NBA Free Agency: Darren Collison signs 2-year, $20 million deal with Pacers
By John Buhler
The point guard market in NBA free agency gets tighter, as former Sacramento Kings floor general Darren Collison has signed with the Indiana Pacers.
It’s starting to become a game of musical chairs in the NBA free agency point guard market. Former Utah Jazz point guard George Hill is running out of seats. While a return home to Indianapolis could have happened, that doesn’t seem to the be the case anymore. Former Sacramento Kings point guard Darren Collison has reportedly signed a deal with the Indiana Pacers.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, “Free agent guard Darren Collison has agreed in principle to a two-year, $20 million deal with the Indian Pacers.” Collison has the distinct pleasure of replacing Jeff Teague in Indianapolis, who replaced Hill last offseason with the Pacers.
Indiana is in the beginning stages of an honest rebuilding effort behind new general manager Kevin Pritchard, who took over for Larry Bird a few months ago and has already traded All-Star swingman Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So how does Collison fit into all of this?
Free agent guard Darren Collison has agreed in principle to a two-year, $20 million deal with the Indiana Pacers, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2017
Collison is a bottom-tier starting NBA point guard. He spent the last three seasons in dysfunctional Sacramento, where he averaged 14.2 points and 4.7 assists per game. Before that, Collison had played on four other NBA teams out of UCLA, including a two-year run with the Pacers from 2010 to 2012.
The idea is that Collison will run the point for the rebuilding Pacers next to shooting guard Victor Oladipo, one of the two pieces Pritchard landed in the George deal with the Thunder. It’s a two-year deal, but a movable one at that. Collison is definitely a player worth eight figures annually, but not exactly a player a team can build a contender around.
Next: NBA Free Agency Tracker 2017
In essence, Collison is a decent stop-gap point guard that the Pacers can hopefully build its young corps of Oladipo, power forward Domantas Sabonis and center Myles Turner around. 2018 might be the first time in 30 years that the Pacers will be picking inside of the top 10 in the NBA Draft. The Pacers are rebuilding, folks!