The Pacers have signed forward T.J. Leaf to this rookie contract, according to the NBA’s official transactions log. The team hasn’t officially announced the signing, but it appears Leaf made things official on Saturday before making his Summer League debut on Sunday.
Leaf, the 18th overall pick in last month’s draft, will be joining the Pacers as the club retools its roster, perhaps entering a full-fledged rebuilding phrase. He should have an opportunity to earn some frontcourt minutes in his rookie year for Indiana, alongside promising young bigs like Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis.
An early entrant in this year’s draft, Leaf is coming off an impressive freshman campaign at UCLA in which he averaged 16.3 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 2.4 APG, and 1.1 BPG. He was also incredibly efficient from the floor, shooting 61.7% on field goal attempts, including 46.6% on threes.
Leaf’s rookie deal figures to be worth just over $2MM in year one, with a four-year total of more than $11.5MM, as our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale shows.
Reminds me alot of Keith Van Horn.
lol I hope he’s better… speaking as ah Pacer fan.. lol
He’ll be really good, Oladipo will also get the chance to run the offense more. I also like Sabonis’s potential on the offensive end, he has good range on his jumper and can post up and score.
Not every single draft pick can be really good
You are right but in the NBA you just never know where you could find a gem. Its really hard to find a superstar beyond pick 20 but you can certainly find a star anywhere in the draft. IT was the 60th pick and is coming off a 29 ppg ALL NBA second team selection. TJ Leaf can ball and will be at the very least a borderline star. Sabonis will help the Pacers win.
Travis Knight 2.0