Pacers Sign Butler, Howard, Jackson to Training Camp Invites

[Jake0890]

Free agent forward Rasual Butler has reached agreement on a non-guaranteed contract with the Indiana Pacers, agent Joel Bell told RealGM.

Butler played for the Pacers’ summer league team in July and averaged 6.2 points and three rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game. At 6-foot-7, Butler established himself as a strong outside shooter and positive presence over 10 seasons in the NBA – his most recent coming in 2011-12 with the Toronto Raptors.

Despite the deal being non-guaranteed, Butler is expected to receive a shot to battle for his standing in training camp and preseason.

Butler, 34, also has played with the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls over his career, averaging 8.2 points on 35.8 percent three-point shooting and 2.6 rebounds. He was originally the No. 54 pick in the 2002 NBA draft and has worked for opportunities to get back in the league through the D-League and summer league.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/229664/Rasual-Butler-To-Sign-With-Pacers

[jowglenn]

sold long-time journeyman vet, not a bad guy to get.

[mizzoupacers]

He's a solid enough guy, but how many small forwards do the Pacers have now? LOL, I guess they will wear teams down with their small forward depth.

It doesn't really matter anyway, this is strictly a "break glass in case of emergency" spot on the roster.

[Scoot McGroot]

Yup. For a training camp invite, it's ok. May not have anything left in the tank, but absolutely no cost. Could be a savvy vet, though, and pay off.


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[mikepacernation]

So is it safe to say the pacers won't go after a big man? I know they still have one spot left on the roster right?

[mikepacernation]

Do u guys think the pacers know something about Granger that we don't? Maybe that's the reason we signed a SF knowing we have plenty of them?

[Moooose]

Butler's contract isn't guaranteed yet, and we still have one slot open if we are to keep Butler for next season.
Indiana would likely bring in a 5th big man into training camp.

Technically, Indiana only have 3 legit SF's in Granger, George, and Solomon Hill.

Copeland is more of a 4 who can play 3. And Stephenson and Johnson are 2's who can play a little 3, but they are too small. Knock on wood but if Granger misses time due to injury, we'd be pretty thin at the 3.

Indiana's desire to add another SF was not a secret, earlier last month I believe we were considering Lance Thomas.

[Scoot McGroot]

This is essentially a training camp invite. We'll see another 3-6 guys signed for training camp, but 2, at most, will actually make the roster. It's possible that none of them do.


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[Wizop]

he shot and rebounded well in Orlando. I would have preferred an emergency center but non-guaranteed is non-guaranteed. there will be centers in training camp but we'll have to see if we sign one for the season and if so if he is a veteran or a wanna-be who plays more in Ft Wayne than here.

[EuroPacer]

I think this might be the invisible hand of a Mr. West, didn't they play together in NO?

[Wizop]

and now we've signed Ron Howard to a similar contract which downplays the Butler deal. the second signing makes clear that these are just training camp players who may or may not survive to the regular season. use pencil when you add them to the roster.

[Scoot McGroot]

I think this might be the invisible hand of a Mr. West, didn't they play together in NO?

They did play together, but it's a training camp in its that Rasual earned by playing decently well in the summer league. Apparently, the team told him they want a shooter, and a veteran.

Ultimately, I think we keep one, MAYBE two of these summer league invites/roster filler. I would think we'd look for a developmental center (think Fab Melo-ish) and then maybe keep best player available as a wildcard, if we see something.


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[pacers33granger]

and now we've signed Ron Howard to a similar contract which downplays the Butler deal. the second signing makes clear that these are just training camp players who may or may not survive to the regular season. use pencil when you add them to the roster.

With the signing of Sloan earlier in the year, I'm fairly confused by the signing of Howard. What's the point? We have 3 pgs, at least Butler could possibly do something for us.

[Scoot McGroot]

and now we've signed Ron Howard to a similar contract which downplays the Butler deal. the second signing makes clear that these are just training camp players who may or may not survive to the regular season. use pencil when you add them to the roster.

With the signing of Sloan earlier in the year, I'm fairly confused by the signing of Howard. What's the point? We have 3 pgs, at least Butler could possibly do something for us.

It's a shot for a guy that has been loyal to us by staying with Ft. Wayne in the NBADL for 3 or so years. Plus, he's a 6'5" SG/SF. He'll compete with Orlando Johnson for a spot, or just to be the "wild card best player in camp" as a scorer and make us keep him.


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[Moooose]

I agree Ron Howard is more of a wild card kind of guy. And speaking of Fab Melo, I wouldn't mind the Pacers giving him a chance for a roster spot. He's big and wide, and we can definitely use some additional size up front.

[pacers33granger]

Ah, from what I knew of Howard I thought he was strictly a PG. Still, I don't know why we don't seem to be looking at more bigs. We still need one off the bench in the Pendergraph role, unless the plan is to play small a lot more.

[Scoot McGroot]

Ah, from what I knew of Howard I thought he was strictly a PG. Still, I don't know why we don't seem to be looking at more bigs. We still need one off the bench in the Pendergraph role, unless the plan is to play small a lot more.

He's definitely a distributor kind of player, so I can see why you might think that he's a PG.

And I would agree it'd appear we would need another guy that could play center. Our John Edwards, if you will. Though, who knows what management thinks....


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[Moooose]

Pacers just signed Darnell Jackson, looks like another training camp invite.

I've seen him play with the Kings on tv. Hard to gauge his potential with that Sacramento team but I like the fact that he knows how to uses his body. I see him as someone similar to Ivan Johnson, though he is a bit taller.

[Scoot McGroot]

Pacers just signed Darnell Jackson, looks like another training camp invite.

I've seen him play with the Kings on tv. Hard to gauge his potential with that Sacramento team but I like the fact that he knows how to uses his body. I see him as someone similar to Ivan Johnson, though he is a bit taller.

surprisingly, they're the same height. Both are only 6'8", and that may be generous for both.

Ultimately, it seems like he may just be a body for training camp as he's solely a PF, and can't really play center, as we would need him to.


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[Scoot McGroot]

Changed thread name to make it a bit more flexible for the rest of the summer training camp invite signings.