have time and assets to make moves if they want and the addition of Brown makes some of their other assets more movable. They reportedly pursued a number of veteran small forward-sized wings around the draft including Toronto’s O.G. Anunoby, DeAndre Hunter and Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris and Dorian Finney-Smith, and they could obviously continue to pursue them or someone like them. They could also look to make a move to break up their log jam at center behind starter Myles Turner with Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson and Daniel Theis still on the roster. Moving one of them for draft capital could help free open a spot if they want to sign one of their veteran free agents, George Hill and James Johnson Jr.
But if the Pacers don’t make another move from now until the season starts, they can begin the year knowing they did what they had to do.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers did what they had to do in free agency, adding Brown and Toppin
