DETROIT – The Indiana Pacers have brought back center Tony Bradley on a second 10-day contract. Bradley’s first 10-day contract, which was signed on January 8, expired on Sunday.
Bradley’s final game on that contract was Saturday night against the Detroit Pistons. After the game ended, head coach Rick Carlisle revealed that his team would be keeping Bradley for 10 more days.
“Tony’s 10-day is up, and I believe we’re going to have him back for another 10-day. So you can announce that,” Carlisle said after this team was crushed. The veteran center had 12 points and three rebounds that night.
Why are the Pacers keeping Tony Bradley for 10 more days?
Bradley found out earlier on Saturday that the Pacers would be retaining him, at least temporarily, for another contract. He’s been with the team since last March, and this is the fourth 10-day contract he has signed with the franchise in about 10 months.
The North Carolina product has appeared in 49 regular season games for Indiana, plus 11 playoff outings. This season, Bradley is averaging 4.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.
Before his 12-point performance (season-high) in Detroit, Bradley pulled in nine rebounds (also a season-high) in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Some of his most productive performances of the season came on his recent 10-day contract, making it more reasonable to bring him back.
Bradley earned backup center minutes in the last few games for Indiana, jumping over Micah Potter in the rotation. Recently, big man Isaiah Jackson returned from a concussion and is back in the mix, so Bradley’s role may be reduced on his new 10-day agreement.
But the veteran center knows the system and has been productive enough this season, and the Pacers should fill all 15 of their available roster spots if they can. They have more financial flexibility to do so after, ironically, waiving Bradley about two weeks ago.
The team’s roster is now full again, but they’ll have to make another decision at the end of the month. NBA players can only sign two 10-day deals with a team in a league year, so once Bradley’s new contract expires the Pacers will have to either let him walk away or sign him to a contract for the rest of the season. Given that the trade deadline is just one week after January 28, the final day of this 10-day pact, it’s possible the Pacers hold the roster spot open until their trade business is sorted out.
This contract for Bradley will come with a cap hit of $132k. The Pacers are now about $5.5 million shy of the luxury tax line, an important threshold for them when it comes to adding salary in signings or trades.
Bradley is the sixth player to sign a 10-day contract with the Pacers this season, and the team has given out nine such contracts in total in 2025-26 already. That is remarkably high and indicative of the team’s unfortunate health situation. Bradley has been able to stay mostly healthy and battled through a right thumb injury in recent weeks.
The 28-year old big man will give the team depth on the interior behind Jay Huff, Jackson, and Potter over the next 10 days. What happens after that timeframe will be revealing of the Pacers future plans.
