Tyreke Evans is widely viewed as the top free agent left in NBA free agency and there are quite a few teams that would like to sign him. While there are a few teams who would love to plug him into their rotation, it appears that the Indiana Pacers are the current front-runners to sign Evans at this point in time.
According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN , Evans traveled to meet with the Pacers on Tuesday. Sneaker Reporter originally reported that the Pacers and Evans had agreed on a one-year, $12 million contract. No contract agreement has been reported elsewhere just yet.
Indiana would be a perfect landing spot for Evans. They are one of the only teams with enough cap space to give Evans a serious contract offer, while also being able to offer him a top-notch role. Evans would likely slide into the void left by Lance Stephenson, who played minutes at both the backup shooting guard and small forward positions.
There is always a chance that the Pacers could view Evans as a potential starting small forward. In that situation, Indiana would slide Bojan Bogdanovic to the bench.
Last season with the Memphis Grizzlies, Evans put together quite possibly the best season of his career. He averaged 19.4 points per game to go along with 5.2 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game. Evans also shot 45.2 percent from the field overall and knocked down 39.9 percent of his three-point attempts.
Breaking News: Tyreke Evans is signing with the Indiana Pacers my sources have told me for 1 year – $12 million #DoneDeal pic.twitter.com/CyyEpt1DAa
— SneakerReporter (@SneakerReporter) July 2, 2018
At 28-years-old, Evans would fit in with the Pacers both now and in the future. Indiana has needed more scoring options and Evans would certainly bring that. His ability to knock down the three-point shot has made him an extremely dangerous scorer.
If the Pacers were to lock him up, they would be sitting pretty this offseason. Basically, Indiana would have given up Stephenson for a much better version of him and a premium NBA shooter in Doug McDermott. That trade is something that fans should be extremely excited about, even though Stephenson is so loved.
Kevin Pritchard and company know that building the Pacers back into a contender is going to be a process. That process got a bit easier with LeBron James leaving the Eastern Conference to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, the Pacers will be competing mainly with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers moving forward.
Expect to hear more news about Evans and the Pacers’ meeting in the near future. Both sides have interest in getting a deal done and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Indiana try to close the deal as soon as possible.
