T.J. McConnell‘s agreed-upon four-year, $45MM extension, which doesn’t kick in until the 2025/26, could impact the Pacers’ upcoming decisions regarding Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star.
The McConnell and Andrew Nembhard (three-year, $58.6MM) extensions will put the Pacers closer to the luxury tax threshold and the prohibitive tax aprons going forward. Turner would become an unrestricted free agent without an extension before July 2025, while Mathurin will be eligible for a rookie scale extension at that time.
We have more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Nets could dictate next summer’s free agency and trade markets, Brian Lewis of the New York Post notes. They could open up as much as $70MM in cap space, plus they could control as many as four first-round picks in a loaded draft. The Nets also have the league’s second-biggest trade exception at $23.3MM.
- Mavericks former majority owner Mark Cuban apologized to Jalen Brunson for a perceived jab at the Knicks guard over Brunson’s 2022 free agency, Peter Botte of the New York Post relays. The exchange between Cuban and Brunson occurred during The Roommates podcast (video link). Cuban said in April 2023 that negotiations to retain Brunson “went south, when (father Rick Brunson) took over, or the parents took over.” Brunson signed with the Knicks shortly after they hired his father as an assistant coach. “The only thing that I … didn’t like about the whole situation was when Mark said, ‘When the parents got involved, that’s when things got messy,’” Brunson said. “So that was the one thing that I was like, I kind of was like, ‘Damn that was a little jab.’” Cuban offered the following reply: “I apologize, if it put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.”
- The Cavaliers will hold their first week of training camp at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., according to a team press release. Cleveland will become the first NBA team to hold training camp at IMG Academy. It will also be the Cavaliers’ first remote training camp since preparing for the 2004/05 season at Capital University in Columbus, OH.
Lol, the Pacers in luxury tax trouble with no Superstars. Get ready for two high-paid guys per team and the rest on minimum contracts. It’s going to get ugly.
2023-24
Haliburton stats
20
11
4
48%
36%
Brunson
29
7
4
48%
40%
I did not know Brunson is a better 3-pt shooter than Haliburton
Brunson is a superstar?
Haliburton can shoot pretty well from 3 in stretches. It’s not a problem. Two similarly effective kind of players I guess but Brunson is a different dude.
He’s someone you’d go to war with. Foxhole kind of guy. But if you don’t have Brunson Tyrese Haliburton is a pretty exceptional Talent in his own right.
I’m trying to understand your post. Yes, Brunson is a superstar. I’m trying to figure out your point here.
In a word yes.
Cuban didn’t believe in Brunson. So stop the BS. He has Luka so no backup PG is getting much time. What he should have done was sign-n-trade. He blew that. And it shows the disrespect for Brunsons talent. I thank U Mark. All NYC thanks you.
Knicks hiring his dad right before he signed with them looks a bit fishy though.
No rule against that though.
For the record Mark- “I apologize, if it put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.” Is not an actual apology.
“I’m sorry you were offended”
Exactly.
I was thinking the same thing tuck. But you worded it a lot better than I could have. Cuban’s failed attempt to smooth things over really didn’t improve the relationship at all, or even patch things up.
DAL so mismanaged Brunson’s (fairly typical) contract situation that it could serve as a primer for all FO’s of what not to do. Cuban should consider just owning it, vs trying to pretend that his FO was a victim of special circumstances and thereby put in a no-win situation. It was the most typical of circumstances. The player was eligible for only a lower $$ extension before the start of the season. In that situation, if the team values the player, it will almost always make an offer along those lines. DAL elected not to make that offer or any other. They let Brunson go into the final year of a minimum wage contract, knowing he’d be an UFA at the end of the year. Then they made it worse by trying to negotiate that lower $$ extension at midseason, after Brunson had clearly outplayed those numbers. Bottom line is Dad, or no Dad, Knick interest or no Knick interest, Brunson wasn’t re-signing with DAL because of DAL’s actions.