11:24am: Nesmith’s extension is official, the Pacers announced in a press release.
9:33am: The Pacers have agreed to a three-year, $33MM extension with Aaron Nesmith, agent Mike Lindeman tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The 24-year-old forward thrived in his first season with Indiana, moving into the starting lineup and averaging 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 73 games. Today’s extension shows that management considers him part of the team’s young core as it tries to become a playoff contender.
The Pacers acquired Nesmith from Boston last summer as part of the Malcolm Brogdon deal. The Celtics selected him with the 14th pick in the 2020 draft, but he wasn’t able to earn a regular rotation role in his two years with the team.
Nesmith will earn $5,634,257 in the final year of his rookie contract before the extension kicks in next season. Once the deal is finalized, he will be under contract through 2026/27.
Today is the final day for members of the 2020 draft class to sign rookie scale extensions. The deadline is set at 5:00 pm Central time, and you can track them all here.
Nesmith is the 10th player to agree to a rookie scale extension so far this year, as our extension tracker shows.
So the new CBA means just anybody and everybody gets a bag now lol
Yup.. lot of so so talent getting paid recently. Then you’ve got FAs that put up 18 and 10 taking min deals.
In 3 years there’s gonna be some teams in salary cap hell with all these long term overpays.
This is the only contract that makes sense this off season
Really.
Yes
Average three and minimal D gets 33 million? I don’t have much problem with Collins and minimal gripes with the Avdija deal, but Nesmith? He’s not even an average player and has weak upside.
I disagree. He’s a solid defender and has shown growth late last season and in the preseason as far as playmaking and using the dribble to run defenders off of the 3 point line and get to the rim. His 3 point shot is solid too.
He is *not* a solid defender. A guy who gives effort? Absolutely, he plays hard. But the results are bad. His contests were slow, defensive rating relative to his team’s and in most lineups involving him were subpar and on/off metrics were negative, and his awareness isn’t great at this point, and it showed. Opponents targeted him last season and were rewarded for doing so with much better shooting numbers than against the average NBA wing. He can improve, but right now, he’s not a positive defensive player, and the numbers back that up.
The dribble moves and such, I’ll grant you. He has opened his offensive game up a bit. Maybe he’ll grow into the contract. But right now, it is an overpay because of his poor defense.
Opponents shot about 7 percentage points better from 3-point range against Nesmith than the NBA average. Turning the average NBA player into Steph Curry. There are slow-footed Centers with better results against 3s.
It seems like a bit of an overpay but Nesmith busts his azz every second he is on the floor, plays good D, and can hit the open shot.
I have no problem with any of these guys getting paid but as far as I’m concerned Nesmith has shown more game than Avdija and has managed to stay on the court more than Collins.
Nesmith landed 33 mil while all you negative Nancy commenters flip his burgers.
Assuming everyone here flips burgers for a living says more about you than anyone else.
Thanks dad.
Dude. You said “negative nancy” You’re old AF.
Ok Aaron. I see you
Pacers should kept Duarte and traded Nesmith or Heild
Should of traded Heild