Indiana Pacers Rumors
Get a free trial James Johnson will return to Pacers
Adrian Wojnarowski: Free agent forward James Johnson is returning to the Indiana Pacers on a one-year, $3.3 million deal, Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. At 37, Johnson’s presence remains valuable for a young team. pic.twitter.com/zNRuDWII5N
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So, yes, Haliburton is self-aware about, and grateful for, a basketball career that might never have left Wisconsin, let alone played out on a world stage. He does not take for granted making All-Star games, Olympic teams or Eastern Conference Finals. “There’s a lot to be happy about,” he says. “I’m blessed, man.” Yet spend enough time with Haliburton and something else becomes clear. “I’m greedy, I want to be great,” he says. “So, I mean, what is there to be satisfied about?”
“I’m coming into this year, and whether it’s the case or not, viewing it like everybody thinks my success in the first half of last season was a fluke, and I got to prove it again,” Haliburton says. “And that’s just who I am and that’s how I’m just cut that way. That’s the fun part about it for me: it’s just another chip on my shoulder, [added] to the thousands that are already there.”
Knicks fans were the latest to learn that. “There’s nothing like the Garden,” he says. And throughout New York and Indiana’s Eastern Conference semifinal in May, Haliburton felt one pocket of seats across from the Pacers’ bench was consistently on him the most. As he tells it, a pregame interaction set the tone for their series-clinching win: “So, Game 7 came around, and I’m like, I gotta come up with something to get me going. Like I heard Tom Brady say that one time, like he would look for things to get him going, and Michael Jordan said the same thing—like, sometimes he would make things up. So there’s a dude courtside, he’s chirping to me in warmups … and then he was really talking crazy. And I wasn’t going to say anything, I’m like, I’m gonna let this go. I’m gonna get him later. And then [Pacers teammate and karate black-belt] James Johnson walked over. And James obviously is the muscle of the NBA. And when James walked over, the dude got quiet. So I just went over there. I was like, ‘Why are you quiet now? Like, are you scared of him?’ And then that’s kind of what got us going. “From there I mean, I got hot, I got going and it was like, every bucket I’m looking at him just to keep the blood flowing and keep the juices flowing. And honestly, as a team, we just flowed off that.”
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Spurs showed interest in Darius Garland, Andrew Nembhard
The Spurs will be one team to monitor for Andrew Nembhard moving forward, sources said, after San Antonio registered trade interest in Nembhard this offseason. Before San Antonio brought Chris Paul to organize the Spurs’ offense around Victor Wembanyama, sources said San Antonio called various teams around the league exploring veteran guards who have still yet to enter their primes. Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland was another talented ball-handler the Spurs called about, sources said, although Cleveland has rebuffed any inbound trade interest for Garland to date.
After a stellar postseason run helping steer Indiana to the Eastern Conference finals this May, Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard has agreed to a three-year, $59 million contract extension, league sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. There are no options in the deal, sources said, which is one season shorter than the four-year, $70-plus million structure Nembhard was eligible to sign.
Nembhard, 24, still had two years left on his rookie deal after the Pacers selected him No. 31 in 2022, but Indiana is declining his 2025-26 club option, sources said, in order for Nembhard’s extension to kick in after this upcoming 2024-25 campaign. That mechanism both allows Nembhard to effectively receive a near-$16 million raise for the ’25-26 season, while setting up the third-year combo guard for another big contract at the conclusion of his extension in 2028, when Nembhard will be just 28 and theoretically entering his prime.
Pacers, Andrew Nembhard agree to three-year, $59 million extension
Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard has agreed to a three-year, $59 million contract extension that will take him through the 2027-28 season, Todd Ramasar and Jaafar Choufani of Life Sports Agency told ESPN on Wednesday morning. Nembhard — one of the breakout players of the 2024 Eastern Conference playoffs — agreed on the maximum allowable money available to him on a three-year deal. The Pacers will decline his $2.2 team option in 2025-26, allowing for the new deal to begin for him next year, sources said. Nembhard became eligible to sign the deal Monday.
