Indiana Pacers sign Nebraska fan-favorite to Exhibit 10 contract
By Ryan Stano
The Indiana Pacers have been steadily trying to improve the roster for next season. They have brought back two key power forwards from last year in Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin. They even signed James Wiseman in a move that is low-risk and could net a high reward.
Indiana isn't done making moves but will likely make any big moves in the offseason. They also drafted three players in the second round, so it will be interesting to see how many of those guys get signed to the team. The Pacers did sign a fan-favorite to an Exhibit 10 contract.
Keisei Tominaga played his college basketball at Nebraska and was a fan favorite. He averaged 15 points per game and shot 47% from the field and 38% from three. Tominaga has been signed by Indiana to an Exhibit 10 contract, so he has a chance to play in the pros.
The Pacers sign Keisei Tominaga to an Exhibit 10 contract
So what is an Exhibit 10 contract? It's a one-year contract that has a minimum salary attached to it. An NBA team can then convert this contract into a two-way deal, but that has to happen before the season. Basically, it allows a team to get more G-League players.
The Pacers are just trying to bring in players that have talent and then develop them into rotation players at some point in the future. Do I think Tominaga will ever play for the Pacers? I do not. His game defensively isn't good enough to get him to play at the NBA level.
Still, I do think that he can become a better player if he does play with the Mad Ants. A G-League career can actually be a fairly decent living too. Tominaga is an extremely hard worker though. He's going to work as hard as he can to make it to the NBA.
Indiana still has moves to make to the roster that will affect the team next season.