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When the news broke that 26-year-old guard Bruce Brown agreed to a two-year, $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers, it caught many by surprise, as the former second-round pick was originally thought to be looking for a contract in the $12 million range (or, in other words, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception).
However, as is common amongst middling teams ā in terms of success, talent level, and market ā enticing free agents to sign with them often requires what many would consider an overpay.
A truth that even Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan is willing to admit, as he tells The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov that āWhat other teams are willing to pay him? And what we were willing to pay him is a big, significant gap.ā
Delving deeper into why he believed that signing Brown to a contract with a high annual salary was necessary, Buchanan says āWeāre a young team, and for Bruce to come in and leave a championship team and some other teams (that) are after him to come to play for a young team, we realize it was gonna probably take a unique way to approach luring him to us.ā
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As for why the Pacers needed Brown though?
āWe need to find some guys that can do the dirty work,ā Buchanan begins, āthe guys that were gonna embrace being a great defender, that were gonna relish guarding other teamsā great scorers. ā¦ He played so many different positions. He guards so many different positions, and heās improved his shooting. Heās just very adaptableā¦ā
āIf we can become a top-20 defense, I think we would make a pretty good jumpā¦ā he says.
