The Indiana Pacers have reportedly agreed to sign former Charlotte Hornets center Al Jefferson to a three-year, $30 million deal in NBA free agency.
The Indiana Pacers have a talented frontcourt, especially after acquiring Thaddeus Young from the Brooklyn Nets and enjoying the impressive rookie season of center Myles Turner. However, with their current starting center Ian Mahinmi hitting free agency, they’re looking to add more pieces.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical has reported that they have now agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal with Al Jefferson (Woj also added that it’s currently unclear whether the final year of the contract will be fully guaranteed).
Initially, Jefferson signing for $10 million per year seems like a steal. Given his low-post talent and the fact that he was an All-NBA Third Team center just three seasons ago, averaging 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in 2013-14, he doesn’t seem like a bad pickup. Even more so when you consider that he’s making significantly less than the (not-so) great Timofey Mozgov.
However, Jefferson coming to Indiana is a bit of a strange fit.
The Pacers spent last season trying to get smaller, speed up their pace, try Paul George at power forward, and generally look more like a modern NBA team rather than a slow, gritty defensive group.
Jefferson is a step backwards in that trend, except that he doesn’t offer any kind of gritty defense.
David Aldridge has added that the Pacers still hope to re-sign Mahinmi.
Now at 31 with some ankle issues under his belt and a post style and fairly limited range that doesn’t translate as well to today’s NBA, it’s hard to see that the Pacers would choose for Jefferson to be their starting center over the highly promising Myles Turner. Furthermore, with the blatant observation that Jefferson is simply a slow player, he won’t do their defense any favors.
That being said, while the flaws are obvious and Turner has such potential as the starter, it seems that for only $10 million per season (a relative bargain in the current market), Jefferson has accepted that he may adopt the role of an offensive impact sub after spending much of his time after returning last season coming off the bench.
If that’s the case, this signing can help the Pacers in some regard.
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