After Daniel Theis Buyout, Indiana Pacers Have Roster Options

The Indiana Pacers waived veteran center Daniel Theis earlier this month. The 31-year old center has already joined the Los Angeles Clippers on a new deal.

“He competed great in training camp and he helped us win the Milwaukee game. This is now an opportunity for us to thank him, give him his respect, and wish him the best in the next endeavor,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of Theis. Just six days prior to being waived, Theis gave Indiana eight important minutes in a win over the Bucks. He scored two points and defended well.

That outing was Theis’ only appearance of the season for the blue and gold. The big man had shared that he was unhappy with his limited playing time in Indiana, and that was part of the reason such an early-season waiver even took place. The German center’s salary could have been useful in trades down the line, but the financial savings and roster spot have value to the Pacers right now.

The financial savings exist because Theis agreed to a contract buyout. In a buyout, a player and his team can opt to change the amount of guaranteed salary in a contract, which is done with waivers in mind. In this case, Indiana and Theis agreed to a buyout, with the Pacers changing the guaranteed salary in Theis’ contract from just over $9 million to just under $7 million.

The reason that the veteran center agreed to a lesser salary is because he is going to make the money elsewhere. Upon clearing waivers on November 17, Theis signed a minimum salary deal with the Clippers, and he has already played in six games for his new team. With Los Angeles, the German big man will make just under $2.2 million — the exact amount he agreed to give up in his buyout with the Pacers.

Essentially, Theis is still making $9.1 million this season. Roughly $7.0 million is being paid by the Pacers, about $1.7 million is coming from the Clippers, and the remaining $400,000 or so is being paid out by the NBA — a practice on minimum salary deals for players with more than two years of service. The veteran gets his full contract value, Indiana gets money savings, and Los Angeles gets Theis.

The Pacers also get an open roster spot, which could be valuable in a number of ways. They have optionality now, something that the current front office has prioritized during their ongoing rebuild that is nearing its end stages. Indiana could use the open spot to take in a player via trade, sign someone, convert a two-way contract player, or add someone on a 10-day deal come January 5.

It’s hard to say what the best use is. If the blue and gold wanted to fill the roster spot right now, then adding a player on a non-guaranteed deal would be smart. They would keep all of the flexibility outlined above and be able to waive the player with little penalty so long as they do so before the league-wide contract guarantee date in early January. That is a possibility, but keeping the roster spot open means Indiana’s cap space remains at as high of a number as possible, which is important for flexibility.

“I’d classify it as a definite maybe,” Carlisle joked when asked if his team planned on using the roster spot they opened in the move. He said that it was a question for the front office.

The Pacers can open up as much as $9.6 million in cap space right now, so they could sign a player to a contract that starts at that amount at any time. There aren’t any free agents worth that much on the market right now — if there was, they would be on a roster — but it could still matter as the season progresses.

They could also bring in a player via trade that has a 2023-24 salary of that $9.6 million figure or less, and they wouldn’t have to send out any players to get the deal done. Perhaps they could take in a player from the Grizzlies when Memphis has to clear a roster spot at the end of Ja Morant’s suspension, or maybe they could take in a player in a bigger, three-team trade involving a star player down the road. They could just trade for someone they want on their roster. There are many strong uses of the roster spot in a trade.

An imbalanced swap, one in which the Pacers send out one fewer player than they receive, is also much easier now. Last year, they took in three players in a trade deadline deal with Milwaukee and had to make corresponding waivers to complete the transaction.

The Pacers could convert one of their two-way contract players — Oscar Tshiebwe, Kendall Brown, and Isaiah Wong, to a standard deal, but such a move would have little upside. Those players are all already under contract with the blue and gold, though they do have a games-played limit in the NBA.

Should the Pacers still have the roster spot open come January 5, they could opt to sign any free agent to a 10-day contract. Teams are not permitted to add players via 10-day deals until that date, but those contracts are a good way to fill a roster and get a shorter look at a player while still maintaining flexibility.

None of the options are necessarily better than any others. It all depends on what the Pacers value the most. Keeping their flexibility as high as possible heading into the trade deadline seems like the smartest move, so if they made a trade early, it would need to be a no-brainer since they would lose flexibility.

Short of that, any move the Pacers would make soon with their newly-opened roster spot would likely be to add someone on a non-guaranteed contract or a 10-day deal. With the team being mostly healthy so far this season and optionality being important to the team, don’t expect an eye-popping move in the near future. Closer to next February’s trade deadline, though? Indiana’s flexibility will be important.