With the NBA Finals now in the rear-view mirror, the business of the 2024 offseason can officially begin.
Thanks to a new element of a revised Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams are able to negotiate with their incumbent free agents one day removed from the Finals, which wrapped up Monday after a five-game Boston Celtics victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Now, the first elite free agent is officially off the board, and he will be staying put. After being acquired by the Indiana Pacers from the Toronto Raptors via trade, Pascal Siakam emerged as the team’s best two-way player during the club’s surprise march to the Eastern Conference.
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According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the 6-foot-8 power forward will officially ink a four-year, $189.5 million deal with Indiana after the NBA’s moratorium on free agent signings ends on July 6.
Last season, during his 41 regular season games with Indiana, the two-time All-Star averaged 21.3 points on .549/.386/.699 shooting splits, 7.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 0.8 steals a night. He had similarly impressive playoff numbers for the Pacers. Across 17 contests, Siakam averaged 21.6 points on a .541/.298/.619 slash line, 7.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 0.8 swipes a night.
Siakam is an excellent two-way player. Though he may not be a consistent or high-volume three point shooter, he has been able to maximize his talents as a versatile defender and high-quality post scorer. The 30-year-old, who won a title with Toronto as the team’s third-best player behind All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry in 2019, was the exact kind of ceiling-raising veteran addition a young, scrappy club like the Pacers should have taken a flier on this season, even if he was on the verge of reaching unrestricted free agency this summer.
Hot off this surprise Eastern Conference Finals berth (Indiana lost in a four-game sweep to the Celtics, though it was without All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton for the final two contests of the series), it makes sense that Siakam would want to stay with a club he clearly views as a contender — even if he was primed to be one of the top available players on the open market when general free agency kicks off on June 30.
Last year’s Pacers club went 47-35, but thanks to a little injury luck in the first round against the higher-seeded Milwaukee Bucks (who were without All-NBA forward Giannis Antetokounmpo for their entire series, and without All-Star point guard Damian Lillard for their last two games), plus a massive quickness advantage, the Pacers eked out a six-game victory, then outlasted the New York Knicks as they, too, kept losing pieces to the injury bug.
The NBA free agent market is still developing, as stars like Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George and Lakers combo forward LeBron James, two of the top players potentially available this summer, hold player options for next season.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
