Indiana Pacers Sign Aaron Brooks to One-Year $2.5 Million Deal

The Indiana Pacers have been expected to sign veteran point guard Aaron Brooks for a week now, and it looks like Larry Bird is getting the deal done.

Aaron Brooks has agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Indiana Pacers, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo’s The Vertical. The veteran point guard is expected to back up Jeff Teague, bringing some of the same up-tempo skills to the table in the second unit.

The signing will be official later this week, per Charania.

While Brooks suffers from some of the same defensive limitations of all the guards on the Pacers roster, he does add some badly needed shooting to the back court.

Though the University of Oregon product earned a reputation early in his career as a waterbug penetrator who could push the ball in transition, the eight-year NBA pro has also become a very reliable shooter from deep. Brooks has hit 333-of-880 (37.4%) triples since returning from a season playing in China in 2012-13, showing defenders that his range must be feared as much as his quickness.

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He has also averaged at least 16 points per 36 minutes over his past two seasons in Chicago. The 18.2 points per-36 he scored during the 2014-15 season would have been good for third best on last year’s Indiana Pacers, behind only Paul George (24.0) and C.J. Miles (18.5).

Brooks is also more than capable of running an offense and should help the second unit feed the ball inside to Al Jefferson on the block.

The only troubling aspect of the 31-year-old’s recent career is his inability to remain at any franchise for very long. Brooks has played for four teams in four seasons since coming back from China, although his role and production with Chicago over the past two years means his days coming to an end there are likely more about him entering free agency than any problem with his ability to fill his role.

Regardless, the Pacers badly needed a backup point guard — and now they have one.

The signing of Brooks also likely means that Shayne Whittington’s days in Indiana are over. The team already has the maximum of 15 players on its roster, so Larry Bird will likely waive the non-guaranteed contract of Whittington to make room for Brooks.