Key dates for the Indiana Pacers offseason

The Indiana Pacers offseason has officially begun. Here are keys dates that will dictate a lot of their decision making.

Mark your calendars, folks. There are some key dates coming up this offseason for the Indiana Pacers that will impact their future as they try to build a better team.

Last year’s version of this post was much busier. There were tons of player and team options that had to be decided as well as a draft to do and cuts to make. It was complicated and busy, and each decision had some obvious pros and cons.

This year, the key dates are a little easier but the non-timely decisions are a little harder. We will talk about those later. For now, let’s just lay out the timeline of all the important things the Indiana Pacers have coming their way this summer.

May 11th

On May 11, technically nothing happens. There is no actual deadline or thing that the Pacers have to do on this day. But it is still a day that could spawn a decision.

This date is 3 months after Edmond Sumner signed his contract with the team. In the NBA, most players become trade-eligible 3 months after signing a contract with a few exceptions. Sumner is not one of those exceptions, meaning this is the day he can officially be traded, except…

Players whose contract is not guaranteed for the following season are ineligible to be traded once a team’s season is over. Sumner’s contract with the Indiana Pacers contains a team option for next year, so his salary is not technically “guaranteed” next season. Thus, he is not able to be traded unless that option is picked up.

Sumner showed a lot of good stuff this season, and I would put the odds near 100% that the team plans on picking up his team option for next season at some point. Because of this, why would they not do it on May 11th? That would make it so Sumner could be moved in a bigger trade if the right move comes along, and if not, they can just keep the guy since he was in the organization’s plans anyway. It makes too much sense to me.

It isn’t a lock, but don’t be surprised to see Sumner’s team option picked up on this date, or even beforehand.

June 20

June 20 is the date of the NBA Draft. You all know about the draft. It’s one of the most fun days of the year as it contains hope, shock value, and storylines. For every fan, it’s a fun day.

The Pacers will have the 18th pick after winning a coin flip to jump up two spots. Who knows who they will pick, but we will write enough articles on here to cover all of the options. Stay tuned for those!

June 29

TWO things could happen on June 29th, but it is actually more likely that zero things happen on this day for the Indiana Pacers. Let’s take a look.

June 29th is the actual, concrete deadline for Kevin Pritchard and co to make a decision on the team option that Edmond Sumner has. If they decide not to pick it up in May as I have suggested, they have up until this day to actually make the decision.

The other deadline that occurs on the 29th concerns two-way player Davon Reed. Reed only hit the NBA floor for 47 minutes this season, but his rookie year in Phoenix and his play in the G League this season have shown that he is a somewhat promising young dude.

The 29th of June is the deadline for the Pacers to decide if they want to extend Reed a qualifying offer and make him a restricted free agent. Qualifying offers for players coming off of a two-way contract are weird, but to my knowledge, offering Reed a QO would be offering him another two-way contract for next season that has $50,000 guaranteed.

I think Reed has some skills and would be totally okay offering him that deal. If he takes it, then you had a quality two-way contract player. If he doesn’t, he’s a restricted free agent and the Pacers can match any deal another team offers him. I would muse that Reed gets a qualifying offer, but I see the value in keeping a two-way spot open. It could go either way.

July 1

Here is a short and sweet one. On July 1, free agency starts. That’s where the fun truly begins. Like the draft, we will cover all of that here.

July 15

This July 15th date relates to the contract of Alize Johnson. As it stands right now, Johnson’s contract for the 2019-20 season in non-guaranteed, meaning if the Pacers waive Johnson before this date, his minimum salary would come off of the books next season.

Alize is very promising and will almost assuredly be a part of the Indiana Pacers team next season. But there is a small chance the Pacers need to squeak out a tiny bit more cap room that could cause them to waive Alize. I highly, highly doubt they would do that unless they literally needed to in order to get All-NBA talent through the door. But there’s almost no scenario where that is required to happen since the front office has multiple avenues to clear up cap space.

Alize is almost assuredly safe, but we will know for sure on this date.

October 21

This date is 1 day before the 2019-20 season tips off (the Pacers season tips off on October 23, but opening night is on the 22nd).

This is the final date for the Pacers to negotiate a rookie extension with Domantas Sabonis. Sabonis will still be a member of the team in 2019-20 (if he isn’t traded) either way, but this is the last date for Indiana to lock him up on a longer contract if they so pleased.

Even if Sabonis and the Pacers can’t agree on an extension, the team can still make him a restricted free agent the following summer to ensure they keep him on the roster if they want. As we saw last summer with Myles Turner, there is value in extending a player both for the team (to get a good player for a long time) and for the player (to get paid considerably more money for a longer period of time). There are drawbacks for both sides too, most notably for the player for locking in before their potential blossoms even farther, but it can be a win-win scenario.

It’s usually hard for these extensions to be agreed to. I have no idea what is going to happen with this one. I bet the Pacers offer Sabonis a rookie extension, but I’m not so sure he takes it. We will see.

October 31

Technically this date is during the ensuing season and not the offseason. But it is still a roster building decision, and it was done during the offseason last summer, so I’m counting it.

On this date, decisions on the team options for Aaron Holiday and TJ Leaf for the 2020-21 season are due. For Holiday, it is a no brainer. He is promising, good, and his team option sees only a minor salary increase. There is no reason to decline his option. He will be around Indiana for a long time.

Leaf, on the other hand, presents a much harder decision. His option for 2020-21 sees his salary figure jump up to $4.3 million, nearly double what he made this past season. That space could be valuable in the summer of 2020.

I think Leaf ultimately sticks around though. He showed enough this season, especially in January, to give the team and fans optimism that he could grow into a rotation player and possibly a bit more. $4.3 mil is fine money for a rotation guy with upside, so I would muse that Leaf gets his option picked up, but there is an argument that he hasn’t shown enough to earn it (a la Solomon Hill).

I don’t fully agree with the argument. But I understand it, and either decision makes sense with Leaf.

There’s your Indiana Pacers offseason timeline. Strap in. It’s going to be fun.