Kyle Mangas

Pacers Sign Dakota Mathias To Exhibit 10 Contract

The Pacers have waived Kyle Mangas and Cameron McGriff, the team announced in a press release. Indiana has also signed Dakota Mathias to an Exhibit 10 contract.

Both Mangas and McGriff were signed to Exhibit 10 contracts, and both finished last season with the Mad Ants, the Pacers’ NBA G League affiliate. Now that they’ve been released, Mangas and McGriff will receive bonuses worth up to $77.5K on top of their standard NBAGL salaries as long as they spend at least 60 days with the Mad Ants once the 2024/25 season begins.

Mathias played four years of college ball in Indiana at Purdue prior to going undrafted in 2018. He has appeared in 14 regular season games with Philadelphia and Memphis, last playing for the Grizzlies during the 2021/22 campaign. He has averaged 3.9 points in 9.9 minutes per contest during his brief NBA career.

A 6’4″ guard, Mathias is an excellent outside shooter, having converted more than 40% of his three-point tries in both college and the G League. In addition to his time in the NBA and NBAGL, the 29-year-old has also played professionally in Spain. He spent part of last season in Germany with Ratiopharm Ulm.

As with Mangas and McGriff, the Pacers’ announcement specifies that Mathias’ Exhibit 10 deal was designed for him to join the Mad Ants for the upcoming season. That means he will be waived at some point before the ’24/25 campaign begins.

Pacers Sign Kyle Mangas, Cameron McGriff To Exhibit 10 Deals

The Pacers have signed free agent guard Kyle Mangas and forward Cameron McGriff to Exhibit 10 contracts, the team announced today in a press release.

Mangas, a native of Indiana who played his college ball at Indiana Wesleyan, went undrafted in 2021 and spent two seasons overseas with teams in the Czech Republic and Lithuania before catching on with the Indiana Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate, for the 2023/24 campaign.

In 51 total Showcase Cup and regular season games last season for the Mad Ants, the 6’4″ guard averaged 16.9 points, 3.5 assists, and 3.1 rebounds in 31.4 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .478/.389/.860.

McGriff, who went undrafted out of Oklahoma State in 2020, bounced around several leagues in his first few professional seasons, playing in Belgium, Puerto Rico, Greece, and France in addition to multiple stints in the G League and a brief cameo in the NBA for the Trail Blazers during the 2021/22 season.

Like Mangas, McGriff finished last season as a member of the Indiana Mad Ants. After playing in 32 games for the Memphis Hustle, the 6’7″ forward was traded to the Mad Ants in March and made eight appearances for the Pacers’ affiliate down the stretch. In his 40 total outings for the two teams, he recorded averages of 11.3 PPG and 4.2 RPG on .434/.331/.887 shooting.

While Exhibit 10 contracts can be converted into two-way deals before the regular season begins, it doesn’t sound like that’s the plan for Mangas or McGriff. The Pacers’ announcement mentions specifically that the plan for the duo is to rejoin the Mad Ants, who hold their G League returning rights.

Signings these Exhibit 10 deals will allow Mangas and McGriff to receive bonuses worth up to $77.5K on top of their standard NBAGL salaries as long as they spend at least 60 days with the Mad Ants after being waived by the Pacers.

Indiana now has a full 21-man offseason roster.

And-Ones: MVP Race, 2024 Draft, Korkmaz, Okafor, More

With Joel Embiid no longer eligible for this season’s MVP award due to the number of games he has missed, the race appears wide open, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, who conducted another version of his straw poll ahead of the All-Star break.

The 100 media members polled over the weekend by MacMahon selected Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as the current MVP favorite, with Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the runner-up. Jokic earned 69 first-place votes and was the only player selected by all 100 voters on their five-player ballots, while Gilgeous-Alexander was listed on 99 ballots and was the top choice on 24 of them.

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, and Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard rounded out the top five in Bontemps’ latest poll, with Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell also appearing on double-digit ballots. Notably, while just four of 100 media members had Anthony Edwards in their top five, one made the Timberwolves guard their MVP choice.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Although Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) still feel as if the 2024 draft class is short on high-end talent, they believe it could end up being a relatively deep draft. Givony and Woo suggest that some teams will be able to find rotation players later in the first round or in the second round, even if there are no sure-fire stars at the top of the class.
  • After being traded from Philadelphia to Indiana and then waived by the Pacers, veteran swingman Furkan Korkmaz has turned down interest from Turkish club Besiktas for now and is hoping to remain in the NBA, according to a report from Eurohoops. Korkmaz didn’t play much for the Sixers the past two seasons, but is still just 26 years old and is a 36.1% three-point shooter over the past five years.
  • Former lottery pick Jahlil Okafor is on the move again, having recently signed with Puerto Rican team Capitanes de Arecibo, as Dario Skerletic of Sportando relays. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 draft, Okafor played in Spain and China earlier this season. He last played in the NBA with Detroit in 2020/21.
  • Grizzlies guard Vince Williams has been chosen to replace injured Pelicans guard Dyson Daniels in this Friday’s Rising Stars game at All-Star weekend, while Indiana Mad Ants guard Kyle Mangas will replace Sixers two-way player Kenneth Lofton Jr. in the G League Next Up game, according to a pair of announcements from the NBA and NBAGL.

Pacers Sign, Waive Three Players

OCTOBER 18: Travis, Mangas, and McGhee have been waived by the Pacers, the team announced today in a press release.


OCTOBER 17: The Pacers have officially signed forward Reid Travis and guards Kyle Mangas and Darius McGhee, the team announced today in a press release. All three players received non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts, per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link).

Travis, a former Kentucky Wildcat, went undrafted in 2019 and has played overseas since then, spending one season in Germany and three in Japan. Mangas is another former undrafted free agent who has played in international leagues since going pro. He played college ball at Indiana Wesleyan from 2017-21, then spent one season in the Czech Republic and one in Lithuania.

McGhee is an undersized guard at 5’9″, but he became one of the most dangerous outside shooters in the NCAA during his five college seasons at Liberty. Over the last three years, he made 4.1 three-pointers per game at a 39.6% clip, averaging 21.3 points per game in 98 contests (32.0 MPG) during that time. He’s a three-time ASUN Player of the Year whose agreement with the Pacers was reported two months ago.

As Agness notes, all three players appear likely to become affiliate players for the Indiana Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League team. Assuming they spend at least 60 days with the Mad Ants, they’ll receive Exhibit 10 bonuses that can be worth up to $75K.

The Pacers now have a full 21-man roster.

Central Notes: Turner, Pacers, Moran, Pistons

The Pacers have talked about a deal that could send center Myles Turner to the Warriors, Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer said in a recent podcast with Chris Vernon (h/t BasketballNews.com).

The Warriors possess two lottery picks in this Thursday’s 2021 NBA draft, the No. 7 and No. 14 selections. A mobile, defensive-oriented center who can guard multiple positions and is a career 35.2% shooter from deep, Turner could be an excellent fit in Golden State. The 25-year-old big man averaged 12.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG and 3.4 BPG across 47 games during the 2020/21 season.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

  • The Pacers will be holding their eighth pre-draft workout on Monday, tweets Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. The Pacers have the No. 13 pick in the upcoming draft. The players set to partake are Marcus Burk of IUPUI, Trevion Crews of Bethel College, Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan, Matt Mitchell of San Diego State, Jordan Schakel of San Diego State, and Aaron Wiggins of Maryland.
  • The Pistons intend to hire former Trail Blazers assistant Jim Moran to Dwane Casey‘s coaching staff for the 2021/22 season, tweets James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Moran served under former Portland head coach Terry Stotts from 2015/16 through this past season.
  • Beyond the top selection in the 2021 NBA Draft, the Pistons also have three second-round picks. In a recent column, James L. Edwards III of The Athletic examines some options for Detroit while conducting a mock draft.

Central Notes: Tucker, Bucks, Pacers, Workouts, Pistons

P.J. Tucker is used to being a part of contending teams, but this season took a detour before he landed in Milwaukee, notes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Tucker had to endure a lot of losing in Houston after the Rockets dealt James Harden in mid-January. He was stuck in a rebuilding situation until the Bucks traded for him in March.

“I thought about the stuff I was doing with Houston this year, this season has just been a long year for me,” Tucker said. “To go from being a top team in the West to falling apart instantly and being the last one left (in Houston) and everything I went through with that, the transition, it was just a lot this season.”

Tucker has enjoyed his time with the Bucks and is looking forward to competing for his first NBA championship, but isn’t sure whether his time in Milwaukee will extend beyond this season, as Nehm writes.

“I’m really excited to be able to pick where I want to go,” Tucker said. “The (contract) extension thing was for a different period of time. We didn’t even talk about that when I came to Milwaukee. There was no extension. I just wanted to come play and get a chance to do what I do and that was it. I just wanted to have a chance.”

Here’s more from around the Central:

Luke Adams contributed to this post.