Siakam played a significant part in Indiana’s march into the conference finals.
Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers have agreed on a four-year, $189.5 million max contract, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Siakam, who was acquired from the Toronto Raptors in January, played an important role in the team’s march to the Eastern Conference finals.
According to the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, any player who will either enter free agency or be eligible for a contract extension in July can negotiate with the team with whom he concluded the season. Players may not negotiate with other teams until the moratorium begins (June 30 at 6 p.m. ET), and contracts cannot be signed until the moratorium ends (July 6 at 12:01 p.m. ET).
In other words, Siakam can effectively end his free agency before it even begins. He has 12 days to agree to a new contract with the Pacers before he can consider potential deals with anybody else.
In a way, Siakam’s free agency occurred months ago. Toward the close of his stint in Toronto, he and team president Masai Ujiri discussed his future in Los Angeles. The whole league was aware that Siakam would be eligible to sign a contract for up to $42.3 million this offseason, that the Raptors were not willing to add that much money to their roster, and that any team attempting to trade for him would have to be. Siakam never wanted to leave the team that picked him, but after the deal was completed, ESPN and The Athletic reported that he was pleased with where he ended up and expected to re-sign.
As Indiana coach Rick Carlisle stated at the end of the season, the team has been recruiting Siakam since he came. If the front staff wasn’t confident in its ability to keep him, it wouldn’t have traded Bruce Brown and three first-round picks for him in the first place.
Siakam averaged 21.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 31.8 minutes per game for the Pacers during the regular season, with a true shooting percentage of 60.2% and a usage rate of 25.2%.
Siakam, who was named to two All-Star teams and two All-NBA teams during his time in Toronto, enthused about his first few months in Indiana during his season-ending news conference.
“I’m so grateful and happy that I came in a place where you just feel so supported and you feel like you’re needed, you feel like you matter,” he stated to reporters. “And as a player, that’s really all you can ask for.”
