JULY 2: The Pacers have guaranteed Collison’s $10MM salary for the 2018/19 season, a source tells Jordan Schultz of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Indiana also guaranteed Bogdanovic’s ’18/19 salary last week.
JUNE 21: The Pacers are expected to bring back Darren Collison and guarantee his $10MM contract for next season, tweets Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports. Collison only has a $2MM partial guarantee for now, but will be in line for his full salary if Indiana doesn’t waive him before July 1.
“Everything is so fluid but at the end of the day, we said our top six, seven guys we wanted to have back. And then make additions,” said president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard.
Collison turned in a steady performance during his first season in Indiana, appearing in 69 games and posting a 12.4/2.6/5.3 line. The nine-year veteran signed with the Pacers as a free agent last summer.
Indiana still has to address partially guaranteed contracts for Bojan Bogdanovic ($10.5MM) and Al Jefferson ($10MM). Bogdanovic has a $1.5MM guarantee, while Jefferson’s is $4MM. Alex Poythress ($1,544,951) and Ike Anigbogu ($690,000 guaranteed out of $1,378,242) have smaller non-guaranteed deals.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Quite underwhelming, I mean he is a good guy & did a good job, but Indian needs to improve massively to compete, so keeping all the roster with minimal additions it will mean middle class (purgatory) for years to come, not good enough to compete, not bad enough to miss the playoffs & get some future star via the draft.
I like what Indiana is doing though. They’ll be in upper purgatory, and as soon as they hit on another draft pick they’ll have a decent shot at some good playoff runs if they’re well coached. Think Celtics before Horford. Once they sign their Horford they’ll be in good shape.
LaBron goes to the West & Indiana is in the East Finals.
The Pacers can’t afford to do that though. They play in too small of a market to attract any notable FA to sign with them (unless they’re willing to overpay). Tanking just makes their situation look even worse to free agents. As a Pacers fan I’d actually rather them be stuck in the middle class than tank for a few years just to watch the potential stars they might end up drafting walk in free agency to a big market team. The Pacers have drafted well enough in the late lottery (when they’ve been there) that I could trust the front office to find a potential steal to build around.
Big Al Jefferson: it’s time to go fishing. Can’t pay him 10m. Collision was solid. Pacers had Cleveland on the ropes. They will compete, play hard, share the ball, and guard you everywhere. Fun to watch. Rookie pg will help and dougie McBuckets fits perfectly.