said last month on the Setting The Pace podcast<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s embraced his role and has been outstanding for our team the last couple of years. He\u2019s like a family member to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\nClearly, the Pacers value what Johnson brings and would love to have those traits again. But it may not be possible this season, Buchanan shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether there\u2019s a roster spot for James\u2026 right now, it could be challenging to find a spot for James as much as we want him back,\u201d the GM said. \u201cIt\u2019s painful to think of our team without him moving forward, but it may be a reality just because of our roster situation right now too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indiana Pacers forward James Johnson (16) blocks a shot by Portland Trail Blazers guard Rayan Rupert (21) during an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo\/Amanda Loman)<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
Of Indiana\u2019s 15 players with standard contracts, 14 of them have guaranteed money on their deal for the upcoming season. The lone exception is reserve center Tony Bradley, but he is expected to be in training camp for the blue and gold, especially as the team enters the season with two others centers under contract who are both coming off of a torn Achilles (James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson).<\/p>\n
Waiving Bradley without seeing how healthy those two bigs are would be irresponsible. So while the Pacers could sign Johnson now, the reality is that he\u2019d be, at best, in a training camp battle for a roster spot.<\/p>\n
Johnson would welcome a return to the Pacers, of course. He flew back to Indianapolis just to help out at Haliburton\u2019s camp despite not being under contract with the team. But he\u2019s open to any playing opportunity that comes his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, I want to play. I know [Buchanan] and (President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard) are one of the best at what they do in the NBA and in our organization. They\u2019re going to make the decision they feel is best for the Pacers. I also have to do that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson has appeared in six playoff games for the Pacers across the last two seasons, including his first NBA Finals appearance back in June. He ultimately played in two games during the championship series and scored during Game 2.<\/p>\n
Bryant, Johnson, and Turner are the three players who had standard contracts with the Pacers at the end the 2024-25 season that are not currently on the roster. Jay Huff (trade), Kam Jones (draft), and Wiseman (free agency) have filled those three spots as of late August.<\/p>\n
It speaks volumes of Johnson\u2019s character and care for his teammates that he showed up to Haliburton\u2019s camp despite not currently having a deal with the Pacers. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in the trenches together for three years\u2026 He\u2019s inspiring, man. The way he works, the way he goes about his day-to-day life, he always holds himself to a high standard. You want to surround yourself with people like that,\u201d Johnson said of Haliburton.<\/p>\n
Jones, rookie wing Taelon Peter, T.J. McConnell, and multiple Pacers coaches and staffers were also at the camp. That is significant turnout, and Johnson shared that it\u2019s all because of who Haliburton is. \u201cHe\u2019s a great leader. I\u2019m sure before this camp, he was already together with a lot of us and a lot of these guys. Helping them out, helping them learn the system,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s great for these rookies to get around here early and participate in these camps and to really see a little bit of what he\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Haliburton out for the season due to his own torn Achilles and two other players returning from the same devastating injury, the Pacers had to alter their team-building plans for 2025-26. It\u2019s led to changes, and right now those changes have Johnson sitting in free agency as he looks for his next NBA destination, wherever it may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JUNE 19: James Johnson #16 of the Indiana Pacers reacts during the fourth quarter against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[3441,72023,355,7626,15990,99],"class_list":["post-109730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-james-johnson","tag-nba","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-pacers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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