The Pacers wound up with three players in the draft — lottery pick Bennedict Mathurin and second-rounders Andrew Nembhard and Kendall Brown. Team president Kevin Pritchard has high hopes for the trio, Bob Kravitz of The Athletic writes.
“One of the things I’m absolutely convinced of, these three young men will be a part of this organization for a long time,” Pritchard said. “We wanted to get more athletic, more dynamic and bring some intelligence. All three demonstrated that athleticism and drive to win. The one common denominator is, they all love to play.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- The Pacers shouldn’t bring back free agent Lance Stephenson, James Boyd of the Indianapolis Star argues. Stephenson is most comfortable with the ball in his hands and the team has an overload of guards and wings — most notably Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell and Chris Duarte — who are ballhandlers. They added two more in the draft.
- Ricky Rubio, Delon Wright and Tyus Jones are some of the free agents the Cavaliers might consider to back up starting point guard Darius Garland, Kelsey Russo of The Athletic writes.
- Collin Sexton has received a qualifying offer from the Cavaliers, making him a restricted free agent. Garland, who like Sexton is represented by Rich Paul, likes Sexton personally and wants to continue playing with him in Cleveland, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic.