Sunday, December 22, 2024

Sources: Pacers’ Siakam to ink $189.5M max deal

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All-Star forward Pascal Siakam intends to sign a four-year, $189.5 million maximum contract to stay with the Indiana Pacers, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.

Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard and general manager Chad Buchanan presented the max offer to Siakam and his agents Todd Ramasar and Jafaar Choufani of Life Sports Agency on Tuesday — shortly after the NBA’s new early contact rules allowed for teams to begin negotiating extensions and free agent deals with their own players after the NBA Finals.

Siakam, 30, plans to sign the deal once the league’s free agency moratorium ends on July 6, sources said.

Siakam arrived in a blockbuster deal with the Toronto Raptors in January and played an immense part in the franchise’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade. The Pacers pursued Siakam in the final year of his Raptors contract, banking that his championship and All-NBA pedigree would make for a perfect running-mate for All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton.

The Pacers will now have Haliburton and Siakam under contract through 2028 and 2029, respectively.

Siakam averaged 21.3 points on 55% shooting and 39% 3-point shooting in 41 regular season games upon arriving in Indiana. He became the third player to average 35 points and 10 rebounds in each of his first two playoff games, joining Elgin Baylor (1961) and Wilt Chamberlain (1967). He scored 367 points in the 2024 playoffs, the most for a Pacers player since Paul George in 2014.

Siakam was voted the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2019, when he was an integral part of the franchise’s first championship season.

ESPN Stats and Information contributed to this report.

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