NBA Offseason 2017: Updated Pacers salary cap situation, free agency possibilities

The Indiana Pacers face some potentially difficult questions this offseason. Finding the right answers starts and ends with understanding their cap situation.

It could be an interesting offseason for the Pacers.

An awful lot of questions are floating around, making it difficult to set down any real plans for the future. Paul George’s All-NBA status is unknown, as is Kevin Pritchard’s vision for the team, and whether it includes guys like Jeff Teague and Lavoy Allen.

While it may seem like everything is up in the air, there are a precious few things that we can examine in the meantime. One of them is the range of outcomes regarding the Pacers salary cap situation next season. Obviously there’s no way to nail down every cent right now, but we can come up with a reasonable range of outcomes right now, and that’s a little comforting, right?

Let’s add up what we know for sure. The Pacers will have six players receiving guaranteed money next season: Paul George, Thaddeus Young, Monta Ellis, Al Jefferson, Lance Stephenson and Myles Turner. One player, CJ Miles has a player option for $4.7 million that he’ll almost surely decline. Lavoy Allen has a team option for $3.5 million, and it’s unclear whether the Pacers will pick that up or not. Six more players have non-guaranteed contracts: Kevin Seraphin, Rakeem Christmas, Georges Niang, Glenn Robinson III and Joe Young. They’ll almost surely pick up Robinson and Niang, the others range from slightly less certain to downright unlikely.

Add in two 2017 draft picks for another $2.9 million, and the Pacers have at least $65.3 million committed for next season. Assuming that the $102 million projection for next year’s salary cap is correct (and it likely won’t be, but it’s all we have), and assuming that they pay GRIII and Niang and renounce everyone else, that gives the team $32.25 million dollars in cap space this summer. This is the most realistic figure by my estimates, but reasonable people can disagree.

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This figure can fluctuate up or down depending on certain personnel decisions. If the Pacers decide to pick up Lavoy Allen’s team option, then they’ll have only $29.6 million to play around with. Let’s say Kevin Pritchard isn’t messing around and wants to open up a lot of space and try to lure a star to come play with Paul George and Myles Turner. If he manages to trade away Monta Ellis and Al Jefferson, he could open up $51.6 million in space. Don’t get your hopes up for this scenario, however.

A max salary for a player with seven to nine years of experience will start at $30.6 million next season. With ten years of experience, that number jumps $35.7 million. The Pacers have several needs to address on their roster, so it would be extremely difficult to devote that much salary to one player with the team constructed as is.

Jeff Teague’s free agency throws another complication into the mix. Little has been made public from Teague or Pritchard, so it’s tough to say what either side is thinking. Even if Teague heads to another team in free agency though, someone has to start at point guard, so either he’s getting paid or someone else is.

Trying to nail down how much cap space the Pacers will have this summer inevitably raises more questions than we were attempting to answer in the first place. Will Teague be returning? Will Paul George be eligible for the Designated Veteran Extension, altering the whole landscape of these discussions? Is there any way Kevin Pritchard can convince Al Jefferson to be paid in pork chops?

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We’ll address all these questions and more as the offseason progresses.

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