The Indiana Pacers’ books are in a great place right now. Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam take up just under 60% of the cap, but the Pacers aren’t going to have to worry about either of their extensions kicking in until 2028-29. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers just extended Donovan Mitchell for a ton of money, and the Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown, in part, because of his massive cap hit.
Building a competitive team under the current CBA is very hard, especially if two players are taking up a significant portion of the cap. That’s one of the reasons Stevens brought up in his logic for trading Brown: Jayson Tatum and Brown took up 70% of the cap. It’s hard to build around that.
Luckily for Indiana, it won’t have to worry about that type of problem for a little while, and it may never actually pop up.
Pacers are positioned to avoid Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell contract problems
Mitchell inked a four-year, $273 million extension with the Cavaliers that will see him make $75.5 million in the final year. Meanwhile, Brown is going to be due an extension soon, and it could look similar, should the Sixers give him what he wants.
Cleveland also has Evan Mobley on the books on a max contract, and he’s going to get another one after this one ends. Plus, they are already well above the second apron, so those penalties are going to start raining down in the next couple of years.
Meanwhile, the Celtics are just getting back to normal after being a second-apron team when they won the title in 2024. And Stevens didn’t feel like having two guys take up 70% of the cap was conducive to winning, particularly with the guys he had.
Those problems aren’t nearly as present for the Pacers. At least, not yet. Haliburton and Siakam still take up a significant portion of the cap, but neither has looming extensions. And neither is on a deal as expensive as Brown’s or Mitchell’s new one.
Plus, though Haliburton is almost certain to land another max contract, the same may not be true for Siakam. By the time the first year of his next contract is here, he’ll be 34 years old. At that point, he may not be worth max money.
The Pacers have positioned themselves well to compete for a title both on the court and with their books. The pre-trade Celtics clearly didn’t believe they were in that position, and the Cavs’ Mitchell extension puts them in a pretty dangerous one as well.
Add us as a preferred source on Google