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Indiana Pacers: The lowdown on the team’s salary cap status

By Adrian Lawhorn

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK- FEBRUARY 5: Victor Oladipo #5 of the Oklahoma City Thunder goes for the lay up during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on February 5, 2017 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK- FEBRUARY 5: Victor Oladipo #5 of the Oklahoma City Thunder goes for the lay up during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on February 5, 2017 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Here we present a look at how the Indiana Pacers have managed their salary cap during an offseason of significant change.

The Indiana Pacers, like all teams, need talent to win. However, talent comes at a price, so the ability to minimize expenditure and maintain flexibility are key components for any successful NBA franchise.

General manager Kevin Pritchard has had a very challenging offseason trying to reshape his roster after the drama surrounding Paul George came to a head.

Pritchard has begun a process that should allow the Pacers to be fairly competitive in the short-term, while also developing young talent that will hopefully lead the team to bigger and better things in the coming years.

Obtaining the right players is certainly a key element to this blueprint, but the club also has to be very mindful of the salary cap implications of every move they make.

Indiana is a small market team that has long held firm to their edict of avoiding the luxury tax, so in addition to staying within NBA salary cap rules, Kevin Pritchard must also honor the franchise’s conservative budget.

For the most part, the Pacers’ 2017-18 salary cap status is set. There will be some minor additions and subtractions as we go through training camp and preseason, but nothing that will change the overall condition of Indiana’s cap.

At this time, the Pacers have approximately $4.8 million in cap space, as well as a $4.3 million room exception. The likelihood is that the team will not immediately utilize these options.

Holding onto their remaining cap space and room exception will allow greater flexibility if the team decides to add one or more players to the roster at a later date.

Once the 2017-18 campaign has concluded and the team has had a good chance to evaluate the roster, how much flexibility will Indiana have to make further changes if those are deemed necessary?

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Theoretically, almost all of the Pacers’ cap space is spoken for in 2018-19, but on a more practical level, that isn’t true at all.

Indiana will have the ability to make major roster moves in the summer of 2018, or if it likes what it has, it can mostly stand pat.

Thaddeus Young ($13.8 million) and Cory Joseph ($7.9 million) have player options for 2018-19, and three players have team options: Lance Stephenson, Domantas Sabonis and Joe Young.

Additionally, two of the team’s highest-paid players — Darren Collison and Bojan Bogdanovic — have minimal guarantees for 2018-19, meaning the Pacers can cut ties with them quite easily if the team decides to move on from either or both.

That leaves Indiana with only five guaranteed contracts in 2018-19, and that includes the extremely team-friendly deal of Myles Turner ($3.4 million).

Looking ahead to 2019-20, the Pacers’ salary cap pliability increases even further. There are currently only two players under contract for that season (Victor Oladipo and Ike Anigbogu), and a third with a team option (T.J. Leaf).

Clearly, Kevin Pritchard and cap guru Peter Dinwiddie have done a very good job massaging Indiana’s salary cap during an offseason of extreme turnover.

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The Pacers only have one longer-term, high-dollar contract on the books — and that belongs to Victor Oladipo. The team firmly believes in Oladipo and they feel that his $21 million salary is a good investment in the team’s future.

There is one potential downside to having minimal future contract commitments, and that will come to light if management wants to keep the core of the team together.

In that case, there will be several key pieces that need to be re-signed over the next two years, but that is a good problem to have compared to being weighed down by bloated, long-term deals that don’t allow much leeway in terms of improving the roster.

The Indiana Pacers are entering the first year of a rebuild and won’t see much immediate success on the court. However, the state of their salary cap is a big plus for the team going forward.

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Minimal commitment and maximum flexibility are important parameters the Pacers have at their disposal, so no matter how the 2017-18 campaign unfolds, the team will have the ability to make further adjustments as the rebuild continues.

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