The Indiana Pacers have built their team wisely. The current construction gives the Pacers a pool of current talent that allows them to compete in the playoffs, but also affords them the flexibility to make moves to continue to build moving forward.
Unlike some teams who are constantly red-lining the limits of the salary cap, the Pacers fall well short of the cap and have made wise moves to lock up important talent on economical contracts for the foreseeable future.
In a league where players like Tobias Harris — the third of fourth-best player on his team — are getting near max-level money, not overspending is key to building a sustainable winner.
What contracts are the best on the Pacers, though?
Let’s look at the top three.
Victor Oladipo
Making $21 million next year, Victor Oladipo has certainly outperformed his price point. An All-Star in the last two seasons, he likely would have made the AS team for the third straight year had he been healthy.
While this season has left more questions than answers about Victor Oladipo’s next contract, the Pacers have seen enough to know that Oladipo isn’t far off from his normal self.
Just 13 games — all on a minutes restriction — doesn’t give the sample size needed to ascertain much clarity as to where Oladipo is at, but toward the tail-end of his appearances, he looked like he was getting back into the rhythm of the NBA game.
Since winning Most Improved Player of the Year in 2018, Oladipo has looked like a playoff leader. Unfortunately, to this point, we haven’t seen that version of Oladipo since last season was cut short due to his devastating quad injury last season and this season due to the NBA being suspended.
Perhaps the biggest downside about Oladipo’s contract is the length, which keeps him in Indiana’s control through next season only. Indy sticking by him through his recovery and believing in him all throughout may have locked this in as his desired home, but his next contract is sure to be a big one, and could quite possibly include his years of decline on the tail-end.
That’s the next contract, though. Despite it being just one season, Oladipo’s ceiling with a competitive team around him is extremely high. And at less than $25 million, you really can’t beat the flexibility that he affords you to build around him.