Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers have come to an agreement on a four-year, $189.5 million max contract, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Siakam, who was acquired from the Toronto Raptors in January, played a major role in their run to the Eastern Conference finals.
Under the terms of the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, on the day following the last game of the NBA Finals, any player who will either hit free agency or be eligible for a contract extension in July can negotiate with the team that he finished the season playing for. Players are not allowed to negotiate with other teams until the moratorium begins (on June 30 at 6 p.m. ET), and contracts can't be signed until the moratorium ends (on July 6 at 12:01 p.m. ET).
In other words, Siakam can effectively wrap up his free agency before it officially begins. He is allowed to agree to a new contract with the Pacers now, 12 days before he is permitted to discuss potential deals with anybody else.
In a way, though, Siakam's free agency was over months ago. Toward the end of his time in Toronto, he and team president Masai Ujiri had a conversation about his future in Los Angeles. The whole league knew that Siakam would be eligible to sign a contract starting at $42.3 million this offseason, that the Raptors weren't comfortable adding that kind of money to their payroll and that any team trying to trade for him needed to be. Siakam never wanted to leave the team that drafted him, but, when the deal was done, both ESPN and The Athletic reported that he was happy with where he landed and was expected to re-sign.
As Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said at the end of the season, the team has been recruiting Siakam from the moment he arrived. If the front office were not confident in its ability to retain him, though, it wouldn't have traded Bruce Brown and three first-round picks to get him in the first place.
In 41 regular-season games for the Pacers, Siakam averaged 21.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 31.8 minutes, with a 60.2% true shooting percentage and a 25.2% usage rate.
Siakam, who made two All-Star teams and two All-NBA teams during his Toronto tenure, raved about his first few months in Indiana during his end-of-season press conference.
"I'm so grateful and happy that I came in a place where you just feel so supported and you feel like you're needed, you feel like you matter," he told reporters. "And as a player, that's really all you can ask for."
