Indiana Pacers: 5 goals for the 2018 offseason

5. Use Al Jefferson‘s contract in a trade

Al Jefferson is on the books for $10 million next season. On its face, his would not seem to be a deal anyone be clamoring for. There’s a catch though, and it has nothing to do with Big Al suddenly losing half a person and becoming a stretch-4 fit for the modern game.

Only $4 million of Jefferson’s salary is guaranteed for 2018-19. The guarantee date on the deal isn’t until Jan. 10, 2019, so for some teams, it could be a very interesting asset. On one hand, if a team hopes to make a signing in free agency, they could acquire Jefferson and then dump his contract should the need arise. On the other, a tax team could trade for him and then cut him to duck the luxury threshold.

For Indiana, they’re already under the cap and don’t figure to be big players in the free agent market to begin with. Using Jefferson’s deal to upgrade the talent level on the roster would seem to be the wiser play. Speaking of which…