The Indiana Pacers announced the waiving of three different players as the deadline for final roster cuts after training camp was Saturday afternoon. Keba Keita, Pacers veteran leader James Johnson, and former Nebraska Center and summer league standout Rienk Mast have all been let go and are now unrestricted free agents, free to sign wherever they would like, whether that be to their couch at home or to a different League or to even a different team within the NBA that sees the value they bring in a way the Pacers do not.
There are other relatively big-name (air quotes) players who were let go today by other teams. The Portland Trail Blazers cut Jeremy Sochan. The Knicks let Bruce Brown go, even after he gave an extended speech about the dangers of the current CBA so passionately that the NBA itself decided to respond.
Look, the obvious answer is that none of these players are particularly valuable. Indiana has a final roster spot available, and if any of them were viable options to take that opportunity, they would have. Instead, Indiana chose to vacate the roster spots of these non-guaranteed training camp contracts in order to aim for a better veteran on the buyout market later in the season.
It's so hard to say goodbye
While none of these players bring a ton on the court, it is a little sad to see Keba Keita, who is clearly growing to be well-liked in the locker room, go. The same can be said about James Johnson, who is so well loved in Indiana that the entire team spent parts of their introductory press conferences during Media Day talking about how much they needed him and how happy they were to have him back.
Mast, for his part, is also an interesting player. He was the team's second-best player during summer league and arguably deserved the two-way contract that Braden Smith eventually got. He also fits more of a need than some of his other now-unemployed equivalents. Mast could have been the third center on a team that is relying on Jay Huff to be something he has never really been: a different maker.
Depth is hard to come by in the NBA, and while most of these players will be available later on in the season, there could be a situation in which the Pacers are now without three big men who could have likely stepped in an emergency.
Last season's gap year was defined by misery and injury. While these moves are purely procedural, they also don't do anything to protect from a similar situation.
Winning cures all, and no one will care about Rienk Mast or Keba Keita or any of these guys if the team wins a title.
Well, except for some of us.
Add us as a preferred source on Google