When it comes to signing outside talent in free agency, the Indiana Pacers weren't particularly active earlier this month, landing just one external player, James Wiseman, on a two-year contract worth $4.78 million.
The former second-overall pick of the Golden State Warriors out of Memphis, Wiseman bounced from the NBA to the G-League and back to the NBA during his run with Steph Curry and company before being traded to the Detroit Pistons as a throw-in to the four-team Gary Payton II deal. While Wiseman did have some success in Detroit, averaging 8.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, he didn't move the needle enough to garner an extension with the worst team in the NBA, leading to his very low signing price with the Pacers.
And yet, the Pacers' overall free agency rating can't be judged solely based on Wiseman's addition, as the team was able to bring back two key members of their 2023-24 roster in Obi Toppin and Pascal Siakam, a pairing of forwards acquired from the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors during the last league year, respectively.
In Toppin, the Pacers found one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA, one of the few players in the history of the sport to finish out a season shooting over 70 percent from inside the arc and 40 percent from 3, even if his free throw percentage was a tad underwhelming at just 77 percent. Factor in his ability to switch defensively, even if he isn't what you would call an All-Defense candidate, and Indiana found a player they can trust into the future, especially on a below-market four-year, $60 million contract.
And as for Siakam? Well, after acquiring him from the Raptors earlier this year, the Pacers were able to lock him up on a four-year, $189.5 million deal, guaranteeing that Indiana's second-best player will remain on the same squad as Tyrese Haliburton heading into the future.
Can the Pacers put it all together in 2024? Only time will tell, but considering how well the Pacers gelled in 2023-24, bringing back two of the team's core frontcourt players while adding a third buy-low candidate in Wiseman spells a very good offseason for Indiana indeed.
Obi Toppin is excited to return to the Indiana Pacers
Discussing his decision to return to Indiana and re-up his run with the Pacers following a very successful, dare-I-say breakout 2023-24 campaign with reporters, Toppin noted that the decision to re-sign wasn't a hard one, as the interest in a long-term deal was very much mutual.
“Indiana is amazing. Me going there, the experience that I had was amazing. I felt like the energy that I brought, everybody liked, the team liked,” Obi Toppin told reporters via FanNation. “They wanted me to come back. I wanted to come back, too. So I was super happy that we came to an agreement.”
Asked what sold him on the Pacers heading into the future, Toppin put over his teammates, noting that he believes they have the pieces in place to succeed.
“I just felt like the year that we had was amazing. Everybody was just so bonded. Tyrese [Haliburton], Myles [Turner], (and) Pascal [Siakam] did a great job keeping the team together. Everybody was just so glued together doing good things. We had to keep the team what it was. For me to come back, for Pascal to come back, everybody else is gonna come back. It's going be amazing,” Toppin noted.
“We understand what we can do as a team, and we understand that going into next year, we have a target on our back. So we've got to go in there and just do what we do best and have fun.”
After bouncing in and out of the New York Knicks' rotation during his first three years in the Association, averaging 16.6 minutes per game while appearing in 201 games with just 15 starts, Toppin really broke out last season for the Pacers, averaging over 20 minutes per game for the first time in his career while filling a special role for one of the fastest teams in the NBA. He was a perfect cutting alley-oop target for Haliburton in the half-court, a beast on the fast break, and a legitimate Slam Dunk Contest-level jammer who will get fans off their seats nightly with his acrobatic efforts. With room still to grow at just 26 years old, signing Toppin to a four-year deal as he enters his prime is the kind of move good GMs make regularly and the sort of upside signing that should keep Indiana as one of the most exciting teams in the NBBA as they prepare for a pivotal 2024-25 NBA season.
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