Jalen Smith was one of many new faces for the Indiana Pacers after the 2021-22 trade deadline, and he made quite the first impression. Despite being the 10th overall pick in 2020, the Suns made it clear that Smith was not a part of their future. After becoming just the sixth player ever to have his third-year rookie option declined, Smith played just 13.0 minutes in only half of the Phoneix Suns games before being traded to Indiana.
The Pacers were more than happy to send out Torrey Craig and take on Smith’s expiring contract, but Smith came in and proved to be far more than a salary filler. He played in all but four of the Pacers last 27 games, and averaged 13.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.4 three pointers and a block with shooting splits of 53/37/76 in just 24.7 minutes per game. Those are pretty darn good numbers for a guy that was given up on before his second year even started!
Jalen Smith’s contract situation does not favor the Indiana Pacers brass
Unfortunately for the Indiana Pacers, the question of whether to keep him or not doesn’t really fall in their hands. The excerpt from the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is Section 6(m)(4), which you’ll find below, or you can skip the legal-ese and I’ll explain what it’s saying after:
"If a player is a Veteran Free Agent following the second or third Season of his Rookie Scale Contract (where the first Option Year or second Option Year (as applicable) to extend such Contract was not exercised), then any new Player Contract between the player and the Team that signed him to his Rookie Scale Contract (and/or, if such Contract was subsequently assigned, any such assignee Team) may provide for Regular Salary, Likely Bonuses and Unlikely Bonuses in the first Salary Cap Year of up to the Regular Salary, Likely Bonuses and Unlikely Bonuses, respectively, that the player would have received for such Salary Cap Year had his first or second Option Year (as applicable) been exercised."
If you read all that, you can take a second to uncross your eyes and relax your brain like I had to.
All good? Let’s continue.
Basically what this means is that if a team declines a player’s Rookie Contract Option, then any new contract from the team that he’s on when free agency arrives can only sign him for what he would have gotten had his option been picked up.
Even though the Suns were the team that declined the option, the Pacers are now the team only being able to offer the unrestricted free agent a contract worth $4.67million in the first year and $5.95million in his second. Compared to other free agents that have signed recently that are around Smith’s age and production level, that could prove to be quite a bit below market value.