Al Jefferson Is Headed to the Indiana Pacers
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers and center Al Jefferson have agreed to a 3-year, $30 million free-agent deal.
The Indiana Pacers aren’t messing around in free agency as according to the Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Al Jefferson is signing with the team.
It is a 3-year, $30 million deal according to Woj, and ESPN’s Marc Stein says the deal has no player or team options.
Al Jefferson has agreed in principle to a three-year, $30M deal with Indiana, league source tells @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2016
Still unclear if the final year of Jefferson-Pacers deal will be fully guaranteed, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2016
Al Jefferson's deal with Indiana, I'm told, will be a straight-up deal for three seasons with no options on either side
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2016
This is a very friendly deal for the Pacers, as it is the equivalent to signing a player last year to a $6 or $7 million a year deal, roughly what they currently are paying Rodney Stuckey.
Jefferson missed 35 games last season with injuries, but averaged 12 points and 6.4 rebounds a game coming off the bench for the Charlotte Hornets.
This could work out one of two ways for the Pacers.
The first, Jefferson comes off the bench to spell Myles Turner. This seems the most likely as Jefferson only started 18 of his 47 regular season games. He did, however, start five of the Hornets’ seven playoff games.
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This makes the most sense as there is no reason to slow down the career of Turner, and considering the injuries and age factors, Jefferson likely isn’t suited for starters minutes. It was a down year for Jefferson, which likely helped Indiana in negotiations, but that might be more injury-related than anything else.
The other — and less likely option — might be to move Turner down to power forward and bring Thaddeus Young off the bench. Unlikely but with the Pacers’ roster still a work in progress, there are several ways coach Nate McMillan could use Jefferson and Young.
This deal, however, will force the Pacers hand in one way or another. The Pacers are apparently were trying to sign Ian Mahinmi, according to David Aldridge, but they already were in a position where they needed to renounce their rights to several free agents to make room for Jefferson.
Mahinmi’s cap hold was one of them, and is now gone.
Pacers still hoping to re-sign Ian Mahinmi, but will have to renounce rights to some free agents to clear room for Al Jefferson contract.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 1, 2016
With Al Jefferson agreeing to his 3-year deal with the #Pacers, Ian Mahinmi will not return to Indiana, per league source.
— Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) July 1, 2016
The others are Solomon Hill, Jordan Hill, and Ty Lawson. Lawson is the only one with any chance of staying, so this likely is more of an accounting issue to deal with than a concern for the Pacers.
Next: Rumor: The Indiana Pacers Are Interested In Willie Reed
We will continue to update this story as more information is available.