Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Scott: When the Pacers were in town for a few days for consecutive games against the Nets in Brooklyn, before the first matchup, Pacers executives Kevin Pritchard, Chad Buchanan and Happy Walters spoke with the Nets GM Sean Marks.
Agnes: Right now, the first month of the season is really good for executives to travel with the team and get a feel for what they did in the offseason, what things look like, and how guys are meshing.
Scott: He’s 26, and by the time he hits free agency, he’ll be 27. He’s still young enough that he could be a part of a rebuild and be in his prime. What’s interesting here is a couple of things.
I think the Pacers showed their hand a little bit when they offered Deandre Ayton a max offer sheet. Myles Turner was going into the season at that point as the starting five, and it was going to be his opportunity with Domantas Sabonis gone. He was coming back healthy and expressed optimism and a strong desire to play with Tyrese Haliburtonwho, in his opinion, is the best passing point guard and playmaker he’s played with in his career at the position.
There’s a belief around the league looking ahead that Turner and his team will seek over $20 million annually in free agency as an unrestricted free agent. Previously, there were rumblings about a potential Malcolm Brogdon type of extension around those numbers (two years, $45 million). Those extension talks were previously (discussed), not anything recently, to be clear.
Agnes: It was very likely, in my opinion, that he was going to get traded at the deadline and not Sabonis, but he suffered that stress reaction in mid-January. He didn’t play the rest of the year.
They didn’t want to move on from Sabonis, but a deal opened up where they could get Haliburton, so they went for it. Ayton is a different level and talent at center. They were trying to take advantage of Phoenix’s poor management. They’re sitting there waiting and weren’t giving Ayton a guy like that who’d generally get a max extension going into his final year and not getting to restricted free agency. The Pacers pivoted in the summer and said let’s go all in on Ayton. They met with him a couple of times.
If you’re Myles, I think you’re ideally getting $20-25 million annually, and you’re on a contending team. Something that was reiterated in several interviews is that he wants some notoriety not just for his team but also individually. That’s something that’s really bothered him over the last three to four years. He’s piling up blocks when he stays on the court. When he does, he’s not even in the conversation nationally about Defensive Player of the Year or an All-Defensive Team. That really annoys him to the point where one of his sponsors, Mountain Dew, is promoting him rather than the team.
Scott: I’m sure he felt a certain way when they made the offer sheet to Ayton. Some executives I’ve spoken to think that he can earn up to $20 million annually. Some compare him in the Clint Capela range ($21 million next season).
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