Pacers Expert Reveals Why Indiana Didn't Re-Sign Key Contributor

An Indiana insider explains why the team didn't re-sign a critical contributor.

Nov 30, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) shoots the basketball over Miami Heat center Thomas Bryant (31) during the third quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers lost both of the centers who played the majority of the minutes at the position for the team this past season. Both Myles Turner and Thomas Bryant are no longer with the team.

Turner decided to sign a four-year, $108.9 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, ending his 10-year career with the Pacers. He will be a tough player to replace.

The Pacers traded for Bryant in November after Indiana lost two centers to season-ending Achilles tears and played well in the backup role. He remains unsigned after the Pacers opted not to bring him back.

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The Pacers decided to re-sign Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman, as well as trade for Jay Huff, instead of bringing back Bryant.

As Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote puts it, the Pacers simply need a more reliable defensive and rebounding option than Bryant provides.

"As for Thomas Bryant, he's always going to have Game 6 against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals when he made three threes in 13 minutes off the bench as a contrast to some of the spacing concerns with Tony Bradley, but Tony Bradley also edged him out of the rotation for rebounding reasons, as well as the fact that Bryant wasn't always providing the most sturdy edge to the defense," Cooper writes.

The big reason why Bryant didn't play much in the Finals is because of the fact that he just wasn't big enough to get rebounds or affect shots at the rim. His shooting wasn't steady enough to overcome those issues.

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Bryant is still a free agent, which is pretty surprising considering he played rotational minutes on a team that made the Finals. He still has value, especially with the effort he plays with.

Still, Bryant just isn't good enough for the Pacers coming off the bench. Both Jackson and Huff give something that Bryant can't put up, and that's protecting the rim.

Next year will be a season to find out who the starting center is going to be for the long term, and Bryant didn't fit into that plan. They decided that four other centers did.

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