The hour that reversed the trajectory of the Indiana Pacers’ future
By Ryan Eggers
Heading into the first night of free agency, the Indiana Pacers seemed destined to re-up last year’s roster with minor additions like Ricky Rubio. Then, one fateful hour changed everything.
In the era of Woj Bombs and Sham Wows, the future of the NBA can change at any given time. During free agency, the stakes are raised tenfold. And on June 30th, the course of the Indiana Pacers’ future changed in about one hour.
But first, let’s take it back a day. The first domino to fall that carved the course of the Pacers’ offseason: Nikola Mirotic heading back to EuroLeague. Shams Charania announced the move a little over 24 hours before free agency officially kicked off. Mirotic was set to take home a substantial NBA contract, but passed it up to play with Barcelona.
And who was ready to give him that substantial contract? The Utah Jazz. And since Mirotic bailed, they had to shift their focus and cap space elsewhere. Starting to make sense?
Per The Woj Pod, the Jazz decided to instead go after … that’s right, Bojan Bogdanovic. And with Mirotic off the table, Utah was able to offer a four-year, $73 million deal to the Croatian forward. That final year was too rich for Pritchard’s blood, as the Pacers were expecting to re-sign Bogey for three years and $52-55 million, per Wojnarowski.
Enter Ricky Rubio, who was rumored as one of the Pacers’ top free agent targets. In light of Ken Badenhausen’s recent report on the fast-moving 2019 free agency period, we now know that Rubio’s interest in Indiana rested on being able to team up with Bogdanovic. With Bogey out of the picture, Rubio wasn’t ready to commit.
Each domino fell perfectly in the Pacers’ favor. Not to be rude to Mr. Rubio, but when his agent, Jeff Schwartz, landed him a three-year, $51 million deal, it’s hard not to breathe a sigh of relief that Indiana isn’t paying that contract.
Plus, in a world where Rubio signs that deal and Bogdanovic re-signs in Indiana … that’s basically the offseason. There would’ve been maybe $5 million in cap space to work with, which would allow the Pacers to sign some of their smaller free agents (Holiday, McConnell, etc.), but the roster would basically be last year’s minus Thaddeus Young and Cory Joseph with Ricky Rubio and Goga Bitadze as replacements.
We saw what running it back did for the Pacers last season. It was an admirable goal; Thaddeus Young and other players told Pritchard to not trade anyone at the 2018 trade deadline. Most of the core would be returning for a final contract year in 2019, and they thought that chemistry and continuity would take them to the top of the East.
We’ll never really know if they were right, because Victor Oladipo‘s injury derailed any chances of playoff success in 2019. But it goes to show that in the modern NBA, you always have to look for improvement — you always have to find the next star.
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So, with no Rubio and no Bogey, the Pacers had to do just that: find the next improvement. Find the next star. They were able to accomplish both when they put Milwaukee on the phone, asking for a piece of their core that was becoming too expensive to retain: Malcolm Brogdon.
It took a few draft picks to ensure the Bucks wouldn’t match in the RFA process (or maybe Herb Simon was just being a nice guy), but the Pacers were able to secure Brogdon on a four-year, $85 million deal, making him one of the biggest free agent acquisitions in franchise history. And one of the most expensive.
And then they got really crafty. Schwartz is also the agent of former Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb, and with money moving around so quick, the Pacers wanted to take advantage. While Lamb was in negotiations to return to Charlotte, Indiana put forth a three-year, $31.5 million deal, and that was that.
Each deal was reported within literal minutes of each other, starting with Bogdanovic to Utah, then Rubio to Phoenix and finally both Brogdon and Lamb to Indiana. According to Badenhausen’s report, the whole process went down in under an hour of real time.
Less than one hour. And the Pacers’ future changed for the next four years to come. In a world where they could’ve re-upped on Bogey, signed Rubio and competed for the No. 5 seed, a few circumstancial changes turned them into legitimate Eastern Conference contenders.
Credit to Pritchard and the rest of his team for being able to act so quickly, manuevering through the most hectic time of the NBA calendar with poise. He now has an elite point guard and an underrated young shooting guard to show for it.
Next. Somehow, the Indiana Pacers are short on centers. dark
Dominos are always falling in this crazy league. They fell in the Pacers’ favor this time around. From Mirotic, to Bogey, to Rubio, to Brogdon and Lamb — everything had to work perfectly, and luckily for Indiana, it did. Because of it, their future is much brighter than most originally expected going into that fateful hour.