Central Notes: Pacers, Middleton, Bucks, Pistons

The Pacers will be the latest NBA franchise to reach an agreement with a corporate sponsor to add an advertisement patch to their jerseys. Indiana issued a press release today announcing its deal with Motorola, a mobile communications company which is based in the Midwest. The Pacers will debut their new jerseys with the Motorola patch in Tuesday night’s game against Cleveland.

As a result of the Pacers’ new deal, the Thunder are now the only NBA team without a sponsored patch on their uniforms, as our tracker shows. The NBA just introduced its jersey sponsorship initiative in 2017, so it hasn’t taken long for nearly all the league’s franchises to get on board.

Here’s more from around the Central:

• As Bucks swingman Khris Middleton nears free agency, he’s unconcerned about the idea that he’s underrated, telling Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, “Teams know who I am.” Middleton also contended that he and Giannis Antetokounmpo are “one of the most dynamic duos in the East.”
• After adding George Hill to their roster, the Bucks have something of a logjam in their backcourt, according to Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who explores how coach Mike Budenholzer is handling that logjam. “It is a good problem,” Budenholzer said. “All of them have played, all of them have helped us. It’s part of, I guess, one of the harder parts about coaching is you have to make some tough decisions.”
• While Pistons fans may be anxious to shake up a team that has lost seven of its last eight games, major changes won’t come quickly for the franchise, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News. As Beard observes, it will be tricky for the Pistons to find players to complement Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond on the trade market, since the other players on their roster don’t have a whole lot of trade value.