INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers are headed toward the NBA trade deadline with a newly opened spot on their roster and a known distance from the luxury tax line, the closest financial barrier in front of the team.
That’s because the team made the choice on Thursday to not re-sign center Tony Bradley at this time. Bradley was on a 10-day contract that he initially signed on January 19, meaning it expired after January 28.
Said date fell on Wednesday, and the Pacers hosted the Chicago Bulls that night. It was a tight win for Indiana, and Bradley did not appear in the game. The veteran big man logged just six minutes of total action across the Pacers last four outings.
That’s because of two factors – one being the Pacers improving health at center. Isaiah Jackson returned from a concussion earlier this month and is back in the rotational mix for the blue and gold, and he’s been getting steady backup minutes the last few games. On top of that, head coach Rick Carlisle has opted to start games without a center on the floor to get more spacing and pace on the hardwood. In general, that leaves little playing time for centers to play.
Micah Potter, Jay Huff, and Jackson have recently received most of Indiana’s backup center minutes. With Bradley out of the picture for court time, retaining him made less sense from a basketball perspective.
What other reasons did the Pacers have for not re-signing Tony Bradley?
It also made little sense from a roster strategy perspective, at least at this time. Using financial resources on a veteran who doesn’t play much is rarely good business, and the upcoming trade deadline gives the Pacers reasons to prefer having nobody instead of retaining Bradley.
NBA rules only allow teams to sign individuals to two 10-day contracts in a season. After that, a player can only sign a standard, rest-of-season NBA deal with the franchise. Bradley signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Pacers this month, meaning the Pacers would not be able to retain the eight-year pro without signing him to an agreement for the remainder of the season.
NBA contracts can no longer be non-guaranteed as of earlier this month, so if the Pacers wanted to retain Bradley they would’ve had to sign him to a guaranteed contract. Doing so would have cost the blue and gold, at minimum, $977k against the salary cap.
That would have limited the team’s flexibility ahead of the upcoming NBA trade deadline. As things stand, the Pacers are about $5.5 million below the luxury tax threshold and sport a 12-36 record, so spending more on the roster and paying a luxury tax bill to do so would be ill-advised. That should be seen as essentially an upper spending limit for the Pacers.
But the Indiana front office does have the full Non-Taxpayer Mid-Lever Exception and a Disabled Player Exception at its disposal. That means the Pacers can take in a player via trades without sending out matching salary in return, so long as the acquired player’s salary is not so large that it would cause the Pacers to cross the first salary cap apron. That apron is above the tax threshold, but Indiana is hard capped at that number.
While going right up to the first apron would put the blue and gold over the tax line, being able to take on some salary is still valuable. Right now, for example, the Pacers could acquire a player making $4.8 million in a trade without sending away any players while still remaining under the luxury tax line. If they had signed Bradley to a veteran’s minimum deal, doing that exact same move would have made the Pacers a taxpaying team.
Not only that, but the Pacers now have an open roster spot. That makes trading easier – Indiana can now take in one more player than they send out in a deal with another team. That, too, adds flexibility to Indiana’s trade deadline options.
So while Bradley was adequate in his minutes this season, averaging 4.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, signing him right now doesn’t make sense for the Pacers. Having more trade options is more significant for a team looking for long-term value.
Should the Pacers trade away any of their centers, perhaps they could bring Bradley back later in the season. He knows the system well and is a well-liked locker room presence. But right now, the team doesn’t have a need at center and can make more use of trade deadline flexibility.