What Will Pacers Do With Tyrese Haliburton DPE Money? GM Answers

How will the Indiana Pacers approach their optionality with injured All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton's disabled player exception money?

In this case, Haliburton's disabled player exception would allow Indiana to ink a single player to a new $14,104,000,

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While speaking on Indiana pod "Setting The Pace," Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan confirmed that the team had indeed been granted a disabled player exception, but cautioned that financial concerns might ultimately dictate whether the Pacers access it.

“We’ve applied for that [disabled player exception] and been granted that exception, so I don’t know if I’m breaking news there for you guys,” Buchanan revealed to co-host Alex Golden. “Whether we use it or not depends. Using the full exception would put us in the luxury tax, which we’re not opposed to if it’s the right player.”

"I think if there is a position that we would maybe look at — we're not pursuing it super hard right now — is maybe another point guard," Buchanan said. "We have three guys between [two-way signing] RayJ [Dennis], [rookie guard] Kam [Jones] and even [two-way player] Quenton [Jackson] that are guards. They give us a little bit of depth there."

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For now, Indiana intends to shift former starting shooting guard Andrew Nembhard down a spot as the team's Haliburton replacement at the point. Last year's backup point guard, T.J. McConnell, will remain the Pacers' preferred reserve point guard.

"I think with Drew and T.J., it obviously puts a lot on their plates with nobody behind them right now that's a pure point guard on our 15-man roster," Buchanan added. "But part of the strength of our coaching staff is their ability to develop players, and those three guys are all still relatively young players."

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean the Pacers are fully opposed to adding a new piece with the DPE. The Pacers have all 15 standard roster spots occupied, but centers James Wiseman and Tony Bradley are not on guaranteed deals, and could be cut pretty easily if need be.

"If there's an opportunity out there to help our team, we're not going to turn our nose to that," Buchanan allowed. "And we have some tools to do that, we're still below the luxury tax. We have exceptions that we can use as well. So we're always going to be scouring the market for a player that makes sense for us."

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