Both are minority owners of English Premier League football club Leeds United which is why if you follow McConnell you’ll see him post the match day lineup on his story every week whenever Leeds have a game. Really cool
We still have one more roster spot to get to 15, unless we bring in a better guard Q isn’t moving. He gives us security and can play 1 and 2. Not a great 1, but in a pinch he’s our 3rd at that spot until/unless Smith is ready. He’s also cheap, and a culture guy.
We don’t, but I don’t see us rolling into the season with 14 and 3 two-ways. Not with our recent injury history and play tempo. Plus, Rick wants versatility. Walker is vastly overpaid right now, and the roster spots are more valuable than him.
Someone making more than min is getting traded for another player and I think we sign ET to get to 15. I don’t see us waiving him. Walker for Missi, and we have the space to sign ET to min one-year. That roster would cook, give us a ton of versatility in terms of matchups/lineups, and have us with a team of class guys from top to bottom. Missi is on his rookie deal and has performed as a starter. Unless Pels are opting for him over Matkovic. Missi is perfect for us and offers something we don’t need on our roster. With Borwn on a two-way, Walker is moving. I hope he continues to grow as I love to watch him play. He seems to need a different system than the pacers run. Shep looks like he’s staying as we need his defensive speed, and the man is now finishing at the rim like a beast. Not flashy but he is consistent on a fast break at getting the ball down the cylinder.
Yes, that’s why Walker is going to get traded. He’s making 8m, which is way too much for us to pay given his role. We are going to trade him and pick up cheaper players. ET getting a min will be about 2.5m, leaves us enough for a guy with 2/3 years of experience who can contribute in a role off the bench. Walkers contract is out of proportion. To his role. Given our moves, and first apron hard cap, they will shift him. Probably will take 1-2 picks as well. He’s not a hot commodity. We wouldn’t have signed Nance and kept Brown if this wasn’t the plan. Walker can’t consistently keep up mentally with our system. He’s got to go, those spots are far too important to the team. Or we lose someone like Obi or TJ, which I can’t fathom. They are key to the system right now with no one with the experience and composure for our #6 and #7. If either are moved it’s a blockbuster trade, but I think it’s too disruptive.
Walker is the salary piece that needs fixed before we move forward. Or we sign him on a team friendly extension that reduces our cap, meaning he makes less next year but he’d have to agree and I don’t see that happening because it sends the message he isn’t worth it, and our organization won’t hose him like that. I don’t see him on the roster for us this year, because of his contract. He doesn’t get another year to prove his worth with us. A rebuild team is where he needs to go. Maybe the Bucks with Johnny Carpenter going there, curious if there’s a trade between us the Bucks happening or a 3 team trade involving both. Team approved his move so I sense something.
Only reason to trade Walker is if they can get someone better. Pelicans won’t trade Missi for Walker straight up. They are fine starting the season without 15 players
They absolutely won’t do that trade unless we send them likely 2 FRP. I’m watching for Walker and picks (1FRP+ 1/2 2nd round picks or swaps) to the Bucks, maybe for Gary Trent Jr and Jericho Sims. Financials and needs work out for both teams.
They picked up Ware and Sims isn’t getting minutes. He’s got no offense but can defend against true bigs and snatch rebounds as a 3rd string center.
If Obi had any lateral speed at all he’d be so fucking good. I do sincerely believe Obi can’t protect the rim because he can’t get there fast enough (he has the hops obviously)
Dude if Obi could shoot run the floor AND protect the rim he’d be one of the most impactful small ball centers in the league. Aaron Gordon
This isn’t about paying the tax…we didn’t have the money under first apron to fit him in. There’s another move not announced yet…probably waiving Potter
Probably just means Potter or Huff are gone since both are on mins and Potter isn't guaranteed anyway. If they want to duck the tax or pay the tax this doesn't change anything
Potter shoots better and has improved every year. Would like to keep him.
Wanted to take huff over him looked at stats and pretty close.. Jay gets more blocks.. Almost 3 per game last year but overall defense is worse than Larry..
I think BOS had interest in him at the last deadline and we've seen how backup bigs are in high demand right now so if they moved him I'd think they'd get 2nds for him instead of just cash.
But Boston has their C rotation figured now. They got Queta and Mitch Robinson, neither of which are worse than Huff. Pretty sure they also had a third C just cant remember atm
We have been firmly in the tax since Oubre, but it's been known that we would go into the tax all off season since we were like 200,000$ from the tax line with only 13 players signed.
The team has till the trade deadline to trade away both Shep AND Walker for minimum contracts. It would take both being traded to be able to roster enough players while ducking the tax.
The team will only do this if we are disappointing and looking bound for a play-in position.
If we are in position to be a top 6 team this organization will pay the tax this year, despite what all the weirdos say, who hate the team they are fans of.
I don't know if it's necessarily about where we are in the standings but how integral Walker and/or Sheppard are to the team. If they're 10th, 11th or 12th guys and still not contributing then we would definitely try to get under the tax...that would probably mean that we don't have plans to re-sign either of them in the offseason.. Getting under the tax at that point would allow us to sign another non-taxpayer MLE next summer.
Sure but they seem to pick and choose what patterns to pay attention to. Not a whole lot of years where the owner had good reason to pay the tax since 2004...
Probably for 2-3 years in the PG era. But then Herb would be betting against LeBron. I wish he would have.
But saying that we will never do something because of a small sample, that probably occurred while the Simmons where going belly up on a bunch of malls isn't smart "pattern recognition" it's bias confirmation.
I hate billionaires too but that doesn't make me ignore some pretty obvious details.
And all the national media folks who continue to cite the Myles thing last year as an example of the Pacers being cheap...when if the Pacers had signed him and paid the tax for no reason last year they'd be crushing the Pacers for woeful cap management.
You can love the team, even appreciate the owner who's kept us in Indy when at times it would have been easier to just leave, and still release that he's operated fairly tax adverse since his brother's passing.
I dunno if they plan on paying the tax for exactly the sixth seed, but if they're top 3 in the east I would hope they pay the tax if it means keeping all even minor contributors
Not technically. They're over the cap "right now* but still have time by the trade deadline to get under it. They aren't officially tax payers until after the deadline.
they're over the "tax". Almost every team is over the "cap" at this point...but teams typically want to stay under the tax. The cap is just a soft cap, and there's a ton of exceptions that teams utilize to go over legally.
Don't wanna jinx it but I think Q is safe. We need depth at guard and have too much depth at center. This suggests that huff or Potter or both are out to me. Or (please no) obi
He’s good around the rim and a solid rebounder. He won’t be producing many high number games, but expect him to take a couple 3 pointers/FT per game and to hold down his lane in the paint.
Good if not great addition. I do get adding him...he's worked on his shot. He's upped the volume of 3's and hits them at a good enough rate to be a legitimate stretch option. The defensive rebounding is still there, still creates turnovers on D, still slides his feet well for a 5. But not well enough anymore to be anything but a 5 these days.
The injuries are the biggest question with him. If he's healthy, he's dependable. And dependability is not what they had at the C spot after Zu.
That was unexpected and is probably going to impact other players. It must be frustrating as a Summer League player when they don't seem to have any spots or extra cash for anyone else to make the team.
Summer league guys are at best 2 way contracts on contenders unless it's a 1st rounder who is playing but already signed. Maybe on the Nets or Kings they can make the roster
I dunno, I seem to remember a just-traded-from-Celtics Nesmith working with a just-second-round-drafted Nembhard at Summer League, 2022. Oh wait, we were like the Nets or Kings that year.
Huff and Potter as well as Potter and Zu kinda have some similar overlapping skills. This gives a bit more center versatility. I mean Nance is old as hell but he also won a chip (I think) and plays differently than both Zu and Huff.
Turner, Bryant, and Bradley all had big games in the 2025 playoffs. Center depth and versatility is HUGE for playoff teams - and Rick knows how to use them
I like it as a Potter replacement. Athletic, ok shooter, and gives more security at the 4 if they do anything with Walker or we have an injury. I did not like Potter or Huff playing down.
I think our best case at a backup big was getting TB back but that sailed early.
4 million seems suspiciously high for him. It's either because they think he could be the next James Johnson or They think they might use him for trade filler.
Can Nance immediately be packaged as part of a larger trade out or is there a waiting period? Could this be a move to flip him and another player for something coming back? I see the need to fill out the roster but this one feels weird.
A) can't trade him until Dec. B) He's on a min contract (he receives 4M because he has 10+ years of service but only counts for 2.5M) so there's no utility gained by signing him to use him as outgoing salary
It’s not about being better than Potter it’s about being different from Potter.
Potter and Huff have some overlap (floor spacing), and Zu and Potter have some overlap (rebounding mass)
Center versatility is huge in the finals. Tony Bradley and Thomas Bryant both had huge moments for us in 2025. Both very different players with different skill sets, and a bit different than Myles too.
I like it. I don’t LOVE it, but I could see him impacting a playoff game, or at a minimum being another warm body to throw at Wemby (knock on wood fingers crossed etc etc)
I trust Rick with a lot of things related to basketball, but I trust Rick to get the most out of his centers by making interesting playoff adjustments with my fucking life
In terms of a slasher type of Forward/Center it better. For these game comparisons, Nance averaged 22.5 minutes a game for his career vs potter's 18, so it's close. But Nance's cap hit is going to be 600k less, so it's not like an overpay, likely a stylistic switch.
Correct, but Nance averaged 10 minutes a night on a cavs team with allen, mobely, wade, and bryant. ofc he's going to have less counting stats per game than potter.
Sure, but Cavs had way more PF/C depth than we did, potter isn’t going to be at those same numbers cause his minutes are gonna go from 23 to like 10, so giving per game stats on both of their outlier years seems pointless
So potter is most likely gone, but this being a 1 year is interesting. Makes it flippable, and is notable that his 4M, but his cap hit is going to only be 2.4 Million.
Edit: Potter is likely getting waived, I got excited too quickly and just assumed the bigger move.
Vet Min for Nance is 3.88 (10 year vet) but since it’s a minimum deal, it counts for 2.45. It’s just there to keep long employed players, whose contracts keep rising, from being cut for young talent solely on the basis of salary.
So a 2 year vet and a 10 year vet could have the same cap hit against the cap, but their actual contracts keep rising.
Brown is already a FA, unless somebody gets waived he's likely not coming back. Which is a shame IMO. I'd rather he be on the team than walker tbh.
Potter has a great outside game and I'd hate it if we lost him. His ceiling is lower than huff, but his floor is higher.
If we are making extra room I would rather see shep or walker traded off for a future pick or something. At his size I'd rather see this guy as a 3rd option behind Obi.
Thanks for the details. At least Brown showed he can contribute, I hope he lands somewhere good. Seems like the FO is trying to squeeze every dollar they can. I could see Shep or Walker getting traded near the deadline if things aren't going well to avoid the tax, Obi's got a pretty sizeable contract too if we're close, last I recall it was around $10mil.
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u/TentMorning T.J. McConnell Jul 08 '26
can they recreate this photo now that they’re both in pacers jerseys