Pacers Offseason FA Targets

[jowglenn]

Now that the deadline has passed without the Pacers making any moves, let's look forward to the summer and see what the options will be and who the underrated targets for this team should be. I'm assuming the Pacers get PG back for a month, he looks fine, they make the playoffs, and bow out in the 1st or 2nd round, or who knows, make the ECF or Finals or win a championship, don't know. Let's consider that irrelevant since it's unknowable.

They then draft, say, 17th.

With the gang back together, Hibbert & West both opt in and stay next year, or opt-out and get new deals with the team, or one does and the other doesn't, etc. For the purposes of this scenario let's just assume they're both here. The team attempts to repeat its previous success in making the ECF and hopefully getting over the hump and into the Finals.

Pacers will have under contract:

Paul George
Roy Hibbert
David West
George Hill
CJ Miles
Ian Mahinmi
Solomon Hill
Damjan Rudez
2015 Draftee

Together they come out to about 60 million. Add in their 2nd round pick. Assuming the cap is at roughly 67 million, they will be 5 million under the cap before signing free agents. Add in cap holds or whatnot, and they've only got room to add a few guys anyways.


The good news is that PG/Hibbert/West/Hill/Miles/Hill/Mahinmi is 7 players complete out of your 9 or 10 man rotation. I don't want Rudez to be more than the 11th or 12th man. The rookie may or may not contribute, and I assume we'd draft best player available instead of for position.


This leaves the Pacers with a rotation with the following glaring needs:

A backup Point Guard (or two)
A backup Power Forward


These are the two free agents I think the Pacers need to sign. Fill the remainder of the roster with some placeholder big guy (a la whittington) and some random guard (a la Sloan) and that's your team for next year. Hill/Miles/George/West/Hibbert with FA/Hill/Rookie/FA/Mahinmi off the bench, plus a few spots for Rudez, minimum salary guys and maybe our 2nd rounder.

I'm not totally great on exceptions and the like, but the Pacers will be able to offer the full MLE, right? They are under the cap. This means they can sign one free agent to a deal starting at like 5.5 million, then use the bi-annual exception to sign another player to a deal starting at 2.1 million.

We can also split up the MLE to sign two different players for two cheaper deals.

So these are the two slots I'm trying to figure out how to fill.



OUR FREE AGENTS

Stuckey
Scola
Watson
Allen
Sloan

I don't think Allen, Sloan, or Watson has much chance of coming back for much more than the minimum.

Stuckey I would love to re-sign, but I think he may get an offer elsewhere too rich for us. If we can keep him for the MLE, we should do it. If we keep him, our only other real need is a big man, and then we can just fill with minimum salary guys.

Scola could actually stay on as our 5th big or whatever - would he sign for the BAE money or less? Sure.



But outside of that, I want to look elsewhere, and hear your suggestions, on which free agents the Pacers could target.



Point guards (CJ Watson and Stuckey the options from our own team):

Mo Williams - he's a crafty vet who's shown he's got some fire in him. Nab him for the BAE and he could be good off the bench.

Jeremy Lin - he might be due more elsewhere, but would he take the MLE to be on a nice contending team? I'd love him as our 6th man.

Jameer Nelson - he can opt out and become a free agent, and he may want to do so while he can still get a deal in this league. I feel like he could be had for relatively cheap.



Power Forwards (Scola and Allen the options from our own team):

Brandon Bass: He's a veteran we could get for fairly cheap

Jonas Jerebko: Hey why not?

Darrell Arthur: solid defense I've heard, should be cheap

Josh Smith: hahahahahhahaha lol ok jk. But really, could we grab him for MLE or less and rehab him as a bench wrecking ball of some kind? No?

Carlos Boozer: He ain't getting big money anywhere, but wouldn't he be incredibly solid in a backup role?

Thomas Robinson: Hey, he'll be out there, right?

[mikepacernation]

I like mo Williams an Brandon bass. If we can get them cheap


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[Scoot McGroot]

Now that the deadline has passed without the Pacers making any moves, let's look forward to the summer and see what the options will be and who the underrated targets for this team should be. I'm assuming the Pacers get PG back for a month, he looks fine, they make the playoffs, and bow out in the 1st or 2nd round, or who knows, make the ECF or Finals or win a championship, don't know. Let's consider that irrelevant since it's unknowable.

They then draft, say, 17th.

With the gang back together, Hibbert & West both opt in and stay next year, or opt-out and get new deals with the team, or one does and the other doesn't, etc. For the purposes of this scenario let's just assume they're both here. The team attempts to repeat its previous success in making the ECF and hopefully getting over the hump and into the Finals.

Pacers will have under contract:

Paul George
Roy Hibbert
David West
George Hill
CJ Miles
Ian Mahinmi
Solomon Hill
Damjan Rudez
2015 Draftee

Together they come out to about 60 million. Add in their 2nd round pick. Assuming the cap is at roughly 67 million, they will be 5 million under the cap before signing free agents. Add in cap holds or whatnot, and they've only got room to add a few guys anyways.


The good news is that PG/Hibbert/West/Hill/Miles/Hill/Mahinmi is 7 players complete out of your 9 or 10 man rotation. I don't want Rudez to be more than the 11th or 12th man. The rookie may or may not contribute, and I assume we'd draft best player available instead of for position.


This leaves the Pacers with a rotation with the following glaring needs:

A backup Point Guard (or two)
A backup Power Forward


These are the two free agents I think the Pacers need to sign. Fill the remainder of the roster with some placeholder big guy (a la whittington) and some random guard (a la Sloan) and that's your team for next year. Hill/Miles/George/West/Hibbert with FA/Hill/Rookie/FA/Mahinmi off the bench, plus a few spots for Rudez, minimum salary guys and maybe our 2nd rounder.

I'm not totally great on exceptions and the like, but the Pacers will be able to offer the full MLE, right? They are under the cap. This means they can sign one free agent to a deal starting at like 5.5 million, then use the bi-annual exception to sign another player to a deal starting at 2.1 million.

We can also split up the MLE to sign two different players for two cheaper deals.

So these are the two slots I'm trying to figure out how to fill.



OUR FREE AGENTS

Stuckey
Scola
Watson
Allen
Sloan

I don't think Allen, Sloan, or Watson has much chance of coming back for much more than the minimum.

Stuckey I would love to re-sign, but I think he may get an offer elsewhere too rich for us. If we can keep him for the MLE, we should do it. If we keep him, our only other real need is a big man, and then we can just fill with minimum salary guys.

Scola could actually stay on as our 5th big or whatever - would he sign for the BAE money or less? Sure.



But outside of that, I want to look elsewhere, and hear your suggestions, on which free agents the Pacers could target.



Point guards (CJ Watson and Stuckey the options from our own team):

Mo Williams - he's a crafty vet who's shown he's got some fire in him. Nab him for the BAE and he could be good off the bench.

Jeremy Lin - he might be due more elsewhere, but would he take the MLE to be on a nice contending team? I'd love him as our 6th man.

Jameer Nelson - he can opt out and become a free agent, and he may want to do so while he can still get a deal in this league. I feel like he could be had for relatively cheap.



Power Forwards (Scola and Allen the options from our own team):

Brandon Bass: He's a veteran we could get for fairly cheap

Jonas Jerebko: Hey why not?

Darrell Arthur: solid defense I've heard, should be cheap

Josh Smith: hahahahahhahaha lol ok jk. But really, could we grab him for MLE or less and rehab him as a bench wrecking ball of some kind? No?

Carlos Boozer: He ain't getting big money anywhere, but wouldn't he be incredibly solid in a backup role?

Thomas Robinson: Hey, he'll be out there, right?

Your salary numbers are off by quite a bit. We have $65+m guaranteed on the books for next year with 8 players signed. Draft picks take us over $67m, and roster holds put us at almost $69m. There's no cap space if Hibbert and West opt in.
But yes, we'd have the full MLE and BAE. We'd only lost the full MLE if we went under the cap and used cap space to sign players.

[EuroPacer]

I'd keep Lavoy, useful player. I'd keep Watson around as well, Nelson and Lin aren't really upgrades over him in my opinion. The key is, can we keep Stuckey somehow, he is definitely a good 'instant offence of the bench' guy.

[pacers33]

A stretch 4 would be useful. Helps keep the paint open for PG. I would love to see Stuckey return for the right price.

[Scoot McGroot]

Something majorly missed from the Larry Bird press conference last month (which makes sense, because it was the first organizational acknowledgement that PG13 could return this year) was that Bird specifically stated he wants to get younger this year. I think we'll continue to monitor the heap for undervalued assets (as we did Stuckey), but I think that we'd like to use the MLE/BAE to find some younger guys. While Robinson, maybe Arthur, and maybe Lin would fit that, I'm not sure that many others would.

[mikepacernation]

Do we still have our second round pick this coming summer?


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[Wizop]

Didn't you leave out Copeland? I assume he's gone though. I'd try to keep everyone else if they can be resigned without tax. I'd reward their run.

[Scoot McGroot]

Do we still have our second round pick this coming summer?


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Yup. We own all our own future picks and are not owed any picks from anyone else. We are Essentially at scratch there.

[pacers33granger]

I hope we can bring back Stuckey. He's been really nice to have off the bench and I'd love to see him with a healthy squad. Not optimistic unless he takes another paycut. As critical as I've been about Scola, I'd be fine resigning him if he was cheap. We won't get someone better in free agency and he seems to finally be fitting in. Would like to see Allen back as well.

As far as other teams' free agents, there isn't too much out there in our price range. Guys I could see possibly going after:

John Jenkins - we could always use more shooters and he will likely be cheap. Never got it going in Atlanta.
Norris Cole - we're all well aware of his shortcomings as a PG, but we could use his defense and I don't think he'll get big offers.
Kendall Marshall - coming off a major injury so should be real cheap. Leaves a lot to be desired but could be a cheap look at a pass first PG for us.
Shane Larkin - personally not a big fan but still has some modest potential.
Kyle O'Quinn - could be a decent 4th big. Has some nice skills. No idea where his value will be though.

[chube]

While a stretch 4 would be nice (because West, Scola, and Allen bring similar styles of play to the court), I think figuring out the 2-spot is key. Miles and Stuckey have both said they're more comfortable coming off the bench, plus there is Solo and PG, one of whom would be a little out of position if both started.


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[Scoot McGroot]

While a stretch 4 would be nice (because West, Scola, and Allen bring similar styles of play to the court), I think figuring out the 2-spot is key. Miles and Stuckey have both said they're more comfortable coming off the bench, plus there is Solo and PG, one of whom would be a little out of position if both started.


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I'm not so sure that Vogel would even want to play a true stretch 4.

[EuroPacer]

Rudez is a stretch 4 in my book. I don't think Solo will start once PG is back (fully), Miles seems to do enough to play and Stuckey is dynamite in that second unit. I am not sure we are looking to change the starting 5 (with PG) but do concede that if anywhere it will probably be Miles position that could do with an upgrade, especially as Stuckey might get snapped up by another team.

[Wizop]

Shane Larkin - personally not a big fan but still has some modest potential.

I liked him in the draft, but after watching him in last night's Knicks game, he can't defend pro point guards. GHill could score over him effortlessly.

[pacers33granger]

Shane Larkin - personally not a big fan but still has some modest potential.

I liked him in the draft, but after watching him in last night's Knicks game, he can't defend pro point guards. GHill could score over him effortlessly.

Yeah I liked him in the draft too, but I didn't really realize how small he was. He doesn't seem to have much of a passing game and he's not one of those small explosive scorers like Nate Robinson. He could still become something, but I'd much rather have a steady vet in that spot instead.

[cubsflan24]

What about Frank Kaminsky as a first round target? We might have to move up a bit in the draft to get him but I can see him fitting very nicely with this team. The guy can do bit of everything and gives us another shooter from outside and guy that can go inside as well. Hill, George, West, Kaminsky, Hibbert is a pretty good starting 5 next year. I also hope we can bring back Stuckey because he is the perfect 6th man for us

[Scoot McGroot]

What about Frank Kaminsky as a first round target? We might have to move up a bit in the draft to get him but I can see him fitting very nicely with this team. The guy can do bit of everything and gives us another shooter from outside and guy that can go inside as well. Hill, George, West, Kaminsky, Hibbert is a pretty good starting 5 next year. I also hope we can bring back Stuckey because he is the perfect 6th man for us

I wouldn't pay to move up for him, but he'd be a great pick with a mid 1st.

[Wizop]

Kaminsky sure feels like a Bird pick. Larry seems to always want to pick himself.

[pacers33granger]

I think I'd be fine with Kaminsky where we are likely to pick, but the thought of it alone is already bringing back Bird grabbing Hansbrough over higher potential and younger guys we could have used who panned out.

[Scoot McGroot]

I think I'd be fine with Kaminsky where we are likely to pick, but the thought of it alone is already bringing back Bird grabbing Hansbrough over higher potential and younger guys we could have used who panned out.

Maybe. But Kaminsky's shooting range meshes much more with the current NBA style for big men, whereas Tyler was much more old school of playing within 5 feet of the rim. Add in his true center size, but mobility to play PF, and he's a pretty good long-term fit in the NBA.

Plus, I'm just not sure there's really a ton of great young, prospective, talent at 15 or later in this draft.