The Indiana Pacers and playoff breakout star Andrew Nembhard have agreed to a three-year extension value $59 million, league sources confirmed Wednesday. There aren’t any choices within the deal, sources stated.
Nembhard, 24, was the No. 31 choose of the 2022 draft and is coming off a sophomore season wherein he averaged 9.2 factors and 4.1 assists per recreation in 68 contests, 47 of which have been off the bench.
Within the playoffs, Nembhard shined as a full-time starter, averaging 14.9 factors and 5.5 assists in 17 video games. He significantly stepped up as Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton went down injured towards the Boston Celtics within the Japanese Convention finals, scoring 32 factors in Sport 3 and 24 factors in Sport 4.
Nembhard additionally had 20-point playoff performances within the victorious sequence towards the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks.
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Information of the deal was first reported by ESPN.
Alongside Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, Nembhard is anticipated to play a key position in Indiana’s plans because the crew appears to be like to determine itself as an annual contender. His new extension will run by 2028 and kick in after the 2024-25 season, when he’ll end his rookie deal.
The Pacers on Wednesday additionally retained free agent ahead James Johnson on a one-year, $3.3 million deal, league sources stated. Johnson, 37, hardly ever performed final yr however is considered as Indiana’s enforcer and is a revered veteran within the locker room. He’s been a member of the crew for components of the final two seasons and can now return for a 3rd. ESPN first reported Johnson’s deal.
Pacers’ early funding pays off
The Pacers believed in Nembhard from the soar, signing the second-round choose to a four-year, $8.6 million deal in 2022. Nembhard’s rookie contract included $6.4 million assured throughout the primary three years, which, on the time, was essentially the most assured cash ever awarded to a second-round choose. Nembhard really obtained extra assured cash that yr than a number of first-round picks.
Indiana’s early funding within the former Gonzaga star has paid off tremendously as Nembhard shined all through the postseason and established himself as an integral a part of the crew’s core shifting ahead. After Indiana revamped its roster with franchise-altering trades for Haliburton and Siakam, Nembhard turns into the primary Pacers draft choose to land a contract extension since Myles Tuner was drafted in 2015 and netted a four-year, $80 million extension in 2018.
Nembhard is at present competing for Staff Canada, which is able to start its run within the Paris Olympics on Saturday towards Greece. It is going to be the Canadian males’s basketball crew’s first Olympic look since a seventh-place end in Sydney in 2000. — James Boyd, Colts beat author
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(Photograph: Stacy Revere / Getty Photographs)
