The Indiana Pacers add talent to their roster and the rookies play baseball
The Indiana Pacers add talent to their roster and the rookies play baseball
August 4 + 5th, 2022
Thursday
Aug. 4
The Indiana Pacers filled another roster spot this Thursday by signing Deividas Sirvydis to a one-year deal. Deividas is a young wing-sized player, standing at 6’, 8’’ tall, and weighs in at 190lbs.
Deividas was drafted in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks and was the 37th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft. The Detroit Pistons sent the draft rights to Isaiah Roby, and two future second-round picks to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to Deividas Sirvydis.
Sirvydis would spend two seasons with the Pistons and only appear in 23 games in that span. The Mad Ants traded with the Motor City Cruise to acquire the returning player rights to Derrick Walton Jr. and Deividas Sirvydis in late July 2022. The Pacers have offered Sirvydis a one-year deal.
According to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com, this is a non-guaranteed contract.
“This is a non-guaranteed minimum NBA contract. If Pacers waives Sirvydis, he'll join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants based on the rules of the Exhibit 10 deal. Indiana also holds an option to keep him on a two-way deal.”
As I reported a few weeks ago, The Pacers have yet to sign this year’s second-round Draft pick Kendall Brown to any contract. A league source told me that the team plans to sign Brown to a two-way contract.
Friday
AUG. 5
A handful of Pacers rookies attended the Indianapolis Indians game this Friday. A total of four Pacers were in attendance, and two were rookies from the 2022 NBA draft.
Bennedict Mathurin and Kendall Brown were present, along with Goga Bitadze and Aaron Nesmith, who the team recently acquired in the Malcolm Brogdon trade. I think Nesmith will get a decent opportunity this upcoming season to showcase his three and D style of play. If he can find his shot from behind the arc, there is a case to be made that he was a steal of the trade with Brogdon.
The Pacers were able to allow Jalen Smith to see extended minutes in a new system, and he flashed a lot of potential that we otherwise might not have seen until later in his career. Not to directly compare the two, but there are similar situations. If there was any year to play Nesmith, it is this one.
The Pacers are trying to acquire each of the lottery picks from the 2020 NBA draft, so it seems. With the franchise offering Deandre Ayton the maximum offer sheet this offseason, they will have acquired or attempted to acquire four of the 15 picks. Haliburton, Smith, Nesmith, and Ayton.