There are many options for the Indiana Pacers going forward as we take a look at five players in each chapter of this mini-series, starting with the fringe players.
So, it’s over. The season is over, the Larry Bird era in Indiana is over and this offseason could be the beginning of a new era of Indiana Pacers basketball.
A handful of guys from the team have a fully guaranteed contract for 2017-2018, but given the roster could be at a crossroads, anything could happen to the squad from a complete rebuild to a potential faux contender.
To better understand the upcoming Pacers offseason and the choices the front office will need to make, going player by player is a great start.
This mini-series will go through the players five at a time, before finally going over the possible roster changes as a whole.
For episode one, we will go over the five players who had the fewest minutes for the Pacers last season: Georges Niang, Joe Young, Rakeem Christmas, Kevin Seraphin, and Aaron Brooks.
Georges Niang: How long should we wait?
Georges Niang was selected with the 50th pick of the 2016 NBA draft. He caught Larry Bird’s eye during summer league with his ability to stretch the floor and was able to earn the Pacers final roster spot with a 3 year minimum deal with only the first year guaranteed. Now that the first year is up, what will the Pacers do with Niang?
Most of Niang’s minutes came in garbage time this season. It is hard to analyze a guy who only played 93 total minutes this season. He is guaranteed $100,000 next season if he is not waived by July 1. That figure is quite insignificant, so look for the Pacers to keep him past that date unless they feel they really need the extra $100,000 to spend on free agents or need another roster spot.
The decision to keep Niang for the season depends largely on how the rest of the offseason goes. If the Pacers begin a rebuild, there is a decent chance that Niang sticks around for another season on the minimum. He is on a cheap contract, and the Pacers could cut him at any time before the full season guarantee date (early January 2018) and have him off the books for the rest of the season with no penalty.
Niang has little time left with the Pacers, and it is likely a matter of months, not years.
Kevin Seraphin: Can the Pacers do better with a different 4th or 5th rotation big?
If you’ll recall, Kevin Seraphin signed a 2 year, $3,681,000 contract with the Pacers last summer. What you may not have known is that the second year of that contract was non-guaranteed, and you may not have expected that Seraphin would actually start 3 games for the Pacers.
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That second statistic is shocking to see. Kevin Seraphin started games? He was signed to big the 5th rotation big for the Pacers, essentially he was signed as injury insurance. Thank goodness he was, because when Thad Young and Lavoy Allen were down during a 3 games stretch in mid February, someone had to start. Seraphin stepped into the role and played as you would expect someone like Kevin Seraphin to play as a starter. The Pacers made August 1st of this year the guarantee date for the second year of Seraphins contract, so they have 2 and a half months to decide to keep him or not.
Like Niang, he likely wouldn’t be cut before free agency unless the Pacers felt as if they needed the extra cap space or needed an extra roster spot (though Niang would get waived before Seraphin).
Seraphins production/injury insurance is probably worth his contract next season. Thankfully for the Pacers, they have until August to decide if they want to keep him or not. The non-guaranteed salary fully counts in trades (because Seraphin was signed under the old CBA), so if they Pacers want to use his salary as filler in a trade they could do so.Assuming the Pacers don’t find a better player for equal or lesser value by August first (hard to image they do), you can expect to see Seraphin’s guarantee exercised and he will return to the Pacers next season.
Assuming the Pacers don’t find a better player for equal or lesser value by August first (hard to image they do), you can expect to see Seraphin’s guarantee exercised and he will return to the Pacers next season.
Joe Young: Is it time to cut ties?
Similar to Niang, Joe Young was a middle second round pick, but in 2015. Also similar to Niang, he impressed in the summer league and got a 4 year deal worth 4.3 million. The first 2 years of his contract (last season and this season) were guaranteed.
His full $1,471,382 for the 2017-2018 season gets guaranteed if Young is not waived by July first (the start of free agency). Joe Young has been a competent (at best) player for the Pacers, playing in almost half of the games each season he’s been a member of the team.
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For the Pacers and Joe Young, it’s all or nothing over the next month and a half. The Pacers have to decide whether to keep young for next season or not, and it is not an easy decision. He is a minimum contract, so it’s not too big of a deal to keep him, but he is a replacement level player. The Pacers may try to replace him with a better player on a minimum contract or get someone new to fill his role on a slightly cheaper salary with their second round pick (or first, but that player should have a larger role than Joe Young).
Because over a million dollars becomes guaranteed for Young on July first, the Pacers will have to act fast in deciding if they want to keep him, or if they would rather have 1.5 million to spend in free agency (hint: it’s probably the latter). In addition, the point guard market has become quite inflated in the NBA, meaning there are minimum guys who are much better than Joe Young available.
The Young decision will be telling, and it will be easier to predict what will happen to Young after the draft.
Aaron Brooks: It was fun while it lasted
Aaron Brooks was signed on a 1 year deal worth 2.7 million dollars by the Pacers last summer to be Jeff Teagues backup point guard. Brooks was fine in that role, continuing to be pretty average on offense while being pretty bad on defense.
Brooks has been that type of player his whole career. His career-best DPBM is -1.5. He is a decent shooter and distributor, but below league average. He probably a high-end rotation guard at best for whatever team he is on. Next season, who knows what team that will be.
Brooks in a non-bird free agent for the Pacers, meaning if they Pacers are over the cap they can re-sign him for up to 120% of his 2.7 million dollar salary from last season. His cap hold is $3,240,000, meaning he counts for that value against the Pacers cap room until they re-sign him or until they renounce his non-bird rights.
If you read the Joe Young part above, you know that the point guard market is saturated. Aaron Brooks is pretty close to the bottom of the points guards who belong in the NBA list. He could be useful as a 5th or even 6th (injury assurance, essentially) guard. But that guard has a contract value close to the minimum.
The Pacers could bring Brooks back for the minimum next season, but they could use his non-bird rights to sign him to a longer deal. Expect the Pacers to keep Brooks cap hold on the books for a short amount of time, but they only reason they would keep Brooks long-term is if the Pacers run out of future flexibility and strike out on essentially every free agent point guard out there. Brooks time with the Pacers has probably come to an end.
Rakeem Christmas: How soon until he is gone?
The third Pacers second round pick still hanging around. Picked just a few picks before Joe Young, Christmas went on a wild journey in the summer of 2015 before ending up on the Pacers. He and Young signed almost identical contracts with similar total guaranteed dollars.
The difference is that Christmas’s full guarantee date this for 2017-2018 isn’t until August first, as opposed to Joe Youngs date of July 1. On July first, $50,000 of the Christmas contract becomes guaranteed. Christmas has played little for the Pacers, so it is more likely than not he gets waived all together before July first, but if the Pacers want to wait and see if they are in rebuild mode, they may hold on the Christmas for a very small fee for the month of July.
Next: C.J. Miles and Lavoy Allen are #PowerForwards4Life
There is almost no chance Christmas is on the Pacers next year. There are a lot of centers available because they market is so saturated, so replacing Christmas with a better player for around the same money would be easy. Barring an insane summer league performance or Rakeem somehow growing 3-4 inches, you can probably say goodbye to Rakeem Christmas in a Pacers uniform.