The free agent point guard market has intrigued and confused the NBA media for several weeks now. Instead of shelling out for a top-tier guy, the Pacers might be wise to look a little further down the list of point guards.
The Indiana Pacers will have some money to spend in free agency this summer once Paul George is off the books and even more if things with Jeff Teague don’t work out. Despite the intrigue and stealth-tank potential of point Lance, the team should probably explore the market for point guards.
Our excellent writer Luke Parrish already discussed some marquee point guards the Pacers could look at once midnight hits, but this year’s crop of free agents is unusually large, and there are several cheaper options that Indiana could target instead.
By saving money on a point guard, the Pacers could preserve some cap room and be one of the only teams in the league that still has space going into the season. They could use that to their advantage by taking on other teams’ bad contracts in exchange for precious assets that would speed the rebuild along.
Since Lance Stephenson is apparently taking on some point guard duties anyway and the Pacers won’t really be that competitive this year regardless, there’s not much point in spending more than you need to. These four guys would likely do their jobs just fine.
Shaun Livingston
It’s entirely possible that Shaun Livingston will want to stay in a pretty incredible situation in Golden State. He might not even take meetings with other teams. However, there’s still the possibility that Joe Lacob and friends will try to lowball Livingston so they can save some tax dollars before the mega deals that are coming for Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in a couple years.
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If Livingston, who hasn’t made a lot of money (by NBA standards) in his career, wants to aim a little higher, the Pacers could swoop in with an eight-figure offer. The Warriors would likely be uneasy offering Livingston more than $8 million a year, according to Danny Leroux of The Athletic, and Indiana could easily offer all the way up to $13 million and still have plenty of room left over to be a dumping ground.
Livingston isn’t a slouch, either. He’s getting up there in age, but he’s the best post-up guard the NBA has seen in years, and his turn-around jumper might as well be automatic. He’s never been much of a 3-point shooter, but he makes up for it by being absurdly efficient everywhere else.
He’s also big enough and long enough to guard some threes, which would provide Nate McMillan with the flexibility to get creative with his lineups. If things get tight in the Bay Area, he’s worth a look.
Darren Collison
Darren Collison is definitely one of the 30 best point guards in the NBA, but he’s pretty close to the bottom of that list. I know, I’m really making the sale right out of the gate, but hear me out. He’s capable of treading water, and he’s more than adequate offensively. He won’t defend anyone, but the Pacers have Lance Stephenson for that.
Most importantly, Indiana could surely get Collison for $10 million a year, maybe less. He would probably take a one-plus-one as well since the market will probably have dried up by the time teams think of him. Good money plus the opportunity to start would be more than enough to bring Collison in.
He’d hold down the fort at point guard, probably make the Pacers just good enough to satisfy the “we can’t bottom out” crowd while keeping the ceiling low enough for a premium pick to be a possibility. The only concern is if other teams in the Pacers’ situation (Chicago who already has 15 point guards but that apparently doesn’t matter because they were rumored to be after the next guy, maybe Sacramento) have the same idea and also go after Collison.
I think that’s a remote possibility at best.
Milos Teodosic
Milos Teodosic is a 30-year-old Serbian point guard who was one of the best players in Europe last year. He will very likely be on an NBA team next season, and the Pacers should see if it could be theirs.
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It’s obviously harder to determine what Teodosic’s price range will be because he hasn’t played in the NBA before, but I would be shocked if anyone threw more than $15 million a year at him.
Teodosic is a great player that would probably be in a higher tier if he had come over sooner. He’s a good 3-pointer shooter on a high volume, and he scored over 20 points per 36 minutes in both of the last two seasons. Fewer games in Europe means he has significantly fewer miles on his body than someone who’s been in the NBA since 2004. Teodosic is also an electric passer in transition. Wherever he ends up will immediately get a lot more entertaining on a nightly basis.
He’s going to be bad on defense, no getting around it. Point guard defense isn’t life or death, though, and it’s not like that’s the thing that would keep the Pacers from contending at a high level. If they could sign Teodosic for like two years $24 million, that would be alright.
Terry Rozier
This last one is the obligatory “if Paul George gets traded to the Celtics” option. Terry Rozier is probably most well known for how the Celtics have laughably labeled him as untouchable in past trade talks. That’s an objectively stupid notion. Rozier isn’t getting named to an All-NBA team anytime soon, if ever. He’s fine.
Rozier has had limited opportunity to show off what he can do thanks to the Celtics log jam at the guard positions, but that wouldn’t be the case in Indiana. He projects to be a solid defender that can do enough offensively to run the show without necessarily being a dynamic scorer.
It’s certainly possible that Danny Ainge will be himself and make a fuss about including Rozier in a Paul George trade, but I’m not going to get into that right now for the sake of my blood pressure. If he is included, he could serve as a very cost-effective point guard solution in the short term, with Lance Stephenson sharing a lot of the ball-handling duties.
Rozier will absolutely be a downgrade from Jeff Teague, but it’s possible that he could be good enough to be a solid starter in a year or two.
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Either that, or he’ll bust and we’ll all get to make fun of Danny Ainge. It’s a win-win.