Indiana Pacers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Injury Notes: Porzingis, Davis, LaVine, Herro, Mitchell, Warren

April 24th, 2021 at 6:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis will sit out tonight’s game with the Lakers, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Porzingis sprained his left ankle in Thursday’s win over L.A., and even though the injury isn’t considered to be a long-term issue, Dallas is being careful with Porzingis.

“We believe (the ankle sprain) is not serious,” coach Rick Carlisle said, “but the decision for him to sit tonight was not a close call.” (Twitter link)

There’s more injury news from around the league:

The Lakers will have Anthony Davis on a 25-minute restriction for tonight’s game, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). Davis played 17 minutes Thursday as he returned to the court for the first time in nine weeks and felt “minimal soreness,” said coach Frank Vogel. The Lakers plan to use Davis in both halves tonight.
Bulls guard Zach LaVine won’t be available for the rest of the team’s road trip, tweets K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. That will include games tonight and Monday in Miami and Wednesday at New York. LaVine has been in the league’s health and safety protocols for the past 10 days, and coach Billy Donovan said the All-Star guard is still under quarantine.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra refused to comment on whether Tyler Herro aggravated his foot injury in Friday’s loss to the Hawks, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Herro, who won’t be active tonight, had sat out the prior two games before playing against Atlanta.
Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell had his sprained ankle re-evaluated Friday, tweets Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. Mitchell is making progress, but will miss at least one more week.
Pacers forward T.J. Warren, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his left foot, has rejoined the team, according to Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link), who adds that Warren is no longer wearing a walking boot.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Central Division

April 23rd, 2021 at 9:03pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Throughout the season, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this off-season. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Central Division:

Frank Jackson, Pistons, 22, SG/PG (Up) – Signed to a one-year, two-way ($449K) deal in 2020

An early second-round pick in 2017, Jackson was a rotation player with the Pelicans for two seasons after missing his first year with a foot injury. New Orleans let him walk in the offseason and the Thunder cut him in training camp, but Jackson has revived his career on a two-way contract with the Pistons.

Rather than playing the point, Jackson has thrived in an off-the-ball role under Dwane Casey. He has scored 14 or more points in six of the last eight games, including a go-ahead basket in the final minute against Cleveland on Monday.

It seems a good bet that Jackson, who has dramatically improved his 3-point shooting, will receive a qualifying offer from Detroit’s front office and become a restricted free agent this summer.

Denzel Valentine, Bulls, 27, SF/SG (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $4.64MM deal in 2020

Valentine is one of those low-turnover, glue guys that coaches feel comfortable putting on the floor but who doesn’t dent the stat sheet. He has been in Billy Donovan’s rotation most of the season but his shooting numbers remain subpar (38.4% overall, 33.0% from deep). Valentine signed his qualifying offer to stay in Chicago after an unspectacular 2019/20 season. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer and will likely be looking at offers below the QO he inked in the fall. Chicago’s late lottery pick in 2016 might benefit from a change of scenery.

Doug McDermott, Pacers, 29, SF/PF (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $22MM deal in 2018

Dougie McBuckets is one of the cooler nicknames in the league and for much of the season, he’s lived up to it. Currently dealing with an ankle sprain, McDermott is averaging a career-high 12.9 PPG and 3.6 RPG. He’s been more than just a long-range gunner, as 56% of his shot attempts have come from inside the arc. A career 40.7% shooter from deep, McDermott has been a solid rotation player for Indiana since the club signed him to a three-year deal three years ago. He’ll return to unrestricted free agency this summer and could be looking at similar offers.

Bryn Forbes, Bucks, 27, SG, (Up) – Signed to a two-year, $4.79MM deal in 2020

Forbes started the past two seasons in San Antonio but he’s probably best suited in his current role as a second-unit scorer with Milwaukee. Forbes is averaging 9.6 PPG in 19.3 MPG while making a career-best 43.7% of his 3-point attempts. He’ll have an interesting decision this summer, as he holds a $2.45MM option on his contract for next season. If Forbes remains in the rotation and performs well in the postseason, the undrafted guard out of Michigan State will position himself to nix that option in order to pursue multiyear offers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pacers Sign Amida Brimah, Waive Brian Bowen

April 23rd, 2021 at 11:57am CST by Luke Adams

11:57am: Brimah has officially signed his two-way deal with the Pacers, the team announced in a press release. He won’t have to go through a quarantine period and will be available for the team’s game on Saturday vs. Detroit, tweets Scott Agness of The Athletic.

As first reported by J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star (via Twitter) and confirmed by the Pacers, Bowen has been waived to open up a spot for Brimah. The 22-year-old forward, who has spent the last two seasons on a two-way deal with Indiana, logged a total of just 46 minutes in 12 games for the team since the start of 2019/20.

9:37am: Following a series of injuries to their frontcourt players, the Pacers are adding some depth. Free agent center Amida Brimah is signing a two-way contract with Indiana, agent Daniel Hazan tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Brimah, who went undrafted out of UConn in 2017, has never appeared in an NBA regular season game despite signing Exhibit 10 contracts with NBA teams for four consecutive years — two with the Spurs (2017 and 2018) and two with the Pacers (2019 and 2020).

The 27-year-old big man had a brief stint with a Serbian club in 2018 but has otherwise spent his professional career in the G League, most recently averaging 8.0 PPG, 8.6 RPG, and 2.6 RPG in 10 games (23.5 MPG) for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in this season’s NBAGL bubble.

Brimah is known for his rim-protecting abilities — he was named the AAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2015 and made the G League All-Defensive team in 2018. And despite never playing an NBA game, he has some championship experience, having won an NCAA title with UConn in ’14 and a G League title with the Austin Spurs in ’18.

The banged-up Pacers are currently missing Myles Turner (toe), Domantas Sabonis (back), and Goga Bitadze (ankle), so there could be a path to immediate minutes for Brimah, depending on when he officially signs and when Sabonis and Bitadze are ready to return.

Indiana will have to waive one of its current two-way players to make room for Brimah. Brian Bowen is probably a likelier release candidate than 2020 second-rounder Cassius Stanley, but we’ll have to see what the Pacers have in mind.

Details On Brissett Contract

April 22nd, 2021 at 6:16pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Pacers used their mid-level exception to give newly-extended forward Oshae Brissett a $757K salary for 2021/22, about three times what his minimum would have been, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Instagram video).

Turner Could Be Out Six Months

April 21st, 2021 at 5:26pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Oshae Brissett‘s three-year contract with the Pacers is not guaranteed for the final two seasons, Blake Murphy of The Athletic tweets. Brissett was signed to a standard contract Wednesday after a pair of 10-day deals expired. The former Raptor has averaged 4.8 PPG on .688/.571/.750 shooting in six games (8.2 MPG) with Indiana.
Myles Turner’s toe injury could keep the Pacers big man out of action for six months. Dr. Jan Szatkowski, an orthopedic foot and ankle trauma doctor at Indiana University, told the Indianapolis Star’s Michael McCleary that his injury normally requires surgery and a six-month recovery period. However, it’s worth noting that Szatkowski hasn’t personally examined Turner, who has been ruled out indefinitely due to a partial tear of the plantar plate in the big toe of his right foot.

Pacers’ Sampson Suspended One Game; Spurs’ Mills, Gay Fined

April 21st, 2021 at 1:17pm CST by Luke Adams

Pacers forward JaKarr Sampson has been suspended for one game for an incident that occurred during Monday’s game against the Spurs, according to a press release.

Sampson got into an on-court altercation with Spurs guard Patty Mills, shoving him and then head-butting him (video link). He received a Flagrant 2 foul and an automatic ejection at the time.

Mills and Spurs teammate Rudy Gay, who each received technical fouls as a result of the incident, have been fined by the NBA, according to today’s announcement. Mills was docked $25K and Gay, who shoved Sampson, was hit with a $20K fine.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), the financial impact on Sampson won’t be quite as significant as the fines the Spurs’ veterans received. He’ll lose just $12,985 during his one-game suspension — that’s 1/145th of his $1,882,867 salary for this season.

Sampson will serve his suspension on Wednesday night as the Pacers face the Thunder in Indiana. Myles Turner (toe) and Domantas Sabonis (back) will also be unavailable for that game, with Goga Bitadze (ankle) listed as questionable, so the Pacers will be quite shorthanded in the frontcourt.

Pacers Sign Oshae Brissett To Three-Year Deal

April 21st, 2021 at 10:27am CST by Luke Adams

APRIL 21: The Pacers have officially re-signed Brissett, the team announced today in a press release.

APRIL 20: The Pacers and forward Oshae Brissett have agreed to a three-year contract, a league source tells J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).

Brissett initially inked a 10-day contract with Indiana on April 1, then was re-signed to a second 10-day pact on April 11. That second deal is set to expire tonight. Because teams can only sign a player to two 10-day contracts in a season, Brissett would have become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow if the Pacers hadn’t been willing to sign him to a standard deal.

Brissett spent the 2019/20 season on a two-way contract with the Raptors, appearing in 19 games with the team last season after going undrafted out of Syracuse.

He reunited with former Toronto assistant Nate Bjorkgren in Indiana earlier this month and has made a positive impression on the Pacers in a limited role, averaging 4.8 points per game on .688/.571/.750 shooting in six games (8.2 MPG). His best game came last night, when he put up 13 points and six rebounds in a loss to San Antonio.

Because the Pacers haven’t yet used any of their mid-level exception yet this season, they were able to use a portion of it to go beyond a two-year deal for Brissett. While we don’t know the exact terms of the contract yet, the rest of this season’s salary will be fully guaranteed — years two and three will almost certainly be worth the minimum and are unlikely to be guaranteed.

Once they officially re-sign Brissett, the Pacers will have a full roster of 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.

Pacers Face Major Offseason Decisions

April 20th, 2021 at 11:58am CST by Luke Adams

As the Pacers near the end of what has been a disappointing season, J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) looks ahead to some big questions the team will have to answer in the offseason, including potentially finally deciding to trade one of Myles Turner or Domantas Sabonis.

Myles Turner Out Indefinitely With Partial Toe Tear

April 19th, 2021 at 5:10pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Pacers starting center Myles Turner will be out indefinitely after partially tearing the plantar plate in the great toe of his right foot, per a team announcement.

An MRI today shed light on the injury. Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files tweets that, before returning to the court yesterday, Turner had sat for the prior six games as he struggled with a left ankle sprain. Agness notes that this toe setback appears unrelated.

The 6’11” Turner, still just 24, had been enjoying a solid run with the Pacers for the 2020/21 season. Across 47 games, he’s averaging 12.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG, an unreal 3.4 BPG, and 0.9 SPG. He boasts a shooting line of .477/.335/.782.

Losing their defensive anchor for any extended period of time is a major blow for the Pacers as they continue to fight for a play-in appearance. The team is currently the No. 9 seed in the East. At 26-30, the Pacers are currently two games behind the eighth-seeded Hornets, a team saddled with a litany of its own major injuries, and three games ahead of the tenth-seeded Raptors.

With Turner absent, the team will lean on the kinds of small-ball lineups it employed during Turner’s prior injury, with All-Star Domantas Sabonis moving to center and 6’4″ forward Edmond Sumner once again being promoted from the bench to fill out the starting front court alongside 6’6″ forward Justin Holiday. Goga Bitadze and Oshae Brissett could see bigger roles for themselves in the front court rotation this season.

“Pain is temporary,” Turner said of his recovery in a Twitter message. “[I’m going to] attack this rehab and we right back to it!”

Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com tweets that current Nets power forward Blake Griffin‘s 2016/17 playoff run with the Clippers came to an abrupt end when he incurred a similar ailment, eventually requiring corrective surgery.

And-Ones: S. Leonard, Forde, Draft, Olympics

April 14th, 2021 at 2:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 as a coach, passed away this week at age 88, the Pacers confirmed in a series of statements.

The longtime Indiana native played college ball for Hoosiers, then eventually returned to Indiana to coach the Pacers from 1968-80. He won an NCAA title as a player in 1953 and led the Pacers to three ABA championships as a coach in 1970, 1972, and 1973.

“Pacers fans will remember Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard as the spirit of our franchise,” Pacers owner Herb Simon said in a statement. “With a charisma, intensity, and wit to match his nickname, Slick made us champions. He was our biggest fan and our most loving critic, and he personified Pacers basketball for generations of Hoosier families.”

Our condolences go out to Leonard’s friends and family.

Here are a few more items from around the basketball world:

In an entertaining piece for The Ringer, Yaron Weitzman takes a closer look at former EPL executive Mike Forde, who has developed a reputation as a trusted consultant for NBA teams looking to identify candidates for front office vacancies.
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link) has confirmed with the NBA that the four teams involved in the play-in tournament who don’t earn playoff spots will be in the draft lottery, ranked in inverse order of regular season record. In other words, a No. 7 seed that loses two play-in games and doesn’t make the postseason could theoretically have a shot at the No. 1 overall pick.
After a postponement in 2020, all indications are that the Tokyo Olympics remain on track to take place in the summer of 2021. Dan Robson of The Athletic examines the “uniquely challenging” event, where Team USA’s men’s basketball team will be looking to win gold for a fourth straight time.