The Indiana Pacers improved the team drastically when they traded for Pascal Siakam. Giving up two bad first-round picks in this draft and a first-round pick in 2026 along with Jordan Nwora and Bruce Brown was the price they paid in order to get Siakam.
It was a price that was well worth it. Siakam was fantastic for the Pacers this year. In 41 games during the regular season with the Pacers, he averaged 21.3 points per game on 55% shooting, including almost 39% from three. He also added 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists as well.
Once the playoffs started, he was very good as well. He had 21.6 points per game on 54% shooting to go along with 7.5 rebounds. He was the whole reason why the Pacers stayed in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals for as long as they did. Now that the season is over, he's a free agent.
Pascal Siakam talks about his season with the Pacers and his upcoming free agency
Siakam talked about his impending free agency this year after the Game 4 loss to the Celtics that ended the Pacers season. He had this to say about it:
Pacers forward Pascal Siakam on free agency: “All I can say is that it’s been a blessing. I’m really appreciative of everything. I think coming from where I come from, it means a lot. The support I’ve received here is something that I was kind of missing. Having all that, seeing… pic.twitter.com/cYdW5K6yGP
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) May 28, 2024
Siakam has talked glowingly about the Pacers all season long. This wasn't quite as glowing as I was hoping it would be though. He is still a really good player and can still hep a team be quite good. Indiana is still confident that they can re-sign him though.
Shams Charnia reported that the Pacers are going to offer him a max contract. That's what we expected all along. It's going to be hard for him to turn that down, especially at this point in his career. Siakam is 30, so this might be his last chance to sign a max deal.
Are other teams willing to offer him that kind of money? That's what's unclear. If he comes back to Indiana, he has a chance to compete for a title. This team made the Eastern Conference Finals as an extremely young team and they didn't even have their best bench scorer. Tyrese Haliburton's supermax complicates things a bit too, but Siakam should still get paid.
In the end, I think they should be able to bring Siakam back. We'll find out this Summer.