Pacers general manager talks hopes for defense, 2023-24 season

Entering the offseason, the Indiana Pacers knew they’d have to take a “unique” angle in order to sign their top free-agent target, swingman Bruce Brown, as general manager Chad Buchanan recently explained to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

“What other teams are willing to pay him? And what we were willing to pay him is a big, significant gap,” Buchanan told The Athletic. “But we also knew that maybe it’s a little more than maybe the market would say, but it was the way we as an organization and as a team have to approach free agency sometimes. We got to be a little creative. We got to maybe go deeper with a pay to get a guy, but it was the guy we wanted.

“We wanted to do what it took to get him, and working with his agents, right at the strike of free agency and talking about ‘OK, where were the other teams at? Where would we need to come in to get Bruce to turn down some of these other options from other more established teams than us?’ We’re a young team, and for Bruce to come in and leave a championship team and some other teams (that) are after him to come to play for a young team, we realize it was gonna probably take a unique way to approach luring him to us.”

Brown almost certainly took less total money to sign with the Pacers when he signed a two-year, $45M deal earlier this summer. However, as Buchanan alluded to, Indiana was willing to give him more money per year than rival clubs and his contract includes a team option in year two, giving the Pacers financial flexibility next summer if things don’t work out.

The 26-year-old Brown's strong defense, willingness to “do the dirty work” and overall versatility appealed to Indiana, Buchanan explained. The team knows it needs to improve defensively to reach its goal of a postseason berth next season.

“If we can become a top-20 defense, I think we would make a pretty good jump, have a chance to make a good jump. And competing for a playoff spot, I think we’d love to be in that position this year,” Buchanan said as part of a larger quote. “If it’s a play-in, playoff, wherever it is.”

Indiana has been linked to Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, a two-time All-NBA, a couple times over the past week. When asked if the Pacers were finished were their offseason moves, though, Buchanan told Vorkunov that while the franchise is always looking to improve the roster, they’re not yet ready to push their chips into the middle in a major win-now move.

“I don’t think a team’s done until you’re done,” he said. “We’ll always try to be opportunistic when we can on anything. But I don’t think we’re like aggressively pursuing anything right now. … Obviously, some big names out there … could get moved still this offseason, and if that filters down and impacts other teams, if it impacts us, we’ll consider it. But, if it doesn’t, we’re also happy with this group now.

“We’re not going to rush things to try to jump and go all in right now. I don’t think that’s where we’re at. We don’t have that. We’re not one player away from being a championship-caliber team. I think we realize it takes time and it takes guys developing and growing.”