Pascal Siakam, Pacers agree on $189M, four-year contract that can be signed in July, AP source says
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Yueke
Wed, Jun 26, 2024
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Pascal Siakam, Pacers agree on $189M, four-year contract that can be signed in July, AP source says
Pascal Siakam intends to sign a four-year, $189.5 million contract to remain with the Indiana Pacers when the NBA’s offseason moratorium is lifted in early July, a person with knowledge of the talks between the sides told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because neither the player nor the club may announce the agreement by league rule. ESPN, citing unnamed sources, was first to report that Siakam decided to remain with the Pacers.
Free agency does not begin until June 30, but this agreement was not in violation of any league rules. Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, teams could start speaking to their own free agents one day after the conclusion of the NBA Finals. The Pacers were clear going into the offseason that retaining Siakam was a top priority, so it was no surprise that they wanted to begin official talks quickly.
“The first very important step is to begin recruiting Pascal Siakam in earnest,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said a few weeks ago, shortly after the Pacers’ season ended. “That will start today with exit meetings. He’s a great player. He was tremendous for us.”
Siakam — a two-time All-Star and part of the Toronto team that won the 2019 NBA title — would be in line to make about $42 million next season and around $53 million in 2027-28, the final year of the new deal.
The Pacers acquired the 30-year-old power forward in a January trade, and he quickly became a major part of the team that reached the Eastern Conference finals before falling to eventual NBA champion Boston. Siakam shot 55% from the field and 38% from 3-point range in 41 regular-season games with Indiana this past season.
Counting his time in Toronto, Siakam averaged 21.7 points and 7.1 rebounds this past season. The Pacers will have him and guard Tyrese Haliburton — who is about to enter the start of a $245 million, five-year deal that was agreed upon last summer — as their franchise cornerstones going forward.
Carlisle said he still considered this past season to be Year 2 of a rebuild in Indiana, but he noted that the acquisitions of Siakam and Haliburton (who was traded to Indiana in February 2022) fast-tracked the plan.
“The fact that all these pieces fit well together put us in a strong position this year,” Carlisle said when the season ended.
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AP NBA:
Pascal Siakam intends to sign a four-year, $189.5 million contract to remain with the Indiana Pacers when the NBA’s offseason moratorium is lifted in early July, a person with knowledge of the talks between the sides told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because neither the player nor the club may announce the agreement by league rule. ESPN, citing unnamed sources, was first to report that Siakam decided to remain with the Pacers.
Free agency does not begin until June 30, but this agreement was not in violation of any league rules. Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, teams could start speaking to their own free agents one day after the conclusion of the NBA Finals. The Pacers were clear going into the offseason that retaining Siakam was a top priority, so it was no surprise that they wanted to begin official talks quickly.
“The first very important step is to begin recruiting Pascal Siakam in earnest,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said a few weeks ago, shortly after the Pacers’ season ended. “That will start today with exit meetings. He’s a great player. He was tremendous for us.”
Siakam — a two-time All-Star and part of the Toronto team that won the 2019 NBA title — would be in line to make about $42 million next season and around $53 million in 2027-28, the final year of the new deal.
The Pacers acquired the 30-year-old power forward in a January trade, and he quickly became a major part of the team that reached the Eastern Conference finals before falling to eventual NBA champion Boston. Siakam shot 55% from the field and 38% from 3-point range in 41 regular-season games with Indiana this past season.
Counting his time in Toronto, Siakam averaged 21.7 points and 7.1 rebounds this past season. The Pacers will have him and guard Tyrese Haliburton — who is about to enter the start of a $245 million, five-year deal that was agreed upon last summer — as their franchise cornerstones going forward.
Carlisle said he still considered this past season to be Year 2 of a rebuild in Indiana, but he noted that the acquisitions of Siakam and Haliburton (who was traded to Indiana in February 2022) fast-tracked the plan.
“The fact that all these pieces fit well together put us in a strong position this year,” Carlisle said when the season ended.
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AP NBA:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Royce Lewis noticed the large section of the ribbon board above left field that went blank in the middle of the game and figured the people in charge of ballpark operations for the Twins were frustrated by the malfunction on Wednesday night.
As it turned out, Lewis — with his eighth home run in 14 games — was the culprit.
“If I had to pay for that, that would be a lot,” he said sheepishly. “Hopefully not.”
The Twins had a game to play, of course, a tight one that tilted toward the Tampa Bay Rays in the 10th inning on, coincidentally, a throwing error by Lewis that allowed the go-ahead run to score. They didn’t realize the correlation between the homer and the videoboard malfunction.
“I had no idea it was from me, no,” said Lewis, who has the most home runs in Twins history in a player’s first 14 games of a season. “It’s funny, I feel it off the bat now, and I have a good idea that it’s probably gone. I’m just looking at my teammates to amp them up and get them going. I think they love it just as much as I do now, so just trying to get the boys going.”
This one wasn’t quite Roy Hobbs busting the light bulbs in the movie “The Natural,” but the videoboard-breaker was yet another highlight to add to the reel for the ebullient first overall pick in the 2017 draft.
Lewis, who went 3 for 4 with a walk and is batting .380 with a .439 on-base percentage and a .900 slugging percentage this season, has hit 29 homers with 74 RBIs in 90 career major league games including the playoffs.
With an exit velocity measured at 108.7 mph off a 2-2 cutter from Rays right-hander Taj Bradley, this one ricocheted off the ribbon board that fronts the second deck above left field. Seconds later, a long section of LED lights used to depict the rotating advertisements went dark. The red Budweiser logos that were up at the time wound up with a blank black splotch, as did the rest of the ads that followed.
“When he finds the barrel, you hear that kind of piercing snap,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He finds the barrel more often than most and when it leaves the bat, a lot of the time there’s not really a question. You feel pretty good about it as it’s leaving the bat. It was another good swing by him. He’s having a lot of very meaningful at-bats. He’s doing a lot of very, very positive things for us at the plate right now. We’ve seen that a lot from him already in the couple weeks he’s been playing, and I keep saying it: ‘More to come.’ There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be more to come.”
Lewis stopped an 0-for-7 skid with a single in the first inning.
“I don’t do that slump thing,” he said, recalling a conversation earlier in the day with teammate Pablo López. “That’s not a real thing for me.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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