Three little things from the Indiana Pacers front office media availability
The Pacers season is almost here.
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers held their front office reception on Thursday, a yearly tradition that marks the unofficial start to a season.
General manager Chad Buchanan and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Ted Wu fielded questions for almost half an hour. Many of them focused on the topics you'd expect: Tyrese Haliburton, the team's possible slow start, the integration of Ivica Zubac, and things of the like.
"You hope by 25, 30 games in, you start to see some times of whether it's clicking or it's not," Buchanan said when I asked how long he expects it to take for the team to get up to speed. "But we're also going to be patient with this group."
Tony East
If you'd like to watch the entire press availability, Derek Kramer of iPacers.com filmed the entire thing while standing right next to me. I'll embed that below. I wanted to highlight three smaller things that stood out to me from Buchanan and Wu's comments.
(Also of note: The Pacers signed more training camp deals since the ones covered here. Rienk Mast, Keba Keita, Kowacie Reeves, and Jalen Warley signed Exhibit 10 deals last week – both Reeves and Warley were waived soon after. Keita and Mast are still under contract, a strong indicator they could be in training camp with the Pacers. Also, as reported by me, James Johnson signed an Exhibit 9 deal with the team. He's back for camp.)
The long-term plan for James Johnson
Beloved veteran James Johnson is back. He was at the Pacers Foundation Invitational golf outing Thursday and will join the team for training camp after spending recent weeks with the squad down in Nashville for a player-led mini camp.
Asked why Johnson was signed again, Buchanan had a joke prepared. "We're all afraid to not bring him back," he said, which drew many laughs. Johnson is frequently voted as the player that others in the NBA would least like to fight.
That's not why the Pacers love having him around, but it doesn't hurt. "There's value in him [being] in our training camp situation, because training camp is a really big chance to set the table for your year. Both how you play as a player, but also what you're about, your system, your culture," Buchanan said. "Coach Carlisle is a big believer in evaluating how guys play in training camp, and having a veteran like James who understands what coaches want... is going to be very valuable for us."
Johnson and the Pacers both know where this is heading. The Pacers don't have enough space under the first apron to keep the veteran on the roster after training camp, so he will be waived before the regular season starts. It won't be a surprise to him or his agency in any way.
The natural question I had was if the Pacers plan to sign Johnson once they are able to in the regular season. On November 5, they will have enough space under the first apron to sign any veteran to a minimum contract – Johnson or otherwise.
"We haven't really talked about that. He understands where we are at with the cap," Buchanan said of Johnson. "We'll get into the season and... we'll evaluate where the team's at. And if it's right for us to have somebody like James back, then we'll look at it."
Center depth
This was the first time we'd heard from the front office (outside of Buchanan's lengthy chat on the Setting The Pace podcast) since free agency. I wanted to ask about the team's new players and inquired about the expectations for Larry Nance.
Naturally, as Buchanan explained, he'll be a depth piece on the interior. But the rest of the answer caught me off guard.
"(Ivica Zubac) obviously will get major minutes there (at center). Jay [Huff's] there. Obi [Toppin] plays some five," he began. "Coach even flirts with Jalen Slawson a little there at the five at times too. Larry just gives us an additional depth."
Mostly, that's the expected crew. Slawson was a surprise inclusion, though. Given his athleticism and ability to block shots shown last season, deploying the inexperienced wing as a small-ball center is not without reason. And it's another option for the Pacers as Johnny Furphy recovers from his injury.
Asked later about the team's two-way talents, the two executives indicated they could be trusted at times in the coming season. Slawson and Kobe Brown, in particular, are strong players compared to the usual two-way signee. "I think early on, I wouldn't be surprised if they're with the Pacers, just being able to contribute," Wu said.
The Clippers investigation
In the latest Pacers notebook on this website, I touched on the Pacers 2029 first-round draft pick being deleted from existence as a part of the LA Clippers punishment in the Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention investigation. Buchanan and Wu were asked about that.
"We made the trade for [Zubac] because we wanted [Zubac]. Once you offer up the picks, like Chad said, we don't give up those picks lightly," Wu began. "But once we do, they're not really really in our control anymore. So the league was able to look at what the Clippers had and took that one in that year."
Derek and I talked about all of the comments from both executives on Locked On Pacers, which you can find below. And here's my bigger takeaway story from the day.
Audio:
Video:
Thank you for reading. Pacers media day is tomorrow, so expect stories from that. Plus, Fever playoffs take off today. Sign up and you'll get it all right in your email inbox.
Comments ()