Indiana Pacers: 3 goals for the 2019 offseason

2. Re-sign at least one player from last year’s roster

With nine players on their roster in contract years, the Indiana Pacers are approaching a signing deadline that leaves them an important question to answer: How much of last year’s team — which the organization purposely kept together for chemistry reasons at February’s trade deadline — comes back for 2019-20?

Indiana’s free agents are varying in age, and how many years each of those players have left will determine whether or not this roster has a drastic makeover or just loses a few faces. Tyreke Evans will be gone due to suspension. Kyle O’Quinn and Wesley Matthews had underwhelming contributions last year. Edmond Sumner and Davon Reed are wild cards.

If the Pacers make any decision on their free agents, it should be to keep at least one player from last year’s team who contributed on a night-to-night basis. Whether it’s Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Bogey or Young, each of those players has gas left in the tank and can help ignite a fire under next year’s squad.

Joseph, 27, is the only member of that cast under 30, and the only member to win a championship, so his experience is worth considering for 2019-20.

https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1108935718963834880

He may also be the second-most coveted free agent target still attached to the Indiana Pacers that isn’t named Bojan Bogdanovic, who has given teams a reason to look his way. Keeping these players will require some tough negotiations that allow for some financial flexibility.

The hope is that these Pacers who agree to re-sign are bought-in enough to the idea that this team can make a deeper playoff push in late April and early May.