What Should the Indiana Pacers do with their rotation players?
By Tony East
Lavoy Allen: Will the Pacers pick up his option?
Lavoy Allen is one of the more interesting Pacers to discuss. Ever since he was acquired in the gets-more-hilarious-every-day looking Danny Granger — Evan Turner trade, Allen has been a middling contributor in the big man rotation for the Pacers. In 2015, the Pacers signed Allen to a 3 year, $10,550,000 contract, with the last season of the contract being a team option at $3,500,000.
That team option decision is coming up this summer, and one of our staff recently discussed whether or not he thinks the team should bring Allen back. $3,500,000 isn’t much salary at all, especially for a player that ended up being the first big off the bench in many games for the Pacers last season.
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His rebounding ability is impressive, but interestingly one of Allens biggest skills is that he isn’t particularly bad at anything. Everything Allen does when he is on the floor, he does at a somewhat competent level. He can’t really shoot, so he just doesn’t do it instead of forcing a bad shot. He can rebound, pass, screen, make a nice post move, and defend, all at least decently without killing the team. A combination of his role playing abilities and low salary make picking up his team option very enticing.
No matter what direction the Pacers are going — rebuild or contending — Allen fits the timeline. He is a cheap, expiring contract and a semi productive player in his minutes. Like with a few other Pacers, he would likely not be let go of unless the Pacers thought of a more production use of $3,500,000 in cap space. Unless they are trying to get to max space, there probably isn’t much you could get for that amount that is better than Lavoy Allen. Look for Allen to be on the roster next season.